whisper in my mask forms, mythologies and folklores. In 2012, Victoria Lynn curated Sonic Spheres, an assemblage of contemporary Australian visual artworks engaged with music, sound and voice. This year’s Biennial, Whisper in My Mask, will be for the first time curated by a collaborative duo—Natalie King and Djon Mundine. Whisper in My Mask takes its thematic cue from Grace Jones’ evocative lyrics in Art Groupie (1984), using this song as a “prelude for an exploration of masking as a psychological state alongside secrets or hidden narratives”. Would you elaborate upon both this and the vision behind your collaboration? Natalie King: We are mindful of the TarraWarra Biennial’s significant trajectory and aware that it is rare for indigenous and non-indigenous curators to collaborate. The Biennial is an extension of our co-curation of the Asialink touring exhibition Shadowlife, which featured the work of nine photo-based Aboriginal artists (and one non-indigenous collaborator) that toured to Taiwan, Bangkok, Singapore, culminating at Bendigo Art Gallery. We also included a short film by Aboriginal filmmaker Ivan Sen, who recently released Mystery Road. Inserting a cinematic experience within an exhibition expands the audiences’ viewing parameters, slowing down time. The Biennial will include a film by poet and filmmaker Romaine Moreton. We were interested in extending our curatorial modality to conflate indigenous and non-indigenous artists. We hope the title is capacious as it derives from the lyrics in a Grace Jones’ song that signals mobilising the senses: Touch Me In A Picture Wrap Me in a Cast Kiss Me in a Sculpture Whisper in My Mask
NATALIE KING | DJON MUNDINE | ALAN CRUICKSHANK Broadsheet/ALAN CRUICKSHANK: The TarraWarra Biennial was inaugurated in 2006 as a signature exhibition to identify new currents in contemporary practice. The first Biennial, Parallel Lives: Australian Painting Today curated by now Museum Director Victoria Lynn, presented her independent view of Australian painting practice influenced by contemporary cultural and political environments. In 2008, Lost & Found: An Archeology of the Present, curated by Charlotte Day, presented Australian and New Zealand artists who reinvent traditional techniques evoking historical
In 1984, Grace Jones composed this song and around the same time, her body became a painted surface for graffiti artist Keith Haring, subsequently photographed by Robert Mapplethorpe. There are a number of historical recursions in this song and its manifestation. The Biennial commences with this song, like a soundtrack alongside two key works from the Eva and Marc Besen Collection: Howard Arkley’s Tattooed Head (1983) and Robert Dickerson’s The Clown (1958). These works act as a prelude at the museum entrance or threshold, ushering in ideas of masquerade, bodily inscription, disguise and transformative personas. We were conscious of TarraWarra as a special location, embedded in a verdant landscape in a valley with a collection amassed by the founders. It is important to consider the context and situation at TarraWarra, which means “slow moving water” in the local Aboriginal language. We have conducted research at Coranderrk which was the site of upheaval and dispossession on Badger Creek