This weekend (Saturday 16th August) is the opening weekend of the TarraWarra Biennial 2014: Whisper in My Mask will feature a premiere of a one act play and a series of talks by artists featured in the exhibition.

About the Biennial

16 August 2020 - 16 November 2020

The TarraWarra Biennial was inaugurated in 2006 as a signature exhibition to identify new developments in contemporary Australian art practice under an experimental curatorial platform. The TarraWarra Biennial 2014: Whisper in My Mask, curated by Natalie King and Djon Mundine, is the fourth iteration of this signature event on the national exhibition calendar.

This year the Biennial includes the work of: boat-people (Safdar Ahmed, Zehra Ahmed, Stephanie Carrick, Dave Gravina, Katie Hepworth, Jiann Hughes, Deborah Kelly, Enda Murray, Pip Shea, Sumugan Sivanesan, Jamil Yamani) (NSW), Daniel Boyd (NSW), Søren Dahlgaard (VIC), Destiny Deacon & Virginia Fraser (VIC), Karla Dickens (NSW), Fiona Foley (QLD), Tony Garifalakis (VIC), Sandra Hill (WA), Gabriella Mangano and Silvana Mangano (VIC), Romaine Moreton (VIC), Nasim Nasr (SA), Polixeni Papapetrou (VIC), Elizabeth Pedler (WA), Sangeeta Sandrasegar (VIC), The Telepathy Project (Veronica Kent and Sean Peoples) (VIC) and The Tjanpi Desert Weavers Project with Fiona Hall (SA/NT/WA). More on the TWMA website[…]

‘Weavings and Whispers: Miwi wisdom’

11.30am and 12.00 midday
Premiere of the one act play by Diane Bell, featuring the Ngarrindjeri Weavers

Professor Bell was inspired to write the one act play after being asked to write an essay for the exhibition catalogue on the TarraWarra Biennial’s theme of masking, and its many hidden narratives and meanings.

She says the play, which features a special live performance by the Ngarrindjeri Weavers from South Australia, will, “Take us into the world of the Ngarrindjeri women, who came to national prominence in the mid-1990s when they were accused of lying about their sacred places in order to thwart the building of a bridge. Their stories, told as they weave, reveal the hidden truths of their relationship to their country, families and sacred beliefs. This knowledge is inaccessible to those who privilege written texts and dismiss oral traditions. Through their Miwi, their ‘sixth sense’, located in the pit of the stomach, Ngarrindjeri wisdom comes to full voice”.

The Ngarrindjeri are the traditional owners of the lands stretching from Cape Jervis in the west along the Coorong to The Granites in the southeast, taking in the lower reaches of the Murray River, western Fleurieu Peninsula, Lakes Albert and Alexandrina of South Australia. The weavers will be travelling specially to the Yarra Valley to do two performances of the play on the Biennial’s opening weekend.

Diane Bell is a pioneering Australian feminist anthropologist, author and activist, Professor Emerita of Anthropology at the George Washington University in Washington, D. C., Writer and Editor in Residence at Flinders University, South Australia and Visiting Professor School of Social Sciences, University of Adelaide. In 2005, after 17 years in the United States, she returned to her native Australia to retire and currently lives and writes in Canberra.

The performance will be followed by an audience discussion led by Diane Bell

Time: Saturday 16 August, 11.30am and 12 noon (repeat performance)

Free with museum entry

Artist Talks

12:45 pm Discussion with the Tjanpi Desert Weavers and Fiona Hall

1:20 pm| Søren Dahlgaard

1:40 pm | by Fiona Foley

2:20 pm | Gabriella Mangano & Silvana Mangano

2:40 pm | Polixeni Papapetrou

3:00 pm | Destiny Deacon & Virginia Fraser

3:40 pm | Sandra Hill

4:00 pm | The Telepathy Project (Veronica Kent & Sean Peoples)

Free with museum entry fee, no bookings required.

Museum Entry: Adults $7.50, Seniors $5.00, Children, students and pensioner concession card holders free-of-charge

Address: TarraWarra Museum of Art, 311 Healesville -Yarra Glen Road, Healesville, www.twma.com.au