Within Melbourne’s arts precinct lives Melbourne University’s Southbank Campus, home to some staple arts facilities including the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and Buxton Contemporary. This year, the Buxton Contemporary gallery will house a new diverse collection of artworks spanning film and photography, to sculpture and printmaking. Weaving together work from a diverse group of artists, The Veil ventures into the liminal realms of memory, identity and cultural resilience.
In her practice, exhibit curator Hannah Presley has worked closely in creative projects with First Nations artists, investigating techniques, histories and (like Assistant Curator Isabella Hone-Saunders) amplifying community and creative representation. Presley describes the exhibition’s tone and depth.
“There have always been places described as transitional, spooky or strange spaces that hum with energy, where the air feels thin and the light is dappled,” says Presley. “These uncanny or supernatural qualities are reflected in the exhibition, revealing a familiarity with the spirit world, which in some cases profoundly influences the artists’ everyday lives.”
Presley has commissioned a major new film from artist Hayley Millar Baker, titled Eternity the Butterfly. Baker’s practice is heavily informed by her multicultural background. Her work is anchored within connecting ancestrally with Indigenous spiritual inheritance. Her previous films Nyctinasty, commissioned by Hetti Perkins for the National Gallery of Australia, and The Umbra, commissioned by Kimberley Moulton for RISING, will join the exhibition, marking the first time all three films will be showcased together.
“Eternity the Butterfly reflects on the transcendence narratives of Aboriginal peoples, grounded in their deep spiritual connections to ancestors and the colonial horrors they continue to endure. The film embodies a cyclical view of life, death and rebirth central to Aboriginal philosophies,” Baker says.
More featured works
Fourteen works from Polish artist Aneta Grzeszykowska’s photographic series, Mama, which exhibited in Milk of Dreams at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022, will be presented in an Australian premiere. In Mama, the artist’s daughter interacts with a replica of her mother. The collection combines the disturbing with tender, working with themes of grief, loss and domesticity.
Influential senior Kune artist Lena Yarinkura has created some new art for The Veil. Two large-scale works that tell the story of Wititj and the Two Sisters and their ensuing interaction with the serpent, Ngalyod, will be showcased, as well as a new series of Gnarr (spiders). Yarinkura is a profoundly influential figure in the evolution of fibre-based art within the culturally rich region of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.
University of Melbourne Art Museums Director Charlotte Day welcomes the new exhibition on behalf of the gallery.
“Buxton Contemporary is thrilled to present The Veil, an introspective and immersive exhibition. Featuring a major new commission as well as recent University art collection acquisitions, the exhibition sees a rich array of works, offering unique perspectives and deep engagements with the otherworldly,” says Day.
The Veil will run from 27 June to 1 November, is free to attend and features artwork by Aneta Grzeszykowska​, Glenda Nicholls, Hannah Gartside​, Hayley Millar Baker​, Lena Yarinkura​ and Lisa Waup.
