Living in Sydney we are in a year of magnificent Oceanic art exhibitions. It is a great time to be developing a greater understanding and hence appreciation of Oceanic art both traditional and contemporary. Hearing from and seeing the works of contemporary Oceanic artists is to encounter traditional techniques with modern application and interpretation.
This edition of the Journal continues to share the rich information received during presentations at the highly successful 2022 OAS Forum held in the Pacific Galleries at the South Australian Museum. Crispin Howarth presented us with a visually rich description of the return of ancestral remains deaccessioned from the National Gallery of Australia to the Te Papa Tongarewa (Museum of New Zealand) in Wellington. We are privileged to be able to share so many images from this poignant journey.
Capturing lived culture in his paintings is young contemporary Papua New Guinea (PNG) artist Lesley Wengembo who was completing his Bachelor of Fine art at the National Art School of Australia in 2021 when he presented the annual Sydney Oceanic Art Fair Lecture. He has updated this lecture and we are pleased to be able to publish it in full.
He has now submitted four times for the Archibald Prize and his portrait of Australian philanthropist and pastoralist Timothy V Fairfax AC entitled A Man For All Seasons was a finalist in the 2020 Brisbane Portrait Award. In that work, Wengembo captured the essence of the man showing his down to earth nature depicted in his checked shirt, his wry smile and his exceptionally knowledgeable and compassionate eyes.
Oceanic art is the art of the Indigenous peoples from all around the Pacific. Krisztina Turza has written a fascinating account of the “Bear-Sending” Ceremony of the Ainu, one of the lesser known Indigenous peoples from the northern Pacific.
Reviews of two of the many current exhibitions of contemporary Pacific artists are included in this edition. Rita Uechtritz and I were lucky enough to attend the Pop-Up exhibition of two young PNG artists back in March – Grim Jordan and Lesley Wengembo.
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney’s contribution to the current The National 4: Australian Art Now exhibition includes the Ivi Collective’s collaborative creation of ngatu, a traditional art form with some contemporary design inspirations while photographic images of cultural practices of the past are used as the inspiration for Léuli Eshrāghi’s ‘afiafi’ installation. Melbourne will have an opportunity to discuss and debate Oceanic art with the 2023 OAS Forum.
Margaret Cassidy
