“In a world which is increasingly divided, MUMA offers a place to explore the ideas of our times in an informed and engaging manner, underpinned by research, rigour and reflection. This major exhibition is the first of a series to present the artwork of leading contemporary artists drawing on their own unique histories and contexts to examine universal themes of migration, colonial histories and imperialism. These complex and nuanced narratives are not always black and white, and sometimes they can be blackly humorous. They are conversations that matter,” says Rebecca Coates, Director of MUMA.
Brought together for the first time in an exhibition curated by guest curator Andy Butler and Pip Wallis, Senior Curator at MUMA, “Steven Rhall and Sung Tieu: Statecraft” will span the two wings of MUMA and is designed to present the two artists in dialogue while allowing the works to remain autonomous. The exhibition of Rhall and Tieu’s work in tandem will highlight and contrast the artists’ shared interest in bureaucracy and power, and the structures that shape individual and collective agency within legacies of displacement.
Tieu will present new and recent work, which together will provide Australian audiences with an insight into the work of this rising star of the German art world. Specially co-commissioned for Tieu’s first Australian exhibition, The Ruling is a new installation exploring the intricate interplay between colonial interests, bureaucracy and administrative governance strategies. Informed by her experience as a Vietnamese immigrant to Germany in the early 1990s, the work surveys the impact and lasting legacies of colonial oppression and erasure.
An element of the absurd is characteristic of both artists’ work, with Rhall’s interdisciplinary work particularly responding to the intersection of First Nations creative practice and the Western art canon. His works presented in the exhibition will explore and critique the exchange of economic and cultural capital that operates in regard to art production, presentation and encounter, and include a newly commissioned installation examining the visibility of First Nations arts workers.
at Monash University Museum of Art | MUMA, Melbourne
until March 23, 2024