16albermarle Project Space is delighted to present Gotong Royong: Community spirit in contemporary southeast Asian art.

The exhibition delves into the cultural concept of 'gotong royong', a term rooted in ancient customs of the Malay Archipelago, where collaborative efforts symbolise the collective spirit of cultural identity. Derived from the Javanese words gotong (“work”) and royong (“together”), the term traces its origins to age-old customs where individuals collaborated in communal efforts, fulfilling social obligations within their community.

Presenting diverse works from eight contemporary artists from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Through mediums such as painting, textile installation, sculpture, ceramics, photography, and prints, Gotong Royong explores themes including narratives of women in domestic life, nostalgia for past history and landscapes, the need for environmental preservation, connections through traditional activities, various religious and spiritual practices, mythical creatures and scenes of daily life in the kampung, or village.

Curated by Ellya Gunawan

GALLERY VISITS

Visits from university and senior high school student groups are welcome at 16albermarle Project Space during gallery hours.

Please contact gallerymanager@16albermarle.com to book your free visit.

16albermarle Project Space is delighted to present Home and Away as their final exhibition of 2023.

Home and Away brings together eight emerging and established female artists with ancestral connections to Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Their practices are as diverse as their histories, encompassing painting, sculpture, porcelain, glass, textiles, photography and digital media, video, performance, and a contemporary reinvention of papercutting.  Despite this diversity their work is connected by a common thread – they explore the elusive nature of ‘home’ from the perspective of the diasporic experience.  What does it mean to live and work in many places, yet sense that ‘home’ is, somehow, always elsewhere? How does our increasing awareness of the fragility of our planet change our ideas about home?

In our re-opening post-pandemic world artists are restlessly global beings who travel for study, residencies and exhibitions. When you have multiple homes, where do you belong? Themes of memory, nostalgia, family, heritage and culture are examined in different ways through the eyes of artists who straddle two – or more – worlds.

Curated by Dr Luise Guest and Jennifer Yang

GALLERY VISITS

Visits from university and senior high school student groups are welcome at 16albermarle Project Space during gallery hours.

Please contact gallerymanager@16albermarle.com to book your free visit.

GALLERY VISITS

Visits from university and senior high school student groups are welcome at 16albermarle Project Space during gallery hours.

Please contact gallerymanager@16albermarle.com to book your free visit.

Albermarle Project Space and Sa Sa Art Projects present All That Surrounds Us, an exhibition featuring works by contemporary Cambodian artists that explore their country’s complex history, future and place in the broader community of southeast Asia. 

Including work by 12 younger and mid-career artists, All That Surrounds Us presents new art from Cambodia to Australian audiences and provides the opportunity to learn more about the country through its art. Reflecting Cambodian art, the exhibition includes works in many media – painting, sculpture, architecture, ceramics, photography, installation, video and works on paper – and from many parts of the country.

Collectively the artists explore pertinent themes in a post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia. The more established artists examine the profound difficulties of rebuilding a society scarred by intergenerational trauma and the remarkable resilience of those involved. The younger artists unpack issues related to corruption, urban development, a growing urban/rural divide and ecological decline. Together, this new generation of artists raise critical questions around the future of Cambodia and its place in the region.

Curated by Lauren Elise Barlow, Vuth Lyno, Chum Chanveasna and Moeng Meta

Message from Vuth Lyno, Sa Sa Art Projects Artistic Director

Participating Institutions

National Art School, Sydney
Queensland College of Art, Brisbane
Institut Seni Indonesia Surakarta
King Mongkut Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Bangkok

GALLERY VISITS

Visits from university and senior high school student groups are welcome at 16albermarle Project Space during gallery hours.

Please contact gallerymanager@16albermarle.com to book your free visit.

16albermarle Project Space and the National Art School present Disruption: Discourse and Exchange, an exhibition displaying prints from four art schools across the region. The Disruption print folio highlights the importance of printmaking as a form of communication, particularly during the COVID-19 era. It emerged as a collaborative effort to exchange ideas and overcome pandemic-related challenges. By exploring the tactile certainty of printmaking, the folio emphasises the continued relevance of this traditional art form amidst today's digitally-dominated landscape. The participating institutions are Institut Seni Indonesia Surakarta, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, National Art School, and Queensland College of the Arts. These prints not only showcase the research and artistic practice in the Asia Pacific region but also transcend national and cultural borders, showcasing how print can have a significant political, social and conceptual impact.

Curated by Carolyn McKenzie–Craig

GALLERY VISITS

Visits from university and senior high school student groups are welcome at 16albermarle Project Space during gallery hours.

Please contact gallerymanager@16albermarle.com to book your free visit.

EDUCATION

16albermarle creates resource materials for each exhibition. These resources are designed for students in Years 11 and 12 studying Visual Arts through the NSW HSC or IB syllabuses and may also be useful for tertiary students from different disciplines visiting the exhibition. They provide interesting entry points through which teachers and students can engage with works in the exhibition, and suggestions for more in-depth case studies.

16albermarle is pleased to present
แผ่นดิน/Tanah/Land, an exhibition of recent work by Surajate Tongchua and Maryanto, two southeast Asian artists whose work critically engages with landscape, the environment and political authority in the region. 

Surajate Tongchua (b 1986) graduated in Printmaking from Chiang Mai University and lives and works in Chiang Mai, a city surrounded by spectacular mountainous landscapes. So it’s not surprising that mountains are the inspiration for his recent series, Lying Mountains. But Tongchua is also passionately interested in politics, particularly the fractured politics of his own country, Thailand. In Lying Mountains he brings both interests together in works which employ the massive forms of mountains to question authority or the lack of it.  

Indonesian artist Maryanto (b 1976) also studied printmaking and its influence is felt in his series When the Tree Falls. For this series, he created works in various media to explore the rampant development of palm oil plantations in South Kalimantan and their encroachment onto the local forests. At the same time, he touches on the themes of transmigration, ownership and capitalism. While Maryanto does not frame his practice as environmental activism, his works can be considered aspirational: bringing public awareness to issues he is otherwise not able to change on his own.

The works in แผ่นดิน/Tanah/Land show how those in power–government, monarchy, corporations –can be abusive to land. But they also raise important questions: who owns the land? Individual land is owned by individuals, but public land, or land in general? How can it be protected, how can it be cared for, how can it be useful to people equally? Visually, these works convey positive and negative responses. They heighten the collective sense of burden and heaviness, but speak with imagery and language which somehow enriches and empowers the viewer.

Including work by 12 younger and mid-career artists, Other Possible Worlds presents contemporary art from Thailand to Australian audiences. Reflecting Thai art, the exhibition includes works in many media—painting, sculpture, photography, installation, neon, video, prints and works on paper—and from many parts of the country. While Thailand is a major destination for Australian tourists, few Australians engage with Thai culture. But as co-curator John Cruthers reports, “Thai art, becoming more established on the world stage, is a fantastic entry point to the country and its diverse cultures. It is creative, sophisticated and often politically engaged. While it has not been easy to see, learn about or collect Thai art outside Thailand, Other Possible Worlds brings a range of work by leading younger artists to Australia.”

Part two of the exhibition is on view at Delmar Gallery from 22 June - 31 July.

Exhibition #7 Fighting Fear: #whatshappeninginmyanmar is an exhibition in solidarity with the artists and arts workers of Myanmar as they have worked online and on the streets to support the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) since the military coup of 1 February 2021. Presented in partnership with Myanm/art, a contemporary art space in Yangon, the exhibition is a multifaceted social art project showing and distributing protest posters and other visual responses made by Myanm/art artists and others involved in the struggles. The exhibition includes work by 882021, Baka, Bart Was Not Here, Emily Phyo, Hkun Lat, Ku Kue, Kyaw Htoo Bala, Raven, Richie Htet, Sawangwongse Yawnghwe and Soe Yu Nwe calling for the reinstatement of the democratically elected leaders who were forcibly detained in the coup d’état in early February 2021. This exhibition addresses the critical relationship between art, culture and democracy.

Pieces From Berlin
Bussaraporn Thongchai

In 2015 Thai artist Bussaraporn Thongchai relocated from Bangkok to Berlin. Once settled she began working at Ban Ying, a small shelter home providing services for migrant women from Africa, southeast Asia and eastern Europe who had often been the victims of human trafficking and the sex trade. Pieces from Berlin is the outcome of two years in the shelter, specifically designed to document the women’s stories and experiences as they applied for asylum in the context of traffiking, or applied for refugee status. It was first presented at ARDEL’s Third Place Gallery, Bangkok in March 2018 and is being presented at 16albermarle with six new works made in 2020.

Artist Statement

In 2017, I was invited by Ardel Gallery to exhibit my work in Bangkok. It was actually the same year that I started to work as a cultural and language mediator at Ban Ying e.V., a home shelter in Berlin. It was after two years of living in Germany, learning a new language, working as a cleaner in the kitchen of a Thai restaurant and losing the art network which I had built up my whole life as an independent female artist. Of course, it was a massive culture shock and identity crisis, it was a big transition in every aspect of my life. I suddenly became a stranger and lost the sense of belonging in both Thailand and Germany, as if I was in the middle of somewhere that I still hadn’t left and still hadn’t reached.  

An anonymous shelter hiding in a normal residential building. It is a place where my Self-Observation Process has begun intensively and continuously. There is a long narrow hallway which leads you to many separate rooms on each side. Behind these doors, there are the several lives of women and children who experienced violence, forced labour and sexual exploitation. Well, but here in this house we call them ‘Clients’. 

They came from different countries, speak different languages, have different backgrounds and believe in different gods. I observe them and see distinctions and similarities I can relate to. I see the difficulties they have in getting along with the unknown culture and social system, trying to adjust, to compromise with themselves and with the others, tackle obstacles and face prejudice and discrimination. Simultaneously, they have to recover both physically and mentally after their traumatic experiences.

For someone from a third world country like me, it is hard to believe that these things happen in Germany, a developed country and a country that sees itself as an exemplary democracy. At the same time, it’s also a source, transit and destination country subject to trafficking in people, and where the number of reported cases of racial discrimination is still continuously increasing. In this sense, the trauma doesn’t seem to go away but double.

While the ethical and political questions are constantly and often fiercely being discussed and reflected outside the shelter home, I still accompany these women and their children everywhere as usual. My self-observation doesn't seem to be any less but expands in many directions. The state of being nobody, neither an artist nor whoever I was before, has transformed me into being just a human who wants to approach the basic needs and at the same time fight for my rights and the dignity of being a human, the same as you and others.   

Before I started to work on this series and brought them back to Thailand in 2017, I asked myself:

“What would happen if I bring all these stories back to where I come from? The place that I'm not able to stop looking at and thinking of. If a small piece of the Berlin Wall can be sold as a tourist's souvenir, I too can bring back these stories I collected, as pieces from Berlin”

Bussaraporn Thongchai

24 February 2021

Imhathai Suwatthanasilp

Imhathai Suwatthanasilp is a contemporary artist born in Bangkok in 1981. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Thai Arts with 2nd Class Honours, and a Master’s degree in Thai Arts from Silpakorn University, Bangkok. In 2006, she won a scholarship to the Exchange Program at Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts, Paris, France. She also received a scholarship from the Government of Italy to study the Marble Carving Program at Florence, Italy in 2009 and obtained a Certificate in Marble Carving from Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, Italy.

Since her first solo show in 2008, Imhathai has developed a signature mode of production using human hair, often her own, which she weaves, crochets, embroiders or laces into quiet, intimate two and three-dimensional works that reflect on the nature of familial ties, domestic life, the female body and feminine identity. Intimacy also characterizes Imhathai’s works on paper, often referencing the landscape and natural world around her farm in Lamphoon, in the countryside in northern Thailand.

Her works have been exhibited at art events and venues including International Incheon Women Artists Biennale 2009, Incheon, Korea; Busan Biennale 2010, Busan, Korea; NCA Nichido Contemporary Art, 2010, Tokyo, Japan; Coreana Museum of Art, Space*C 2011, Seoul, Korea; Museum of Contemporary Art and Design 2011, Manila, Philippines; Singapore Art Museum 2012, Singapore; Jakarta Biennale 2017, Indonesia. She was selected for the Bangkok Art Biennale 2018. In 2019, her works were presented at the Songkhla Pavillion, Venice Biennale. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Singapore Art Museum, Maiiam Museum and The art of the city of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Artist Statement

This set of drawings was created after I moved from Bangkok to Lamphoon. My studio is located among the natural environment which really impressed me. I observed the changing of things around me, rice field, flowers, plants in everyday. I saw the process of growth, beauty, movement and life and tried to portray them with drawings using simple lines on paper.

Jiratchaya Pripwai

Jiratchaya Pripwai was born in 1983 in Kalasin, Thailand and moved to Chiang Mai when she was four. She received a Bachelor degree in Fine Art (Painting Major) from Chiang Mai University and a Master degree in painting from Silpakorn University, Thailand. She has received several awards in Thai national art competitions and exhibitions. She won the First Prize of the 10th Panasonic Contemporary Painting Exhibition, Thailand in 2008 and received the scholarship of General Tinsulanonda, Statesman of Thailand. She has been the recipient of a Third Honorary Prize, Bronze Medal of Painting of the 56th National Exhibition of Art, Thailand in 2010 and was selected to join a tour of museums in the USA by the Ministry of Culture of Thailand, 2014. 

As an artist, Jiratchaya’s remarkable artistic skills are displayed through series of monochromatic drawings of inter twining lines. Since her first solo show, Between the Lines, at Numthong Gallery, Bangkok in 2011 she has developed a drawing practice reflective of her personal diaries, which outline the experiences and emotions in her life. The modes of production have used simple techniques to create intricate line drawings, and also an “Automatic Writing” technique – both to explore the similarity between actions that are controlled by consciousness and sub-consciousness. 

Jiratchaya’s works have been shown at many art events both locally and internationally. She was included in the 2nd Bangkok Triennial international Print and Drawing Exhibition, Bangkok, 2009; ID-SaTEE, Teeoli Art Space, Bangkok, 2011; 10th Thai 2014 Art Exhibition, Royal Thai Consulate-General, Los Angeles, 2014; Géodésie, l’impossible tracé, Galerie Odile Ouizeman, Paris, 2015; Light of the East, Bourgogne Tribal show, Bonnay, France, 2018; Dare you do this, Sun-wood Warehouse, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 2019; Transience and Transformation, A+ WORKS of ART, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2019.

Artist Statement

My work originates from the state of my mind. When I let my emotions rule over reason, I become tired and confused. I want to rest in order to think and return to a state of tranquillity. I begin with drawing some lines, very slowly, like weaving. The continuous and repetitious drawing of lines creates a gentle movement from one place towards another. During this process, my wandering mind becomes more calm and concentrated, peaceful and relaxed, as if the drawing process has a therapeutic benefit, curing and restoring the balance in my mind. 

Trinnapat Chaisitthisak

Based mainly in Bangkok, Trinnapat Chaisitthisak is a contemporary artist born in 1982. He developed his artistic practice at Silpakorn University’s Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Arts faculty, from where he received both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree. He received a scholarship to continue to a Doctor of Fine and Applied Arts (D.F.A.) at Chulalongkorn University. He now works as a lecturer in the Department of Painting, Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Art, Silpakorn University. In 2009, he received the 3rd Grand Prize Award of the 11th Panasonic Contemporary Art Exhibition and won the award of the 21st Art Competition by Toshiba Thailand. He received the 2nd Grand Prize Award of the 12th Pannasonic contemporary Art Exhibition and Special Prize 22nd Toshiba “Bring good Things to Life” Art competition, Bangkok 2010. 

Trinnapat typically questions what he perceives and experiences in his surroundings, in which he has experimented in science, humanity and architecture by using different kinds of media and painting techniques on a two-dimensional surface. By filling lines on the empty canvas, the mode of drawing processes has become even more important as it allows him to understand and discover aspects of the concentrations, focus, balances and spaces. 

His work has been included in several art exhibitions including the 4th Amata Award Exhibition 2008; The 2nd Bangkok Triennale International Print and Drawing Exhibition 2009; The 56th National Exhibition of Art, Bangkok 2010; Numthong Gallery, Bangkok 2012; Tama Art University, Japan 2012; BACC, Bangkok 2013; We pavilion, Bangkok Biennial, Bangkok 2018; What We Paint About When We Talk About Painting, Artist+Run Gallery, Bangkok, 2019; The Exploration of Drawing, SAC, Bangkok, 2020. 

Artist Statement

My work portrays repeated lines that are drawn in the same direction, space and time which emerge in relation on the movement of the body. The body acts as a compass guiding itself in an orderly way to various positions from left to right, right to left, top to bottom, bottom to top and from one point to another in the line horizontally by using the mechanisms of hands, arms and eyes at their proper speeds. The weaving of the Mind-Body Relationship gradually appears with Space-Time perception. The square frame of the “picture” reveals the process, which leads to practice and improvement of oneself while using concentration as a motivation. In each journey of searching for one’s true inner self, the result cannot be predicted. However, the frequent occurrences that are encountered include our own thoughts, exhaustion, awareness or even silence, which are all ephemeral. The senses perceiving through the physical body become a part of the drawing. Each line brings me into the conversation with my inner self, from hours to minutes, from minutes to seconds and from seconds to merely the mind and body working together on the surface. Although I repeatedly draw lines to fill a space, they create an empty space where I am left with endless contemplation.

In association with the Australia Indonesia Arts Forum, 16albermarle Project Space, Indo Art Link and Project Eleven present Exhibition #4 Indonesia Calling 2020 featuring art from 29 Artists, 11 Collectives showcasing over 100 Artworks.

Indonesia Calling 2020 paints a picture of life in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic. It comprises a curated gallery exhibition featuring over 100 artworks by 29 leading artists from Bandung, Yogyakarta, Jakarta and Bali, and an online presentation, Pasar Seni (Indonesian Art Market) a web platform through which audiences can connect with 11 of Indonesia’s leading art collectives to learn about their work and buy art from their members.

Indonesia is among the 30 countries most affected by the pandemic, with the World Health Organisation confirming 361 867 cases as of Sunday 18 October 2020. By presenting a picture of life on the ground in Indonesia, the project aims to raise awareness in Australia and to encourage aid initiatives in any form. All proceeds from art sales will go back to the artists and their communities.

The title Indonesia Calling 2020 echoes an Australian documentary Indonesia Calling, directed by Joris Ivens in 1946. The film describes a great effort by both Australians and Indonesians to refuse the service of Dutch ships containing arms and ammunition destined for Indonesia to suppress the country’s independence movement. Inspired by a similar camaraderie, Indonesia Calling 2020 is our way to lend a helping hand to the Indonesian people. 

Presented by the Australia Indonesia Arts Forum, Indonesia Calling 2020 is a partnership between 16albermarle Project Space, Project Eleven and Indo Art Link - three entities which have worked for several years to build connections between the arts and artists in Indonesia and Australia. The exhibition aims to strengthen links within these networks while supporting Indonesian artists, who in turn support their communities within the close-knit Indonesian art scene.

In our first exhibition of Australian art, 16albermarle director John Cruthers considers the contemporary art he encountered after moving from Perth to Sydney to attend the Australian Film and Television School in 1977. His work on short films such as Serious undertakings (1983, director Helen Grace) and Camera natura (1984, director Ross Gibson) led him to post-modernism, and after the 1983 Perspecta exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales he became an enthusiastic viewer and collector of the new work. In 1985 he became an adviser helping people learn about and collect this art.

Re/production explores the influence of post-modernism and postcolonial themes in the work of 25 artists whose works he collected and recommended over the period. Artists include Howard Arkley, Angela Brennan, Ian Burn, Janet Burchill, Stephen Bush, Eliza Campbell & Judith Lodwick, Juan Davila, Anne Ferran, Tim Johnson, Tim Johnson & Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, David Jolly, Narelle Jubelin, Pat Larter, Vivienne Shark LeWitt, Geoff Lowe, Linda Marrinon, Elizabeth Newman, John Nixon, Susan Norrie, Luke Parker, Mark Titmarsh, Peter Tyndall, Savanhdary Vongpoothorn and Judy Watson. A highlight is a group of 10 works by Tim Johnson exploring the development of his practice from 1977 to 1983 and documenting his growing engagement with Aboriginal art and artists from Papunya.

Presenting a deliberately broad selection, Re/production highlights the diversity of approaches and styles of the period and the engaging quality of the works. Comprising artworks purchased by John and his clients, the exhibition makes the case for focused, inventive and intellectually speculative private collecting, and the recognition of its value as an alternative to objective institutional collecting.

Fitriani Dwi Kurniasih (born 1981), Yogyakarta

Fitri DK is an art worker from Yogyakarta. She is also a visual artist who uses graphic art techniques such as hardboard cuts and etchings to critique and dialogue on social and environmental issues. Fitri is committed to raising women's issues through art and music and consistently provides a strong female voice in an extremely patriarchal culture. Fitri is a member of the SURVIVE!Garage community and the Taring Padi art collective, and vocalist of the band Dendang Kampungan. 

Prihatmoko Moki (born 1982), Yogyakarta

Moki obtained his BFA from Indonesian Institute of Fine-Art (ISI) in 2009, majoring in printmaking. He works with painting, drawing, comics, murals and music, but his focus is silkscreen printmaking because of its ability to produce works in editions, and its effectiveness in exploring notions of originality and copies. In recent work he uses historical events and myths to explore and understand contemporary social situations, preferring to approach the issues in satirical, controversial and darkly humorous ways.

In 2013 together with Malcolm Smith, Rudi Hermawan and Sukma Smitha he founded the printmaking studio and gallery KRACK! in Yogyakarta. In the same year he began organizing and curating LELAGU, an annual art event combining acoustic music and responses with live drawing in Kedai Kebun Gallery, Yogyakarta. Since 2006 he has been a member of multidisciplinary art project PUNKASILA, initiated by Danius Kesminas, which has performed in Indonesia, Australian, Lithuania and Cuba.

Sekarputri Sidhiawati (born 1986), Bali

Born in Jakarta, Puti relocated to Bandung to study in the Ceramic Art studio in the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). She decided to take ceramics, she says, because “when I entered college I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to be an artist or an entrepreneur. The only studio that accommodated this doubt was ceramic arts.” Her interest in both areas led her to start Derau, a brand of home-made ceramics that could be sold in shops, while also developing a solo practice built around exhibition pieces. In 2018 she and her family relocated to Bali to set up a ceramics studio to expand her production. Asked what inspires her work, Puti says: “Girls – women of all ages, ethnicities and tendencies. Their stories, politics and powers. Their magic, beauty and sins”. She was included in the exhibition Termasuk: Contemporary art from Indonesia at Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, in early 2019.