Exhibition Catalogue
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Exhibition supporters: I Publication supporter: HOPE YOU This project has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program and received development assistance from NETS Victoria’s Exhibitions Development Fund, supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria. GET THIS: RAQUEL ORMELLA National Exhibitions Touring Support (NETS) Victoria is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and through the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments. NETS Victoria also receives Front and back cover: significant in-kind support from the National Gallery I hope you get this 2018 of Victoria. silk and cotton embroidery thread on linen 8 x 10 cm SAM is proudly provided by Greater Shepparton Courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane City Council and receives operational funding from © the artist Creative Victoria, the State Government funding Photo: David Paterson body for the Arts. I hope you get this: Raquel Ormella TOURING SCHEDULE CONTENTS A NETS Victoria and Shepparton Art Museum touring exhibition Curators: Rebecca Coates and Anna Briers Catalogue design: Ainger Creative Shepparton Art Museum (SAM) 4 Foreword Catalogue copyediting and proofreading: Clare Williamson Shepparton, Victoria Printer: Waratah Group 26 May – 12 August 2018 Edition: 1000 5 Mayor’s welcome ISBN: 978-0-9802977-7-5 Horsham Regional Art Gallery Catalogue co-published by Horsham, Victoria 6 A robust vulnerability National Exhibitions Touring Support Victoria 13 October – 9 December 2018 Kyla McFarlane c/- National Gallery of Victoria, Australia Federation Square Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery 10 I hope: Instagram and the political stitch Melbourne Vic 3000 Launceston, Tasmania Rebecca Coates netsvictoria.org.au 19 January – 24 March 2019 and Drill Hall Gallery 19 I’m worried this will become a memory: art Shepparton Art Museum Australian National University, Canberra and activism in the work of Raquel Ormella 70 Welsford Street 12 April – 9 June 2019 Shepparton Vic 3630 Reuben Keehan sheppartonartmuseum.com.au Noosa Regional Gallery Text © 2018 the authors and Shepparton Art Museum. The views Noosa, Queensland 23 Images and opinions expressed in this catalogue are those of the authors. 22 June – 28 July 2019 No material, whether written or photographic, may be reproduced 68 Artist biography without the permission of the artist, authors and Shepparton Art Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest Museum. Every effort has been made to ensure that any text Emu Plains, New South Wales 73 List of works and images in this publication have been reproduced with the 30 November 2019 – 2 February 2020 permission of the artist or the appropriate authorities, wherever it is possible. Images © 2018 the artist. Details correct at time of printing. 74 Acknowledgements NETS Victoria and Shepparton Art Museum acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land which now comprises Greater Shepparton and the Wurundjeri and the Boon Wurrung of the Kulin Nation. As the exhibition travels across Country, we pay respect to each of the traditional custodians of these lands and to their tribal Elders; we celebrate their continuing culture and we acknowledge the memory of their ancestors. I hope you get this: RAQUEL ORMELLA shared knowledge and supported one another to We are delighted to present I hope you get this: FOREWORD create I hope you get this. It is often what happens MAYOR’S WELCOME Raquel Ormella as a NETS Victoria and Shepparton Mardi Nowak behind the gallery walls and in the lead-up that builds Kim O’Keeffe Art Museum touring exhibition. The impressive strength to a tour. Collaboration can at times be program for the travelling exhibition has been Director, NETS Victoria Mayor, Greater Shepparton uncomfortable and there always needs to be give made possible through the work of NETS Victoria, and take. However, by sharing and combining our specifically through the support of its Exhibition knowledge, we can produce great things and take Development Fund. Our regional partners include away many learnings. Horsham Regional Art Gallery (Vic), Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery (Tas), Drill Hall Gallery, Collaborative Strength The production of this exhibition has involved Greater Shepparton City Council is delighted to Australian National University (ACT) Noosa Regional many, from locations scattered throughout Australia. present Raquel Ormella’s first major survey exhibition, I hope you get this conjures up memories of postcards Gallery (Qld) and Penrith Regional Gallery & The With an artist based in Canberra, exhibition I hope you get this: Raquel Ormella, at Shepparton sent from faraway places. The title of this wonderful Lewers Bequest (NSW). I hope you get this has management based in Melbourne and a curatorial Art Museum (SAM). exhibition by Raquel Ormella is also a little bit tongue- been further assisted by the Australian Government’s team working from regional Victoria, the project’s in-cheek. The phrase plays on notions around the This exhibition brings together a selection of new Visions of Australia program. success depends on collaboration and communication. relationship between artist and viewer, particularly and recent works by one of Australia’s leading SAM Director Rebecca Coates has written about We acknowledge the support and work of former in regard to contemporary art. In the past, regional contemporary artists. It includes a wide variety Raquel Ormella’s use of Instagram within her practice. Director of NETS Victoria Georgia Cribb and former towns and galleries were seen as cultural wastelands of media and draws in particular on Ormella’s In a way, this was one of the communication tools Curator Melissa Keys. In particular we thank current and exciting and fresh art was believed to only come experimental textile works, exploring key themes through which the whole team was able to be Director Mardi Nowak, who has been key to securing out of the cities. Shepparton Art Museum (SAM) that the artist has consistently developed in her kept up to date on how the works were progressing. funding for this project, and Exhibitions Coordinator proves this to be wrong through its unrelenting work: social and environmental activism, human and It was as though we were visiting Ormella’s studio Ellen Wignell, who has been a pleasure to work with commitment to audience engagement and its animal relationships, nationalism and national identity. via our phones, an approach I’m sure we will continue and a diligent collaborator. challenging of its communities’ ideas about art. throughout the tour and beyond. Arts and culture play a vital role in our community. This exhibition continues the work that SAM is NETS Victoria is thrilled to partner with SAM to They bring people together, forging strong community I hope you get this was developed through NETS known for through a particular collection strength: present I hope you get this, which presents a major connections, and offer different ways to view the world Victoria’s 2016 Exhibition Development Fund (EDF), work by leading Australian female artists since the body of work by leading Australian artist Raquel in which we live. In this exhibition, key works invite which allowed an initial idea from SAM’s curatorial 1970s. The exhibition has been curated by Rebecca Ormella. The team at SAM have a strong history our audiences to get involved, become inspired and team to grow into a national tour. The EDF offers Coates and Anna Briers, SAM Director and Curator of creating innovative exhibitions, programs and engage through an exhibition and related education curators the opportunity to take the time to develop respectively, and offers a timely appraisal of one of educational offerings that take art and ideas beyond and public program activities that are developed thought-provoking and risk-taking exhibitions. Australia’s major female artists. Thanks to all the the gallery walls. This tour builds upon the wonderful around art that is topical and timely. This annual program, supported by Creative Victoria, SAM staff who have worked on this exhibition. work they have done and shares their approach is a unique offering by NETS Victoria and has proven The exhibition is accompanied by this richly with the wider arts network. And finally, we thank Raquel Ormella for her to produce a series of fascinating and challenging illustrated publication with newly commissioned enthusiasm and generosity in the development I am a fan of SAM. This small team is doing big exhibitions. We are so pleased to be able to work essays, and we particularly thank writers Reuben and presentation of this major exhibition and tour. things, and this exhibition and program are no with the dedicated SAM team in order to share their Keehan, Kyla McFarlane and Rebecca Coates for exception. Behind the scenes and in the lead-up to vision with audiences in Shepparton and beyond. their insightful contributions. Thanks also to the We look forward to sharing this exhibition with this tour, NETS Victoria and SAM have collaborated, Gordon Darling Foundation for their support our audiences. of the exhibition publication. 4 Foreword Mayor’s welcome 5 I hope you get this: RAQUEL ORMELLA The conceptual driver of these works is the space Wealth for toil #1 2014, is a big, sparkly show pony: a neon yellow, orange and blue barometer of the A ROBUST VULNERABILITY Ormella constructs above the hanging stars. She gives an Australian flag drenched in ribbons and gold, with mining boom. This workforce gained near-mythical Kyla McFarlane us the boundary of the flag’s edges but the space a hint of baggy-green-cap myrtle green. It asserts status for its sheer numbers and much-discussed within becomes a void. This radical emptying out of the ‘GOLDEN PROMISES’ of Australian sport’s green remuneration. Toilers for the wealth, they were a highly symbolic space offers up an existential blank and gold, and the attendant tally of medals won modern-day gold rushers, yet their conditions were slate.