Dale Harding: Current Iterations / Ana Mendieta: Connecting to the Earth

The Institute of Modern Art (IMA) is pleased begin the new year with exhibitions by Dale Harding and Ana Mendieta. Works in both exhibitions materialise innovative approaches to cultural continuity. Harding and Mendieta both draw from deep history but act resolutely in their present moment.

Dale Harding: Current Iterations
After having exhibited extensively nationally and internationally, Current Iterations will be Dale Harding’s (Bidjara, Garingbal and Ghungalu peoples) largest exhibition to date. The exhibition brings together new and recent works by Harding, focusing on objects dislocated by museum practices, as well as living culture activated in and outside the confines of art. The show carefully addresses the dislocation of objects, the creation of architecture and landscape in sculptural form, and the learning and activation of culture forms such as carving and stencilling with mouth-blown ochre by Harding and other members of his community. The urgency of Harding’s practice of cultural continuity is constantly evolving and creates opportunities for shared expression.

Current Iterations is curated by the IMA’s Executive Directors, Aileen Burns and Johan Lundh, and supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and The Keir Foundation, and features a co-commission with the 10th Liverpool Biennial (2018). Harding has exhibited in Beautiful world, where are you?, the Liverpool Biennial (2018), Soon Enough: Art in Action, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm (2018); From will to form, The TarraWarra Biennial (2018); Continental Drift, Cairns Art Gallery (2018); Documenta 14, Athens/Kassel (2017); The National: New Australian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2017); I refuse you my death, Milani Gallery, Brisbane (2016); The Eight Climate (What Does Art Do?), 11th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Korea (2016); With Secrecy and Despatch, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney (2016); GOMA Q: Contemporary Australian Art, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2015). White Collared, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2015). Harding is represented by Milani Gallery, Brisbane.

Ana Mendieta: Connecting to the Earth
Connecting to the Earth brings together two series of works by Cuban American artist Ana Mendieta (1948-1985) that are about connection to land. This is Mendieta’s solo exhibition in Australia and is guest curated by Professor Susan Best, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Brisbane. Rarely considered together, the Silueta series and the Rupestrian Sculpture series powerfully demonstrate Mendieta’s idea of feminised nature. Using this ancient idea enabled her to posit alternatives to patriarchal culture in the name of the feminine, including: an ecological sensibility that emphasises the reciprocity between body and land; a resistance to colonialist conceptions of land and territory; and a complicated intertwining of terms that are traditionally polarised, such as transcendence and objectification, presence and absence and so forth.

Seeking a New Director
One of Australia’s leading contemporary art organisations, the IMA is seeking a new Director to lead the artistic vision and drive the organisation’s development for the future to commence in mid 2019. In March, the current Co-Directors Burns and Lundh are moving on to the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth.

Founded in 1975, the IMA is the oldest contemporary art space of its kind in Australia. Its mission is to promote experimentation and research by diverse Australian and international artists and share their work with wide and diverse audiences through four interconnected streams: production, presentation, participation, and publishing.

The IMA is a registered charity and membership organisation. The Director reports to the Board and leads a team of 8 full-time equivalent staff members. The IMA is funded by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, the Australian Government through Australia Council for the Arts, and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian Federal, State, and Territory Governments, and many private sponsors and donors.

To read the full advert and to apply for the position please follow this link.