rīvus ~ MCA
Not that much Biennale art here at the MCA.
My favourite work is a talking head. Manari Ushigua is talking straight to camera about protecting the environment and the Napo River, commissioned by the Biennale, filmed by Manari himself. I am reminded of seeing the Oglala Lakota activist Russell Means speak, feeling the solid ontology of their speech.
Manari is from the Zápara Nation in the Ecuadorian Amazon, of which there are less than 500 people remaining. He is a traditional healer and leader, and forest protector – leading a campaign to protect the sacred Cuencas Sagradas (Sacred Basins) of the Ecuadorian basin.
Gail Mabo’s ‘Tagai’ shows the ancestral Torren Strait technology of navigating the seas. [see post 2]. A technology that uses finely honed perceptive skills and knowledge of the stars, bird behaviour, ocean currents and more.
Her father was the famous land rights activist Eddie Mabo and the High Court’s Mabo decision to overturn the doctrine of Terr Nullius
I chat to two young women as I collected my back pack, complain I am too old to appreciate enjoy Primavera 2021 (an annual exhibition of young Australian artists under 35). Say I prefer Donatello to Botticelli, and Brueghel the elder to Raphael, they laugh.
