Ningenneh Tunapry at Tasmanian Museum and Gallery
Indigenous curators Tony Brown and Zoe Rimmer, exhibition designers Thylacine, screen and interactive design Alexandra Gillespie, audio designers Sound Environment and lighting design Illuminated Design
Two video installations, Culture Windows and The Contemplation Room designed for the new permanent Tasmanian Aboriginal gallery at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart opened December 8 2007.
The site of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery is culturally significant as it is built over a midden pile, and housed the former Royal Society Rooms of whose members collected aboriginal remains against the wishes of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people.
The central message of the exhibition counters the myth that Tasmanian Aboriginals did not survive colonisation.
The exhibition focuses on their survival and history and details the continuation of their culture into the present through activities, such as mutton birding, basket weaving, dance, shell necklace and canoe making.
One video wall is formed by three projections mapped to the architecture of the building and the other by three inset LCD screens.
The video walls are atmospheric elements that work in two separate adjacent rooms interacting with lighting and sound to create a unique and immersive experience for the viewer engaging with the exhibition.
Main Gallery - Culture Window Projection
A series of three synched projected images in the arched window cavities of the building depicting moving images of contemporary cultural practice. The videos present continuing cultural practices of shell necklace making, basket weaving, kelp water carrier construction and dance shown in the three windows concurrently. Three synched high definition data projectors are used to achieve the overall projected image.
The projections function to bring the current practice of ancient cultural activities into the present highlighting their survival and cultural continuity. The sequences are not intended to be didactic but rather present moments in time of these cultural activities.
Contemplation Room
Three LCD screens set into the intimate confines of the contemplation room wall panel work in unison to depict still historical photographic scenes of indigenous Tasmanians from the past and present.
The still images range from the beginnings of photographic portraiture in Tasmania to the present. The still images are interspersed with video portraits that move from a still frame to a moving image of contemporary Tasmanian Aboriginals speaking palawa kani, the language being retrieved by Tasmanian Aboriginals.
These moving portraits are presented at a 1:1 scale heighten their impact and immediacy. The effect of combining still images from the past and moving images from the present sets up a tension and expectation as to which portraits will “come to life and speak”.
The two smaller screens present group images of families and significant gatherings. The work brings key moments and people of the past and present Tasmanian indigenous community into the present space for contemplation.