Biennale of Sydney - NIRIN Catalogue Preface

NIRIN
represents something like a spider’s web that connects people and ideas. It is the border through which things stay attached. It is not about a hierarchy of ideas, but rather
about being together.There is no centre or periphery, it’s like being in a digital cloud where everything is together.

Rosana Paulino

1. Preface - Front Cover

Geoff Kleem, Swan Lake on Fire, 2019, digital photograph.

2. Preface - Geoff Kleem

In Sudan, we say:‘Dying within a group of like minded people is a feast.’ I feel I am in within my group.

Ahmed Umar

3. Preface - Ahmed Umar

If we are to compare Manila,the capital (and centre) of the Philippines, to a toilet: the centreis where the drain is and the closer you are to it the more shit you encounter and the bigger the pull of the drain to suck you in with it all.That is why I prefer to live on the outskirts, the periphery. You can still cling to the Edge in order not to get flushed into the centre.

Denilson Baniwa

4. Preface - Denilson Baniwa

We Indigenous peoples search for the recognition and affirmation of the edges of an effervescent world that needs to know itself better through reflection. The original peoples are the only ones that resist its expansion,that are not forgotten in an idyllic past but inserted in the contemporary world and taking advantage of the strategies of struggle that are placed at its reach.The community must be reminded that the Indigenous population is and has been present throughout the history of society’s formation and not its Edge.

Manuel Ocampo

5. Preface - Manuel Ocampo

Ibrahim Mahama, No Friend but the Mountains 2012–2020, 2020, charcoal jute sacks, sacks, metal tags and scrap metaltarpaulin, dimensions variable. Installation view, detail (2020) for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Cockatoo Island. Photograph: Zan 16 Wimberley. Courtesy the artist; White Cube, London and Hong Kong; and Apalazzo Gallery, Brescia.

6. Preface - Ibrahim Mahama

Jose Dávila, The Act of Perseverance, 2020, site specific mixed media installation with found materials from CockatooIsland, dimensions variable. Installation progress view, detail (2020) for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Cockatoo Island. Photograph: ZanWimberley. Courtesy the artist and König gallery

↗ Eric Bridgeman and Haus Yuriyal, SUNNA (Middle Ground), 2020, multimediainstallation, round house, picture house, painting, billum weaving, photography, video, audio, dimensions variable. Installation progressview (2020) for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Cockatoo Island. Photograph: Zan Wimberley. Courtesy the artist; Milani Gallery, Brisbane; 20 and Gallerysmith, Melbourne.

7. Preface - Jose Davila / Eric Bridgeman

Eric Bridgeman installing SUNNA (Middle Ground), Eric Bridgeman and Haus Yuriyal, 2020, multimedia installation, roundhouse, picture house, painting, billum weaving, photography, video, audio, dimensions variable. Installation progress view (2020) for the22nd Biennale of Sydney, Cockatoo Island. Photograph: Zan Wimberley. Courtesy the artist; Milani Gallery, Brisbane; and Gallerysmith,Melbourne.

8. Preface - Eric Bridgeman & Haus Yuriyal

Tennant Creek Brio. Installation progress view (2020) for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Cockatoo Island. Photograph: Zan Wimberley. 24 Courtesy the artists and Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre.

9. Preface - Tennant Creek Brio

↑ Vajiko Chachkhiani, Army without thegeneral, 2020, tree trunk, stone, concrete, ceramics, soil, tree branches, dead bushes, tombstone plates, dimensions variable. Installationprogress view (2020) for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Cockatoo Island. Photograph: Zan Wimberley. Courtesy the artist; Daniel Marzona, 26 Berlin; and SCAI The Bathhouse, Tokyo.

10. Vajiko Chachkhiani

Anders Sunna installing SOAÐA, 2020, mixed media, dimensions variable. Installation progress 28 view (2020) for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Campbelltown Arts Centre. Photograph: Zan Wimberley. Courtesy the artist.

11. Preface - Anders Sunna

12. Preface - Installation progress View

13. Preface - Nicholas Galanin

Aziz Hazara, Bow Echo, 2019, 5-channel digital video, 4:17 mins. Installation progress view (2020) for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, 38 Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. Produced by the Han Nefkens Foundation. Photograph: Zan Wimberley. Courtesy the artist.

Hannah Catherine Jones installing Owed to Diaspora(s), 2020, mixed media installation, dimensions variable. Installation progress42 view (2020) for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, National Art School. Photograph: Zan Wimberley. Courtesy the artist.

14. Preface - Aziz Hazara

Hannah Catherine Jones, Owed to Diaspora(s), 2020, mixed media installation, dimensions variable. Installation progress view48 (2020) for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, National Art School. Photograph: Zan Wimberley. Courtesy the artist.

15. Preface - Aziz Hazara