projects - Sharjah Art Foundation

Driven by the collisions and interactions arising from colonialism, artist and scholar Brook Andrew combats historical amnesia and questions the limitations of power structures in institutional spaces.

Burbang-buwanha winha-nga-nha (Returned Ceremony of Memory) (2023)

Brook Andrew
burbang-buwanha winha-nga-nha (Returned Ceremony of Memory) 2023
Painted clay ceramics and performance Dimensions variable, 60 minutes Credits: Ashraf Awad, Sahar Ali, Aaron
Reeder, Fahad Mohamad Group, Shauntai Batzke and Simon Rose
Funded by Creative Victoria, Melbourne, and Sharjah Art Foundation; and supported by the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne
Courtesy of the artist; Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris and Brussels; Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney; and Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne

Overview

Driven by the collisions and interactions arising from colonialism, artist and scholar Brook Andrew combats historical amnesia and questions the limitations of power structures in institutional spaces.
Burbang-buwanha winha-nga-nha (Returned Ceremony of Memory) (2023) is a live-performance sculptural installation produced together with cultural practitioners, performers and creative professionals from First Nations Australia and Sharjah. The courtyard of Bait Hassan Abdulla has been transformed into a ceremonial ground arrayed with colourful ceramic objects in the shape of vessels, furnaces and incense holders, made in collaboration with local ceramicists. The opening week performance expands a section of Andrew’s script GABAN [strange,
in Wiradjuri], where a character named ‘MEMORY’ speaks of the removal and eventual restitution of cultural objects to their Indigenous homelands through poetry and song.