Unfolding Acts 揭露行動 at Perth Institute Of Contemporary Arts (PICA) marks the anniversary of a coming together of two places and two cultures.
Twenty years on from the Charter Of Mutual Friendship between Perth and Taipei, Unfolding Acts looks at the two locations and explores their shared experiences and landscapes. This is in acknowledgement of a 2001 exhibition at PICA, titled Very Fun Park: Contemporary Art From Taiwan.Here, one of the artists Pilar Mata Dupont answers some questions about Unfolding Acts as well as her involvement in it.
Tell us a bit about the Unfolding Acts 揭露行動 exhibition.
Unfolding Acts is an exhibition curated by PICA Curator, Charlotte Hickson and Guest Curator, Ashley Yihsin Chang that marks the 20th anniversary of the Charter Of Mutual Friendship between the cities of Perth and Taipei. The selected artists for the show, a mixture of Taiwanese and Australian artists, look particularly into the social, cultural, and historical fabrics of these two locations, or their nearby surroundings. There are video, photography, performance, sculptural, and installation-based artworks in the show.
What has been your involvement in this? Tell us a bit about you.
I am exhibiting a selection of a series of photographs I took in 2018 as part of a FORM WA residency in the Pilbara. Charlotte originally asked me to take part in the Unfolding Acts exhibition as I built my early practice in Western Australia, though I grew up between Australia, Argentina, and Brunei. I am now mostly based in Rotterdam in the Netherlands and my work spans video, installation, performance, and photography. I’m interested in investigating structures of history, gender, and memory and at this stage, my focus is on the colonial and contemporary legacy of histories in Argentina and Australia. I worked for some time in musical theatre as an actor so my work quite often has a strong theatrical bent.
What intentions did you have with the work you're presenting as part of Unfolding Acts?
The photographs I am exhibiting, Multispecies, form part of a body of works (including three-channel video and printed silk pieces) that look at contemporary tensions in a particular location, Jirndawurrunha, regarding the removal of invasive plants. This roughly 500m squared area in the middle of Millstream Chichester National Park and particularly a waterhole, Miliyanha, located here, are incredibly important to the Yindjibarndi people as a ceremonial and rainmaking site. Because of this, we consulted with Michael Woodley and Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation to make sure we were respecting protocols on site. European settlers moved into Jirndawurrunha in the late 19th century, displacing the people already there, and built the homestead that now exists there as a museum. Nel Gordon, a white woman who lived there with her family, planted waterlilies (Nymphaea macrosperma) and exotic plants around the Miliyanha waterhole as a colonial garden which thrives to this day. Because of the sensitive ecosystem there, these invasive lilies must be removed by hand, which involves rangers and volunteers needing to dive down to depths of four metres to pull them out. The lilies grow back within a number of months – it’s truly a Sisyphean management task. My photographs in Unfolding Acts depict some of the invasive plants you see being removed in my related three-channel video work, Undesirable Bodies (2018). I used flash or darkly-lit photography as a way of removing a nostalgic or romanticised look to the plants I documented. In these photographs, I was particularly interested in thinking of plants as protagonists but also as ciphers of their own colonial histories.
Pilar Mata Dupont, Multispecies #12, 2018, Giclée print on paper, various dimensions. Courtesy the Artist and Moore Contemporary
Why do you think this exhibition is important?
Unfolding Acts is being presented in 2019 in acknowledgement of a PICA exhibition from 2001 titled Very Fun Park: Contemporary Art From Taiwan, which I remember going to at the time during my final year studying Fine Art at Curtin Uni. I think it’s a way to celebrate that exhibition and the friendship between the two cities. I’ve enjoyed meeting the incredible Taiwanese artists who came over for the installation and opening. Dondon Hounwn and his performers gave the most beautiful performance on opening night. I am lucky enough to be participating with my video work, Purgatorio, in the sister exhibition of Unfolding Acts, which opens at Taipei Fine Arts Museum on 15 November – it’s called Island Tales: Taiwan And Australia and I’ll be going there for that exhibition opening. My first time in Taiwan!
What do you think your work contributes to it?
I think the Multispecies series, while speaking very much to its specific location, also speaks generally to the legacy of colonial histories everywhere. Most of the works in the show can be read in that way.
What do you hope audiences are leaving this exhibition feeling/thinking?
I find each work in the show to be strong on its own but I wasn’t quite aware of the intricate connections between the works until the day we gave artist talks. I hope audiences take the time to think through those connections and how Taiwan and Australia, in many ways, share a similar history though, on the surface, we may appear like vastly different cultures and locations.
PICA is also presenting '歸屬Gui Shu (Belong)' – another work with Taipei connections – what is your involvement in that?
I came on board with '歸屬Gui Shu (Belong)' late last year as a visual dramaturge, which means I am a sort of consultant for the visuals in the performance and how they fit in with the other elements and overall structure of the piece. As the work has been developed as a choreography of movement, live sound work, and video, Sally Richardson, the Director, wanted someone on board who specialised in video, but also had some experience in theatre. I’ve also worked on projects in Finland, the Netherlands, Argentina, Germany, and Korea (North and South) so I have had some experience in working cross-culturally and in diverse teams. PICA and Performing Lines WA brought me on board and flew me from Rotterdam to work on this. The project has been developed over four years with a team from Australia and Taiwan through a series of workshops and residencies and it’s so exciting to be part of the group pulling it all finally together. The effect of all the elements together is like some kind of dream – there are some really gorgeous moments.
