‘Travelling Light’ is an exhibition put together for the Mexican Art Biennale Arte Nuevo Interactiva 07 at the Galleries of Peon Contreras Cultural Complex, Merida, Yucatan from June 15. The show will premiere at the Dreaming Festival, Sunshine Coast Hinterland, Queensland, Australia June 9-12. The short screen-based works presented by cyberTribe are bursts of light between 2 and 5 minutes with powerful messages. Here work from 2 Australian Aboriginal Artists is featured alongside 2 Canadian Aboriginal Artists under the curatorial axis of memory and idea.

The exhibition title also references the idea of nomadism and other more current irregular migratory movements and is presented in small, portable DVD format: what we can carry with us. ‘Coureurs de Nuit’ (Night Hunters) by Shanouk Newashish is an exceptionally beautiful experimental documentary where a group of Indigenous people are driven by unseen forces to go running at night. Their struggle with the police – and their determination as a community – become a powerful metaphor for the survival of a people. This film was made by youth from Wemotaci in northern Québec through the Wapikoni Mobile project, a travelling audiovisual production and screening studio that tours northern communities in Canada. ‘Starr’ is a stylised film by Michelle Blakeney, a Yaegl woman based in Sydney. Set in New York in the 1930s about a twenty-four year old high society socialite whose spirit is slowly drowned by the memories of her past. ‘Starr’ was sexually abused as a child and grew up to be become, in the eyes of many, a tramp and gold digger, and then apparently committed suicide by drowning herself.

Queensland Artist / Curator Jenny Fraser offers ‘the Great Australian Dream-ing’ which highlights the inequity and irony of suburban affluence and the denial of basic housing needs in Indigenous communities. Ironically set to an Everly Brothers tune from 1958: “I can make you mine, taste your lips of wine Anytime night or day Only trouble is, gee whiz I’m dreamin’ my life away”… Terrance Houle from the Blood Tribe in Alberta brings us ‘The Wagon Burner’ which examines: what happens when a boy reclaims his identity through the simple act of destruction? The boy burns his wagon and dances to put out the flames. With music by Isho Bailey, Houle’s images tell a story older than colonization: the power of resistance and remembrance. “To see the light is to wake up in remembrance and resistance of the contradictions that face us: inclusion vs exclusion, interior vs exterior, homely vs sterile, family vs individuality, sharing vs ownership, ancient vs modern. To travel with it is to follow our own dreams and destiny in trust” says Artist / Curator Jenny Fraser.
Links:

cyberTribe http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/cybertribe/travelling interactiva biennale

http://www.cartodigital.org/interactiva jenny fraser

http://www.geocities.com/dot_ayu/index.htm

Contact – jenfur333@hotmail.com