The faces of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people look out from the base of an ashtray.
The ashtrays are fixed to the wall in one exhibition space at the National Gallery of Singapore — it’s the work of Girramay, Yidindji and Kuku Yalanji artist Tony Albert.
He’s been collecting these kinds of items, which he calls ‘Aboriginalia’, since he was a child, but as he grew older he realised there was a sinister undertone attached to them, this is what forms the basis of his work.
“I kept coming back to the image of an ashtray and the ashtrays themselves,” Mr Albert told NITV’s The Point
“I was putting them in work and then taking them out and I really felt the ash tray warranted a work in its own right.
“There was something quite metaphoric about the ash tray and the Australian condition attached to Aboriginal people.
“What does it actually mean to butt out a cigarette on someone’s face and someone’s culture?”
The outcome is his work ‘Ash On Me’, made up of 100 ashtrays from Mr Albert’s collection.
Tony Albert's Ash on me is made up of ash trays featuring the faces of First Nations people. Source: Supplied: NGA
It was created 14 years ago, but is currently on display in Singapore as part of a major international exhibition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.
The exhibition, called ‘Ever Present: First People’s Art of Australia’, explores cultural knowledge and connections to Country, ceremony and family, and the impacts of invasion.
The exhibition spans three gallery spaces, Mr Albert’s work sits in the final gallery, dedicated to the theme ‘resistance and colonisation’.
Mr Albert is one of more than 150 artists who are represented in the exhibition, from the traditional style paintings of William Barak and Emily Kame Kngwarreye and the iconic landscapes of Albert Namatjira, to the more contemporary multimedia works of Vernon Ah Kee and Jonathan Jones.
It's the largest exhibition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art to ever tour Asia.
Mr Albert has exhibited his work across Australia and the world, but he said being part of Ever Present is something special.
“It is so amazing to see such a plethora of work from really traditional, iconography, stories, story places, through to artists that are really challenging the notion of who we are and where we sit,” he said.
“I think this show offers so much for a very diverse audience.”
This plethora of work comes from the collections of the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), and Wesfarmers.
The Ever Present exhibition is currently on display at the National Gallery of Singapore Source: Supplied:NGA
The NGA’s assistant director for Indigenous engagement Bruce Johnson Mclean said the idea of the exhibition was to pull together a large group of works, representing a strong voice from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, and to take that voice to an international stage.
“Our core remit is really to share the art of Australia and the foundational part of that is sharing the stories and the histories and the realities of First Nations artists and communities,” the Wierdi and Birrigubba man said.
“For us it’s really important that we do build large shows, ambitious shows of First Nations art and drive our program and drive international dialogue.
“We know that there’s a great thirst for better understanding of First Nations people and culture and art throughout the world.”
'Not just our world'
Trawlwoolway artist Julie Gough’s is also among the high profile names in the exhibition.
Her work is made up of about 185 names burnt onto unfinished spears, and bound by the frame of a chair.
Each name is a child that was taken from across lutruwita (Tasmania) to live with colonists before 1840.
“A great number of the children that were removed, and were living with colonists as a result, I believe of massacre,” Ms Gough said.
“There’s no other logical reason for them to be apart from their family and not reunited.
“Land grants were given out, Aboriginal people were removed and violently so, only for children to be turning up, being baptised at two, three, four years of age.”
Ms Gough said seeing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artworks like hers in Singapore — a former British colony — represents an opportunity for First people all over the world to decolonise spaces like art galleries.
These batiks are part of the exhibition on display at the National Gallery of Singapore Source: Supplied: NGA
For her work, she said it’s given a different feeling when it is shown abroad.
“It feels completely different now it’s left our continent, it really is in the world, not just our world,” she said.
“It’s in a world where others can establish dialogue or with First People or Aboriginal people, which is what’s needed, more contact and communication from and with us.”
The exhibition has been put together under the leadership of Gulumirrgin (Larrakia) Wardaman and Karajarri curator Tina Baum.
The NGA's Tina Baum says curating this exhibition has been a journey. Source: Supplied:NGA
She’s worked with two curators from the National Gallery of Singapore, Phoebe Scott and Goh Sze Ying to bring Ever Present to the international stage.
Although the exhibition features over 170 works, Ms Baum said the hardest task has been selecting which artworks should be included.
“We have such a rich, dynamic and we excel in the arts in Australia and I think that’s one of the hardest choices, selecting which works come into the space,” she said.
Ms Baum said she hopes audiences will learn something about First Nations people, culture and art from this exhibition, but most of all realise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are ‘ever present’ in Australia.
“We’ve got a cultural and rich history to showcase here and I think we should be out in the world showcasing how great we are,” she said.
The exhibition is on display in Singapore until September 25.
For more on this story tune in to NITV's flagship current affairs program The Point, Tuesday 7.30pm or later on SBS and SBS On Demand.
