Colonial Afterlives | A Salamanca Arts Centre exhibition toured by Contemporary Art Tasmania

Christian Thompson, Invaded Dreams (detail), 2012, From the Polari series, C-type print 100 x 100cm, Christian Thompson is represented by Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi Melbourne and Michael Reid Sydney and Berlin

Colonial Afterlives presents a broad array of contemporary art styles and mediums from established artists across seven colonized countries.

The exhibition includes a total of forty-two works by the following artists:
Ewan Atkinson (Barbados), Daniel Boyd (NSW), Charles Campbell (Jamaica), Maree Clarke (Victoria), Fiona Foley (Queensland), Julie Gough (Tasmania), Hew Locke (UK / Guyana), Kent Monkman (Canada), James Newitt (Tasmania), Geoff Parr (Tasmania), Yvonne Rees-Pagh (Tasmania), Lisa Reihana (Aotearoa New Zealand), Joan Ross (NSW) and Christian Thompson (SA).

There are a high number of photographic and video works in the exhibition and other media that include painting, sculpture and installation.  Several of the artists explore multiple identities through performance and photography, including Charles Campbell, Kent Monkman, Ewan Atkinson, and Christian Thompson. Others are keenly attuned to the nuances and contemporary resonance of the colonial archive—Julie Gough, Daniel Boyd, James Newitt and Lisa Reihana —while Yvonne Rees-Pagh and Fiona Foley examine some of the deep wounds of ‘empire’, as manifested in racist stereotyping and modern forms of frontier violence. Hew Locke draws on his Guyanese heritage to examine the emblems of power in Britain’s colonial past. The mood of the exhibition ranges from being contemplative and melancholic, to wicked hilarity.

Colonial Afterlives is a Salamanca Arts Centre exhibition toured by Contemporary Art Tasmania. Salamanca Arts Centre is supported by the Hobart City Council and the Tasmanian State Government. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program.

6 May – 23 July 2017