For the 2022 Biennale, the National Art School in Darlinghurst has teamed up with Artspace while the contemporary art institution waits out renovations at its Woolloomooloo gallery and home. Multiple spaces within the sandstone walls of NAS, the heritage-listed site of the former Darlinghurst Gaol, are being activated with 11 specially tailored artworks that explore ideas around still and stagnant waters, as well as submerged and re-emerging histories.
English artist Joey Holder transforms the chapel space with Abyssal Seeker, taking audiences on an aquatic journey to an undiscovered deep sea brine lake. Strange marine life forms of all shapes and sizes twist and turn in this immersive video work.
Colombian artist Carolina Caycedo presents a large-scale mural of satellite photographs depicting the progressive devastation on the Magdalena River caused by the El Quimbo Dam, as well as sculptures, textiles and drawings that speak to the political agency of waterways.
The Myall Creek Gathering Cloak is a collaborative work made by local First Nations Community including Elders, descendants of survivors of the Myall Creek massacre, and members of the Friends of Myall Creek Memorial. The Cloak shows the songlines of Gomeroi people from Boggabilla to Glen Innes, and it comes out of a contemporary revitalisation of traditional possum skin cloak making for healing, cultural renewal and reclamation.
Palestinian artist Jumana Emil Abboud explores Palestinian folklore, the ritual of storytelling and their connection to land and particularly to water with an ongoing series of mixed-media drawings and paintings, started in 2009.
Perth artist Erin Coates presents a series of interconnected multimedia works from her Swan River Dolphin Bones series, working across drawing, sculpture and film. Informed by marine biology, historical research and her own experiences freediving in the water there, her work speaks to the ongoing impact of colonial occupation on this estuarine ecosystem and the dolphins that inhabit it.
The Biennale of Sydney is showing at the National Art School in partnership with Artspace daily from 10am to 5pm, with extended hours until 9pm on Wednesdays. The exhibition is free to visit. To beat the queues, you can register here.