The Australian War Memorial Loan Program is excited to be able to send the stunning painting, Maralinga Bomb by Karrika Belle Davidson, to the United States of America for the travelling exhibition Exposure: Native Art and Political Ecology.
The exhibition, which will first feature at Institute of American Indian Arts Museum of Contemporary Native Art in Santa Fe New Mexico, is a co-curated exhibition between iBiennale Director Dr. Kóan Jeff Baysa; Nuuk Art Museum Director Nivi Christensen (Inuit); Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art Chief curator and Vice Director Satomi Igarashi; Art Gallery of New South Wales Assistant Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Erin Vink (Ngiyampaa), independent curator Tania Willard (Secwepemc Nation), and MoCNA Chief Curator Manuela Well-Off-Man.
As described on the exhibition website, Exposure “documents international Indigenous artists’ responses to the impacts of nuclear testing, nuclear accidents, and uranium mining on Native peoples and the environment. The traveling exhibition and catalog give artists a voice to address the long-term effects of these man-made disasters on Indigenous communities in the United States and around the world. Indigenous artists from Australia, Canada, Greenland, Japan, Pacific Islands, and the United States utilize local and tribal knowledge, as well as Indigenous and contemporary art forms as visual strategies for their thought-provoking artworks.”
In October 1956, Karrika Belle Davidson experienced firsthand the consequences of the nuclear testing at Maralinga, a desert region of South Australia. She, among many others, became very unwell and was treated at the Warburton mission. Maralinga Bomb tells of the experiences of Karrika as the bombing occurred.
To learn more about Maralinga Bomb by Karrika Belle Davidson here.
Exposure: Native Art and Political Ecology: Fri, August 20, 2021–Sun, January 23, 2022 (https://iaia.edu/).