Savanhdary Vongpoothorn: All that arises

Image: Savanhdary Vongpoothorn, Polyphony, 2001. Acrylic on perforated canvas 170 x 120 cm.

 

Join us for the opening night Thursday 15 August 6pm

officially launched by Jackie Menzies OAM, lecturer at the Nan Tien Institute of higher Education, Emeritus Curator of Asian Art, art Gallery of New South Wales.

Savanhdary Vongpoothorn’s deeply contemplative work is remarkable in sustaining creative and critical relationships with multiple influences. Marked by an enduring interest in her South-East Asian origins and their relationship to contemporary Australia, her work bridges contemporary realities with historical reference, advancing a practice that is inherently hybrid and polyvalent.

Her practice has been recently extended through a collaboration with noted Japanese tanka poet and calligrapher Noriko Tanaka. The exhibition will feature a major new installation of handmade Japanese paper resulting from this collaboration, which originated in the precincts of the Todai-ji temple complex in Nara, Japan. The exhibition features more than 50 of Vongpoothorn’s works across nearly 25 years, ranging in scale from large triptychs on canvas to intimate works on paper.

This exhibition is curated by Chaitanya Sambrani, art historian, curator and lecturer based at the Centre for Art History and Art Theory, School of Art and Design, Australian National University, Canberra.

---

Other related events:

On Friday 16 August at 12 noon join us for the launch of the artist monograph and the artist in conversation with exhibition curator, Chaitanya Sambrani and Jackie Menzies.

On Sunday 18 August at 2pm for The ANU Japan Institute’s  poetry book launch of Noriko Tanaka’s Tanka Anthology Darkness – Fire – Sutra introduced by Dr Carol Hayes, Associate Professor of Japanese Language and Studies, Australian National University followed by artists Savanhdary Vongpoothorn and Noriko Tanaka in conversation on their collaboration Footsteps to the Nigatsu-do.

 

The Drill Hall Gallery 2019 program of exhibitions has been generously supported by the ANU Visual Arts Foundation.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.