TarraWarra Biennial 2021:
Slow Moving Waters
Featuring twenty-five artists from across the country, the TarraWarra Biennial 2021: Slow Moving Waters responds to two related cues: the idea of slowness, and the gentle, measured flow of the nearby Birrarung (Yarra River). The exhibition’s title comes from the translation of the local Woiwurrung word ‘tarrawarra’, after which the Museum, and its surrounding area of Wurundjeri Country in the Yarra Valley are named.
Aligned with the unhurried arc of the river, Slow Moving Waters explores processes of deceleration, delay and the decompression of time, proposing a stay to the ever more rapid flows of people, commerce and information that characterise the dynamic of globalisation. Against today’s cult of speed, the artworks in the Biennial mark a different sort of time—one which connects with the vastness and intricacy of geological and cosmological cycles, seasonal rhythms, interconnected ecologies, and ancient knowledge systems.
The exhibition develops from the idea that between the acceleration of our current age and the impossibility of stopping altogether is a temporal space of possibility and resistance: slowing down. Through works which unfold conceptually, spatially, materially and temporally over the course of the exhibition, it seeks to heighten our awareness to the overlooked subtleties of the present.
Considering the broader arc of history against the pull of the accelerated now, the TarraWarra Biennial 2021 advances expansive relations to time that are grounded in both place and community, attentive to an idea of the present as a site of multiple durations, pasts and possible futures. At a time of untold disruption to the tempos and structures of contemporary life, Slow Moving Waters imagines alternative conceptions of time and how they might offer different ways of being in the world. Oriented around disturbances to the prevailing current, it harnesses the potential of slowness as both a passive and an active means for claiming different forms of agency, recognising that, from within the eddies of the river, new networks of solidarity, support and resistance can take hold.
Exhibiting artists: Robert Andrew, Jeremy Bakker, Lucy Bleach, Lauren Brincat, Louisa Bufardeci, Sundari Carmody, Christian Capurro, Jacobus Capone, Daniel Crooks, Megan Cope, George Egerton-Warburton, Nicole Foreshew and P. Thomas Boorljoonngali, Caitlin Franzmann, James Geurts, Michaela Gleave, Noŋgirrŋa Marawili, Brian Martin, Raquel Ormella, Mandy Quadrio, Yasmin Smith, Grant Stevens, Oliver Wagner, Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin and Jonathan Jones.
Artwork: Jacobus Capone, ‘Sincerity and Symbiosis’ 2019 (video still detail), synchronised 3-channel HD video with sound, video duration 00:36:00, Courtesy of the artist and Moore Contemporary, Perth.
Caitlin Franzmann, ‘to the curve of you (TarraWarra)’ 2021, installation view, TarraWarra Biennial 2021: Slow Moving Waters, TarraWarra Museum of Art, 2021. Courtesy of the artist. ‘to the curve of you’ has been developed in partnership with the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. This project is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland. Photo by Andrew Curtis.
Brian Martin, Bundjalung, Muruwari and Kamilaroi, ‘Methexical Countryscape Wurundjeri # 4’, #5 and #6 2020, installation view, TarraWarra Biennial 2021: Slow Moving Waters, TarraWarra Museum of Art, 2021. All works courtesy of the artist and William Mora Galleries, Melbourne. Photo by Andrew Curtis.
Lauren Brincat, ‘Salt Lines: Play it as it Sounds’ 2016, installation view, TarraWarra Biennial 2021: Slow Moving Waters, TarraWarra Museum of Art, 2021. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney and Australia Council for the Arts. Courtesy of the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne. Photo by Andrew Curtis.
Related events
SEE ALL
LIMITED TICKETS
TarraWarra Biennial 2021: Drawing Workshops with Brian Martin
- PAST
- 29 May 2021
SOLD OUT
Cosmic Time
- 24 April 2021 - 24 April 2021 | 6PM
BOOKINGS OPEN
Leaning in to the curve of you
- 9 April 2021 - 11 April 2021 | 2PM
CLOSED
The Rivers Sing
- 27 March 2021 - 28 March 2021 | 7PM
SOLD OUT
Children and Families Workshops with Slow Art Collective
- PAST
- 10 April 2021 |
SOLD OUT
Slow Art Weekend: Artist and Curator Talks
- PAST
- 10 April 2021
BOOKINGS OPEN
Slow Water Pavilion by Slow Art Collective
- 27 March 2021 - 18 April 2021
SOLD OUT
Weed Walk
- PAST
- 10 April 2021 | 10am
Further Information
Robert Andrew, Jeremy Bakker, Lucy Bleach, Lauren Brincat, Louisa Bufardeci, Sundari Carmody, Christian Capurro, Jacobus Capone, Daniel Crooks, Megan Cope, George Egerton-Warburton, Nicole Foreshew and P. Thomas Boorljoonngali, Caitlin Franzmann, James Geurts, Michaela Gleave, Jonathan Jones with Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin AO, Noŋgirrŋa Marawili, Brian Martin, Raquel Ormella, Mandy Quadrio, Yasmin Smith, Grant Stevens, and Oliver Wagner.
