Pulling Apart Elements from History to Speak to My Own Presence

In conversation with Monash Senior Lecturer Peta Clancy, artists Salote Tawale and Atong Atem reflect on their lived experience from a diasporic perspective and how it has informed and shaped their identities and image making. Speaking to her Indigenous Fijian and Anglo-Australian heritage, Salote will examine the cultural materiality of the image in relation to diasporic identity. Ethiopian born, South Sudanese artist and writer Atong will reflect on the ways in which their practice has been informed and influenced by the history of African photography—in particular, ethnographic photographic images and the ethical issues inherent to working in this space.

Presented as part of PHOTO2022.

Atong Atem is an Ethiopian born, South Sudanese artist and writer living in Narrm/Melbourne. Atong works primarily with photography and video to explore migrant narratives, postcolonial practices in the African diaspora and the exploration of identity through portraiture. She explores concepts of home and identity through a critical and sentimental lens and references the works of photographers Malick Sidibe and Seydou Keita and science fiction writers such as Octavia Butler as tools for navigating liminal spaces. Atong has exhibited widely across Australia, including in Melbourne at the National Gallery of Victoria, Monash University Museum of Art, Gertrude Contemporary and Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), and internationally at Red Hook Labs in New York, Vogue Fashion Fair in Milan and Unseen Amsterdam art fair. In 2018, Atong was the recipient of the inaugural National Gallery of Victoria and MECCA M-Power scholarship, as well as the Brisbane Powerhouse Melt Portrait Prize in 2017. Atong is represented by MARS Gallery, Melbourne.

Peta Clancy is a descendant of the Bangerang Nation, north-eastern Victoria. In 2020, she created a photographic installation for the exhibition Portrait of Monash: the ties that bind, commissioned by Monash Gallery of Art (MGA). Her work was included in the group exhibition The Burning World, Bendigo Art Gallery (2020–21) for PHOTO 2021 International Festival of Photography. She was awarded the inaugural Fostering Koorie Art and Culture grant from the Koorie Heritage Trust to collaborate with the Dja Dja Wurrung community to create Undercurrent, which was exhibited in 2019 at the Koorie Heritage Trust Gallery, Melbourne, and the group exhibitions The National 2019: New Australian Art, Art Gallery of NSW and Capital, National Centre for Photography, Ballarat International Foto Biennale. Peta is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Monash Art, Design and Architecture at Monash University.

Salote Tawale explores the identity of the individual within collective systems from the perspective of her Indigenous Fijian and Anglo-Australian heritage. Her performative practice draws on personal experiences of race, class, ethnicity and gender formed by growing up in suburban Australia. Salote’s works embody a defiant analysis of colonial structures and narratives that persist within contemporary society. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial at Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Melbourne; and Para Site, Hong Kong. In 2020, she received both the Michela and Adrian Fini Artist Fellowship (Sheila Foundation) and the Mosman Art Prize, and in 2017 was awarded the Create NSW Visual Arts Fellowship. Salote undertook an Australia Council residency in London in 2018 and an Indigenous Visual and Digital residency at the Banff Centre, Canada, in 2016. She is currently Associate Lecturer at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney.