Featured in the exhibition are Papua New Guinean artists little known to most Australians, but one is even a personal favourite of the Queen.
The Queensland Art Gallery exhibition was three years in the making and aims to give a different perspective on what's an often misunderstood country to our north.
“It's very different to a lot of other exhibitions done in this country before, a lot have focused on historical works and collections, and this is very much a an exhibition that looks at now,” said Ruth McDougall, curator of No1 Neighbour.
Contemporary artworks fr
om the land of the unexpected are not the usual artifacts but often a product of Papua New Guinean resourcefulness.
Source: SBS
“I got a lot of mine from the rubbish tip, and the process is an artwork in itself,” said PNG-Australian artist Eric Bridgeman laughing.
“Going to the tip and picking things out with my dad, doing that thing that we still do, is very much similar to how things are shared over there.”
He has painted wheelbarrows in colourful patterns as re-interpreted shields from the Highlands.
An internationally renowned singer George Telek, collaborating with musician David Bridie and historian Gideon Kakabin story tell in an audio-visual installation called ‘A Bit Na Ta’.
It includes haunting songs of the Tolai people's struggles for freedom over 100 years up to the end of the Australian colonial-era.
“I’m very proud of our country,” said George Telek.
“I feel Australians should learn more about our traditions and see our culture.”
Papua New Guinea is a country of seven million people, it is a former Australian colony and now the number one Australian foreign aid recipient.
Source: SBS
The exhibition called ‘No.1 Neighbour 1966 -2016’ reflects that long and close relationship.
Showing for the first time in Australia, as part of the exhibition, is a headdress presented to the then Prime Minister Paul Keating in 1992, but never allowed into the country for quarantine reasons.
It was presented during the first visit of an Australian prime minister to the World War Two battlefield of Kokoda, during which Mr Keating performed the extraordinary act of kissing the ground and calling for a shift in focus from Gallipoli.
“It is really here that the soul of the relationship (between Australian and PNG) exists, in Kokoda,” he said at the time.
Also on show, the biggest name in PNG art since independence and a favourite of - and collected by - the Queen, the late Mathias Kauage OBE.
“Kauage. He went to Buckingham palace and actually met her,” said Ruth McDougall.
“Kauage is an amazing artist, probably the artist that’s most representive, most iconic for contemporary PNG art.”
Source: SBS
The next generation of artists are keen to follow in his footsteps.
Taloi Havini is the daughter of Bougainville independence fighter Moses Havini and her work tells the story of her people through photographs of the polluted Panguna mine site and ceramics representing traditional shell money.
“I see myself as a contemporary artist, and I think this show really brings out all these elements of custom, culture, new materials, old materials,” she said.
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