Current Exhibitions

Old ways, new ways

2 April 2022 to 26 June 2022

Photography can be a container, a mouthpiece, a medium of record: a tool for considering and enlivening the ways of the past through the eyes of the present. In Old ways, new ways, works from three collections sit together to consider the ways that First Nations photography makes links between times gone by and the present, placing traditions within contemporary practice, speaking (sometimes shouting, at times singing, sometimes performing) across generations and through passages of time.

Human experience is shaped by what comes before it. Through various approaches – from documentation of protests and ceremonies, to conceptual and performative photography – each photographer exhibiting at MGA could be seen to have co-opted the camera to test what this means to them.

Works are drawn for the Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection, The Koorie Heritage Trust Collection and the Horsham Regional Art Gallery Collection.

Artists: Tony Albert (Girramay/Kuku Yalanji), Lisa Bellear (Minjungbul/Geoernpil/Noonuccal/Kanak), Peta Clancy (Bangerang), Brenda L Croft (Gurindji/Malgnin/Mudpurra) , Viva Gibb (Au), Gail Harradine (Wotjobaluk/Djubagalk/Jadawadjali), Dianne Jones (Balardung/Nyoongar), Leah King-Smith (Bigambul), Michael Riley (Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi), Damien Shen (Ngarrindjeri), James Tylor (Kaurna)

Old ways, new ways is an official exhibition of PHOTO 2022 International Festival of Photography (photo.org.au), a major biennial of new photography and ideas taking place from 29 April to 22 May in Melbourne and regional Victoria.

Please note: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are respectfully advised that this exhibition contains images of people (and mentions in writing those) who have passed away.