Artists: Reko Rennie (AU) and Akiq AW (IN)
Residency dates and venue: 9 September - 30 October, Cemeti - Institute for Art and Society
1 April - 30 June, Artback NT
Reko Rennie: Cemeti - Institute for Art and Society, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Melbourne-based artist Reko Rennie’s artistic practice explores the iconography of an urban Aboriginal experience. Drawing on his Kamilaroi heritage through his use of geometric patterning, Rennie incorporates colonial symbols, images of native animals and contemporary references in his artwork.
During his Kerjasama residency at Cemeti, Rennie met with local collectives and galleries, initiated a collaboration with Yogyakarta based visual artist Hahan (Uji Handoko Eko Saputro) and created a new body of work representing his experiences of initiation and ceremony.
Drawing on his distinctive symbols and colour palette, the video, sculpture and textile works Rennie created reference his Aboriginal heritage and upbringing in Melbourne’s inner west, while incorporating elements of his Yogyakarta experience.
It was certainly one of the most productive residencies I have ever encountered. During my residency I made a video work that was projected during my exhibition at Cemeti. I also completed a large installation that consisted of 12 new paintings, over 10 large embroidered artworks, a 10 metre wall painting, a two-metre aluminum sculpture and a hand painted 1972 Vespa scooter.
As a result of Kerjasama, Rennie was invited to show at Art Yogya in 2015 and received interest from the Art Gallery of South Australia in showing and acquiring the work he created on residency. Rennie continued his collaboration with Hahan in 2016, exhibiting with him in Jogja Calling, a group exhibition exploring creative ties between Australia and Indonesia at 4A, Sydney.
Akiq AW: Artback NT, Alice Springs
Akiq AW uses photography and video to explore how the ‘everyday’ is located somewhere between concepts such as private and public, rural and urban, and us and them. Based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Akiq is a member of the photography collective MES 56.
Over the course of his Kerjasama residency in Alice Springs, Akiq AW developed a series of photographs, an installation and a video work about the boundaries he saw defining life and people in Alice Springs. Photographing city and desert landscapes, Akiq documented traces of life and captured the ways in which people and authorities had arranged space and signs in each location. His aim was to explore the concept of private and public borders.
I wanted to learn about this place and people’s lives, through its façade, the physical appearance of the city and the social codes and conventions that exist. After Kerjasama, I started to look more deeply into my own culture, people and history.
Akiq AW’s investigation culminated in the exhibition Borders, presented at the artist run gallery Watch This Space, Alice Springs. In return, he received an invitation return to Australia in September the same2014 year to exhibit at Chan Contemporary Art Space, Darwin. Akiq felt the biggest influence on his practice to date has been the people he met during his residency and his new found cultural understanding.Akiq AW’s second Australian exhibition Boarder v2.0 was held 23 October – 16 November 2014. An expansion on his original series, the work contrasted the buildings and facades of Alice Springs to that of his hometown Yogyakarta.