Off the wall

A landmark new exhibition of contemporary fashion by First Nations designers eschews all the hallmarks of a solemn museum showcase – instead allowing each piece to come alive with a rich, living history. By Alice Birrell.

Art Gallery’s First Nations curator, faced a hard task deciding exactly how to showcase more than 100 pieces from 70 artists and designers for the new exhibition Piinpi: Contemporary Indigenous Fashion.

The skill in each garment, fabric, basket or piece of jewellery – informed by more than 65,000 years of histories and culture – gives each piece the quality of artworks, and yet most are made with a modern wearer in mind. “They really blur the boundaries between fashion and art,” she says of the final selection of creators in the exhibit. “It’s really a testament to the types of work that are being produced by First Nations designers and artists who are drawing on traditional techniques and ancient practices, but through really innovative methods.”

She landed somewhere between the static museum world and a contemporary showcase, inverting the notion that histories are the domain of the past. In fact, as Hobson points out, what is common between all the pieces is that it is more than just a physical object or an item, it’s about “storytelling, intergenerational learning, sharing of culture,” she says, “but also, it’s a new wave of leaders and artistic innovators who are really changing the future of fashion in Australia.” In this way she’s created an exhibition that is about currency, and living histories.

Take the title, Piinpi, an expression in Hobson’s great grandmother’s language, used in East Cape York by the Kuuku Ya’u peoples to describe seasonal changes and regeneration of Country. For the 24-year-old Kaantju woman, and daughter of acclaimed artist Naomi Hobson, this exhibition is her first major project with the gallery in her role and a chance to contribute something of her own story. “When my great grandmother talks about her Country, she describes the intimate and abiding connection between people, place and land,” she explains. “Traditionally, our old people would look to the flowers, the stars and the changing of seasons to guide them on their journey across Country. The land lets us know when we can hunt, collect bush foods, and gather materials for traditional ceremonies and malkari (dance).”

It has also provided the framework for the exhibition, which is divided into four widely recognised seasons that make up the many different phases recognised in varying First Nations groups, using Kuuku Ya’u words: kayaman (dry season), pinga (regeneration), piicha piicha (cool season), ngurkitha (wet season). (The exhibition also has a streetwear section, Blak and Deadly, ‘Blak’ being a term first used by artist Destiny Deacon in 1991 to reclaim stereotypical and historical notions of Black identity. It sits alongside the more traditional techniques.)

SHONAE HOBSON, BENDIGO

It’s about “storytelling … but also a new wave of leaders and artistic innovators who are really changing the future of fashion in Australia”