TarraWarra Biennial 2023: ua usiusi fa'ava'asavili

Overview

First launched back in 2006, TarraWarra Museum of Art's Biennial returns this autumn for its 2023 edition — this time centred on the relationship between Australia and its neighbouring societies, exploring everything from celestial navigation practices to intercultural connections.

Running at the stunning Yarra Valley gallery (a perennial inclusion on our guide to Healesville and the Yarra Valley) from Saturday, April 1–Sunday, July 16, TarraWarra Biennial 2023: ua usiusi faʻavaʻasavili is set to showcase works by 15 contemporary artists and groups, all newly commissioned in response to this year's theme.

'Speak the Wind', 2015–2021, Hoda Afshar. Image courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane.

Taking its name from a Samoan proverb translating to 'the canoe obeys the wind', the exhibition zeroes in on the ancestral ties binding us to the lands and people of Asia and the Great Ocean. It poses complex questions about past issues, while also looking towards hopeful futures.

Visitors can expect to find themselves transported to other cultures, histories and traditions, via a lineup of compelling works curated by Indigenous critical theory expert Dr Léuli Eshrāghi.

You'll find pieces by Australian First Nations artists like Regina Pilawuk Wilson, Vicki West, The Unbound Collective, Sonja Carmichael and Elisa Jane Carmichael, along with others from further afield, such as Hoda Afshar, Elyas Alavi, Dr Kirsten Lyttle, Phuong Ngo and David Sequeira.

'Tanpa Sempadan', 2023, Abdul-Rahman Abdullah. Image courtesy of the artist and Moore Contemporary.

Top image: 'Ngumpi (Home)', 2022–23, Sonja Carmichael and Elisa Jane Carmichael (Quandamooka). Image courtesy of the artists and Onespace Gallery, Brisbane. Photo by Louis Lim.