Cover image of the review

A Lightness of Spirit is the Measure of Happiness


28 Jul 2018
17 Jul - 16 Sep 2018

The current exhibition at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), A Lightness of Spirit is the Measure of Happiness, is very welcome. This is in part because it is the inaugural product of an institutional and governmental investment in not only Indigenous artists but also Indigenous curators. A partnership between Creative Victoria, ACCA and TarraWarra Museum of Art, the Yalingwa initiative supports substantial artist fellowships as well as curatorial work for a series of three commission-focused exhibitions. Curator Hannah Presley’s A Lightness of Spirit provides a strong start to this series.

ACCA’s programming has taken a distinctly political turn under artistic director Max Delany, and the gallery’s participation in the Yalingwa initiative begins to make good on the promise implicit in the 2016 exhibition Sovereignty. Co-curated by Delany and Paola Balla, Sovereignty opened the gallery up as a forum for Indigenous talent and leadership. Delany described it as the ‘first step’ in a longer term project of engagement with Aboriginal communities. Presley’s appointment as ACCA’s first ever Indigenous curator seems like the next step in this direction.

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