The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) has announces Sydney artist Bonita Ely as the first Artist Room focus in 2022, now open until 6 November 2022. The Artist Room is an ongoing exhibition series that invites visitors to surround themselves with the work of one artist and form a deeper understanding of their practice.
The eighth edition of the Artist Room series showcases the work of Sydney-based artist Bonita Ely. Since the 1970s, Bonita Ely’s work has explored environmental and socio-political issues grounded in the Australian context.
Curated by Manya Sellers, Associate Curator, Collection, the Artist Room features two of Ely’s performance works from the 1980s: Murray River Punch (1980) and Controlled Atmosphere (1983).
Born 1946, Mildura, Victoria, Ely is widely recognised for her trailblazing art practice that engages feminist critique and environmental commentary. Her early performances addressed the interactions and tensions between communities, other species and the natural environment, foregrounding critical questions of sustainability and custodianship.
First performed in June 1980, Murray River Punch was made for the Women at Workperformance program at the Ewing and George Paton Gallery in Melbourne. In the assumed role of a cheerful cooking demonstration hostess, Ely used deadpan satirical humour to draw attention to the severely polluted condition of the Murray, as she created a toxic concoction using pollutants found in the river.
Controlled Atmosphere was a performance piece made by Ely in May 1983 in response to the proposed damming of the Franklin River by the Tasmanian Hydro-Electric Commission. The performance took place in the offices of Hobart’s decommissioned Mail Exchange building and involved the artist in the role of a fastidious secretary, repeatedly photocopying an image of a photograph of Lake Pedder in southwest Tasmania taken by the environmental activist Olegas Truchanas prior to its flooding.
While these works were made four decades ago, they retain an enduring currency today. Ely’s explorations into complex environmental issues and our relationships to the natural environment continues to be a mainstay of her practice and remain critically relevant to the global ecological crises of the present.
Bonita Ely’s work can be seen in London at the Tate Modern and also in Venice, Italy. Ely’s 1979 film Jabiluka UO₂, an MCA and Tate international joint acquisition is currently displayed in the MCA Collection: Perspectives on place exhibition and concurrently on show for the first time in the Tate Modern collection display, A Year in Art: Australia 1992. Jabiluka UO₂, focuses on the campaigning ignited by the Mirrar people, the traditional owners of Jabiluka, against plans to mine uranium on their Country.
Ely has also been invited by The European Cultural Centre to represent Australia in its sixth edition of PERSONAL STRUCTURES – Reflections, running alongside the 2022 Venice Biennale from 23 April 2022 until 27 November 2022 in Venice, Italy.
The Artist Room is an ongoing exhibition series that invites visitors to surround themselves with the work of one artist and form a deep understanding of their practice. The MCA Artist Room has presented the works of an array of Australian artists which include: David Malangi Daymirringu(2021–2022) Tim Johnson, (2020–2021), Destiny Deacon (2019), Yirawala (2018–2019), Emily Floyd (2018), Lena Yarinkura (2017) and Linda Marrinon (2016).
Now open until 6 November 2022
Free entry, MCA Level 2 Galleries
Featured image : Bonia Ely in front of ‘Controlled Atmosphere, 1983, installation view, Bonita Ely: Artist Room, MCA Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, 2022, image courtesy and copyright to the artist. Pic Jessica Maurer
