The road to hell is paved with good intentions

3.8.24 - 31.8.24

Milani Carpark Gallery

The road to hell is paved with good intentions is a group exhibition with artists Tiarna Jeffries, Brian Foong, and James Lemon that explores queerness through its entanglement with nature, inherited knowledge, and ancestry.

Rubu Naka, meaning gathering place, is a wooden structure built in the Balawaian community in Rigo, Papua Niugini. Clansmen, elders, and tribal leaders would gather to discuss matters concerning the welfare and security of the community. Women and children were not allowed on or within its vicinity.

Departing from these forms of ceremony within the Rubu Naka government, by performing atop a re-imagined Rubu Naka structure with my Queer non-binary body aims to circumvent these gender boundaries. Objects indicative of Melanesian gendered labour — a kundu (drum), a bilum, and soil for gardening — have been reinterpreted into musical instruments and will be played in a live performance.

Audio residue from the performance will play alongside traditional magic spells and chants recorded in my motherland by my aunty and bubu. These oral traditions are passed down the Rigorabana bloodline and repeated for hunting, fighting, planting, and fishing.

Curated by Kyle McIntyre

Performance Video Documentation ︎︎︎
Exhibition catalogue ︎︎︎

Medium density fibreboard, cardboard frame, terracotta, worm castings, charcoal, zeolite, paramagnetic rock, magnesium aluminium iron silicate, amorphous volcanic glass, metal lamp, banana plant, coconut shell, ceramic, talismans, kundu (drum), garamut (slit drum), rattle, copper musical instrument, violin bow, Balawaian spell written on parchment, microphone, contact microphones, contact speakers, bass shakers, copper cables, amplifier, mixing desk, looped audio,  inkjet print on parchment paper of the Rubu Naka ca. 1890 and ca. 1970, live performance, dimensions vary, photo credit: Carl Warner