The road to hell is paved with good intentions
3.8.24 - 31.8.24
Opening: 3 August 4-6pm | Live performance: 3 August 5:30pm
Carpark Gallery | Milani Gallery, 270 Montague Road, West End 4101
Curated by Kyle McIntyre
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.
Audio contribution: aunty Gemona Kila and bubu Renagi Laiwa
Audio technician: Connor Andree-Evarts
Lamp: Peter Kiriakos
3.8.24 - 31.8.24
Opening: 3 August 4-6pm | Live performance: 3 August 5:30pm
Carpark Gallery | Milani Gallery, 270 Montague Road, West End 4101
Curated by Kyle McIntyre
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.
Audio contribution: aunty Gemona Kila and bubu Renagi Laiwa
Audio technician: Connor Andree-Evarts
Lamp: Peter Kiriakos
Exhibition view, The road to hell is paved with good intentions, 2024, Carpark Gallery | Milani Gallery, photo credit: Carl Warner
Pre-performance view, Rubu Naka, 2024, 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, contact microphones, contact speakers, bass shakers, copper cables, amplifier, mixing desk, looped audio, inkjet print on parchment paper, dimensions vary
Pre-performance view, Rubu Naka, 2024, 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, contact microphones, contact speakers, bass shakers, copper cables, amplifier, mixing desk, looped audio, inkjet print on parchment paper, dimensions vary
Detail view, Rubu Naka, 2024, charcoal, worm castings, coconut shell, ceramic, contact microphones, dimenstions vary
Detail view, Rubu Naka, 2024, Balawaian spells written on paper, microphone, dimenstions vary
Detail view, Rubu Naka, 2024, copper musical instrument, violin bow, dimenstions vary
Detail view, Rubu Naka, 2024, kundu (drum), banana plant, dimenstions vary
Detail view, Rubu Naka, 2024, garamut (slit drum), 43 x 17 x 15cm, photo credit: Carl Warner
Detail view, Rubu Naka, 2024, inkjet print on parchment paper of the Rubu Naka ca. 1890 and ca. 1970, nails, 29.7 x 21cm, photo credit: Carl Warner
Detail view, Rubu Naka, 2024, terracotta, worm castings, charcoal, zeolite, paramagnetic rock, magnesium aluminium iron silicate, amorphous volcanic glass, 2400 x 2400cm
Detail view, Rubu Naka, 2024, terracotta, worm castings, charcoal, zeolite, paramagnetic rock, magnesium aluminium iron silicate, amorphous volcanic glass, 2400 x 2400cm
Excerpts from live performance, Rubu Naka, 2024, live performance, 11:20 minutes, video credit: Niko Kiriakos