Curator Talk: Hetti Perkins

Ceremony remains central to the creative practice of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. As the National Visual Art Education Conference keynote presentation in 2022 Hetti Perkins provides an introduction to the exhibition which animates and heals to reveal how ceremony is at the nexus of Country, of culture and of community.

From the intimate and personal to the collective and collaborative, ceremonies manifest through visual art, film, music and dance. Ceremonial practice has a performative element. At its heart is the concept of iteration, the artist’s conscious engagement with what has come before. Iteration can be expressed in the painted minutiae of tali (sandhills) or the click of a shutter.

The Triennial is the National Gallery’s flagship exhibition of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.

Hetti Perkins is the Senior Curator-at-Large, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the National Gallery of Australia and curator of the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony.

This program was presented as part of the 2022 National Visual Arts Education Conference.