This Language That Is Every Stone
  • Sancintya Mohini Simpson 'Kāla' 2022. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • Daniel Boyd ‘Untitled (27°27'34.9"S 153°02'12.4"E)' 2022. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • Koo Jeong A ‘Flammariousss’ 2006. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • Dir. Manthia Diawara ‘Édouard Glissant: One World in Relation’ 2009. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • ‘This Language That Is Every Stone’, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2022, showing Daniel Boyd ‘Untitled (EOTAEIAOOTA)' 2020, Daniel Boyd ‘Untitled (UTCITM)' 2020, and Philippe Parreno ‘Call Me!’ 2018–22. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • Daniel Boyd 'Untitled (EOTAEIAOOTA)' 2020.

  • Megan Cope ‘Kinyingarra Guwinyanba’ 2021. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • Khaled Sabsabi '1008' 2020–1. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • Phuong Ngo ‘Heart Breaking to See a House of God in Flames’ 2019. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • Shireen Taweel ‘Switching Codes’ 2020. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • Taloi Havini 'Tsomi Wan-Bel' 2017. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • Yhonnie Scarce ‘Nucleus 9 and 10’ 2020. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • Anri Sala 'Làk-Kat 2.0 (British/American)' 2015. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

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This Language That Is Every Stone

12 February–23 April 202212 Feb–23 Apr 2022

#ThisLanguageThatIsEveryStone

Today, the question ‘preservation versus innovation’ seems to underlie much cultural discourse, as if a choice between cultural identity and a global homogeneity were possible. This Language That Is Every Stone examines this tension through the concept of creolisation, an idea brought to prominence by Martinican writer Édouard Glissant. Widely recognised as one of the Caribbean’s most important literary figures, Glissant was a poet and philosopher whose body of work continues to inspire and influence artists across the globe.

Glissant defined creolisation as a constant state of cultural transformation, whereby endless local difference emerges from recurrent contact between people—with one another as well as the natural world. As Glissant writes, creolisation is ‘a phenomenon that is real in the world: that is to say not one of us can pretend to be shielded from the good or bad influences of the world.’

Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Asad Raza, and Kamilaroi artist Warraba Weatherall, This Language That Is Every Stone is the fourth iteration in a series of exhibitions conceived by Obrist and Raza that survey Glissant’s life and work. Developed specifically within an Australian context, it explores cultural synthesis and permeability through the works of Australian First Nations and diasporic artists, with contributions from international counterparts.

Artists

Vernon Ah Kee, Robert Andrew, Daniel Boyd, Megan Cope, Manthia Diawara, Taloi Havini, Koo Jeong A, Sancintya Mohini Simpson, Phuong Ngo, The Otolith Group, Philippe Parreno, Raqs Media Collective, Khaled Sabsabi, Anri Sala, Yhonnie Scarce, Latai Taumoepeau, and Shireen Taweel

Curated by
  • Hans Ulrich Obrist
  • Asad Raza
  • Warraba Weatherall
Curator Bios

Hans Ulrich Obrist was born in Switzerland in 1968. This prolific curator is currently Artistic Director of London’s Serpentine Galleries and was previously a curator at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Since his first show, World Soup (The Kitchen Show) in 1991, he has curated more than 300 shows.

Hans Ulrich Obrist
Hans Ulrich Obrist

Hans Ulrich Obrist was born in Switzerland in 1968. This prolific curator is currently Artistic Director of London’s Serpentine Galleries and was previously a curator at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Since his first show, World Soup (The Kitchen Show) in 1991, he has curated more than 300 shows.

Asad Raza

Asad Raza was born in 1974 in Buffalo, USA, of Pakistani background. He works with human and non-human beings, experiences and objects. He conceives exhibitions as metabolic entities, zones of activity in which he constructs dialogue and scenarios between visitors and participants. Past works include Untitled (Plot for Dialogue), a tennis-like game installed in a deconsecrated church in Milan; Root Sequence; and Mother Tongue, a forest of living trees with human caretakers in the 2017 Whitney Biennial. For Home Show, which took place in his apartment in New York, Raza asked artists, friends, and family to intervene in his own life.

Born in 1987, Warraba Weatherall is from the Kamilaroi Nation of South–West Queensland. This Brisbane-based installation and street artist is interested in archival repositories and structures, and the life of cultural objects and histories within them. His work critiques the legacies of colonisation, where social, economic, and political realities perpetually validate Eurocentric ideologies. Drawing on personal experience and cultural knowledge, he uses images, materials, and metaphors to contribute to cross-cultural dialogue by offering alternate ways of seeing and understanding. He has exhibited nationally.

Warraba Weatherall
Warraba Weatherall

Born in 1987, Warraba Weatherall is from the Kamilaroi Nation of South–West Queensland. This Brisbane-based installation and street artist is interested in archival repositories and structures, and the life of cultural objects and histories within them. His work critiques the legacies of colonisation, where social, economic, and political realities perpetually validate Eurocentric ideologies. Drawing on personal experience and cultural knowledge, he uses images, materials, and metaphors to contribute to cross-cultural dialogue by offering alternate ways of seeing and understanding. He has exhibited nationally.

Related Resources

The Institute of Modern Art acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land upon which the IMA now stands, the Jagera, Yuggera, Yugarapul, and Turrbal people. We offer our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first artists of this country. In the spirit of allyship, the IMA will continue to work with First Nations people to celebrate, support, and present their immense past, present, and future contribution to artistic practice and cultural expression.

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