Feature story Sept/Oct edition 2024

John Curtin Gallery set the pace as the first of the international shows to open in the second Indian Ocean Craft Triennial, or IOTA24, proving contemporary craft can be exceptionally beautiful, thought provoking and technically brilliant. Once the poor sibling of fine art, the Triennial brings together craft all grown up, sophisticated and assured. When Perth International Arts Festival dropped its ‘international arts’ persona and became Perth Festival in 2018, reflecting a focus on local content, the opportunity to see works by artists outside Australia locally dropped significantly, until IOTA came to the rescue in 2021 with its first Triennial of local and Indian Ocean-based artists.

Curtin is a founding partner of the event, with shows at John Curtin Gallery and Curtin’s School of Design and the Built Environment, as well as being host to the conference Futuring Craft 24: The Value of Craft. It makes sense, with Curtin’s network of campuses operating across the Indian Ocean rim. Curtin Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne says the partnership is a perfect extension of the University’s history in supporting the arts locally and abroad. “It will also help to further cement Curtin’s reputation as a leading University by providing opportunities for artists and communities in various countries to come together, share knowledge and increase understanding of the wonderful cultural diversity throughout the Indian Ocean region,” she says.

Indeed, the exhibition at John Curtin Gallery includes Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian artists exhibiting alongside those from Indonesia, South Africa and Malaysia. Prior to the exhibition, Malaysian collective Pangrok Sulap, whose members all have a musical background, invited the public to help create an astounding 12-metre long woodblock print by dancing on the woodblock as part of the printing process. For those who participated it was unique and profound experience, highlighting the generosity of the collective.

Also included in the show is Indonesian artist Ari Bayuaji  who incorporates used fishing net and rope in his work, providing livelihoods for local weavers in Bali, where he has established a weaving school. Cape Town-basedChris Soal’s intricate works created with thousands of birch and bamboo wood toothpicks are both extraordinary in their abstractness, yet appear organic. Waves of seemingly soft matter belie the static, hard medium of their creation, visually reminiscent of softly swaying underwater plant life, coral or luxuriously rich fur.

Hand sewn dolls by Yarrenyty Arltere Artists are a joyful reminder of how stories and craft can meld and bind communities. Located in the heart of Alice Springs in the Larapinta Valley Town Camp, YAA was established in 2000 as a response to the chronic social issues faced by the town camp, and developed into an enterprise in 2008, becoming an important part of the community’s success in decreasing volatile substance abuse and building resilience. Here, women sew and tell stories old and new to each other, working out problems as they go.

Whadjuk Boodja/East Fremantle artist Emma Buswell continues her interest in representing women’s labour via art history with two large-scale works created on a 1960s knitting machine. She says though the work is time consuming and complex, the machine is manual with no electronics, which doesn’t break down over time. “They’re pretty robust and reliable,” says Buswell. “Each row takes up to 25 minutes depending on its complexity, and these two works are double the size of anything I’ve ever made.”

Both works are based on paintings by John William Waterhouse, a Pre-Raphaelite painter in the early 19th century, known for his depictions of women from both ancient Greek mythology and Arthurian legend. Buswell says text around the central figure of one of the works is about the distractions prohibiting artists from making work. “And in the background of the other work, you can see the same scene, but it’s more generally about contemporary politics and the relationship between the media and politics.”

Shiazan (Grave Woman) by Iranian/Australian artist Fatemeh Boroujeni is both solemn and courageous. A circle of carved wooden lionesses represents a tribute to six women who lost their lives at the hands of the morality police in Iran. She says where she grew up in Iran a lion crafted from stone was put on a hero’s grave. “It always happened for men, never for women,” she says.

A screen showing social media grabs of the women brings reality to their lives. “The morality police arrest girls and women if they don’t have a proper hijab or if they don’t like their clothing styles or whatever,” she says. Beaten, tortured and/or executed, the women fought for women’s rights, protesting as part of the Women, Life, Freedom movement. “I just picked these six because I found more information about them online,” says Boroujeni. “The bravery of these women was stunning and amazing. They deserve to have lionesses as the heroes they are.”

IOTA co-founders and curators Carola Akindele-Obe and Jude van der Merwe say craft is a way to learn more about cultures. Akindele-Obe says, “craft can educate, entertain and express emotion all while transcending language, economic and social barriers.”

IOTA24: Codes in Parallel is on show at John Curtin Gallery until 29 September.