Dreams and Nightmares

Your Playlist:

Description

For Aboriginal people, the term "dreaming" refers to the creation era in which ancestral spirit beings shaped the land. But in the nightmarish aftermath of colonization, do dreams, collective memory, and the spirit world still have the same power? In this program, viewers meet Australian artists whose works involve, on one level or another, the ancient dreamtime and its echoes. Curator Hetti Perkins talks with sculptors Lin Onus, whose fruit bat installation at the Art Gallery of New South Wales evokes a kind of "suburban dreaming," and Yvonne Koolmatrie, known for inventive forms inspired by the eel traps of the Riverland and Coorong regions. Past, present, and future also merge in the works of Tiwi Islands artist Pedro Wonaeamirri, who has found inspiration in tutini funeral poles, and Adelaide-based Brenda L. Croft, custodian of intriguing 1950s slides showing her father mixing in white society. Several other visionary artists appear and discuss their work.