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*POSTPONED* Garden Variety 2021
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*POSTPONED* Garden Variety 2021

 

*POSTPONED* Garden Variety 2021



Saturday, 9th October 2021 
3:30 pm - 9.30 pm
Depart from Brett's Wharf to Noogoon (St Helena Island), Moreton Bay



 

   

Overview

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO THE CURRENT COVID-19 SITUATION IN BRISBANE
Garden Variety and event partners Brisbane Open House, Milani Gallery and the Australian Institute of Architects present an island tour and speaker session with artist Vernon Ah Kee on Noogoon (St Helena Island).

Join us on a gorgeous night cruise to St Helena Island, where we tour the historical landmark of Queensland’s penal settlement for some of Queensland’s roughest prisoners between 1867 to 1932.

Departing Brett's Wharf Plaza pontoon at dusk aboard the Lady Brisbane, you’ll be treated to a range of meats and salads, an opportunity to explore the lands around St Helena at sunset and look back at the city we spend so much of our time surrounded by.

We’re also excited to welcome contemporary First Nations artist Vernon Ah Kee to present his work and interpretation of the island and its connection to country. Vernon is a passionate activist and award-winning artist and is excited to share his works with you in the beautiful landscape and historical sites of St Helena Island. Sit under the stars with a friend or colleague and take in the atmosphere of Queensland’s beauty.

Garden Variety is a talk series curated and hosted by Brisbane architecture practice Vokes and Peters. This informal forum fosters a celebration of ideas and culture through the stories of inspired thinkers and makers. The line-up of past speakers includes urban designers, artisans, tailors, architects, exhibition designers and brand advisors.

It is recommended for patrons to bring the following: battery operated torch or lantern, comfortable walking shoes, and a blanket to sit on, a water bottle, and insect repellent.

Vernon Ah Ke

Vernon Ah Kee’s conceptual text pieces, videos, photographs and drawings form a critique of Australian popular culture from the perspective of the Aboriginal experience of contemporary life. He particularly explores the dichotomy between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal societies and cultures. Ah Kee’s works respond to the history of the romantic and exoticised portraiture of ‘primitives’, and eectively reposition the Aboriginal in Australia from an ‘othered thing’, anchored in museum and scientific records to a contemporary people inhabiting real and current spaces and time.

Ah Kee is a descendant of the Kuku Yalandji, Waanji, Yidindji, Koko Berrin and Gugu Yimithirr peoples. Born 1967 in Innisfail, North Queensland, Australia. Lives and works in Brisbane, Australia. Ah Kee’s work has been exhibited in a number of significant national and international exhibitions, including: ’unDisclosed’: 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial’, National Gallery of Australia (2012); ‘SALTWATER: A Theory of Thought Forms’ 14th Istanbul Biennial (2015); ’Ideas of Barack’, National Gallery of Victoria (2011); ’Revolutions: Forms that turn’, the 16th Biennale of Sydney (2008); ‘Once Removed’, Australian Pavilion, Venice Biennale (2009); and ’Sakaha`n: International Indigenous Art’, National Gallery of Canada (2013). Recent major group shows of his work include: 2018 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Divided Worlds’, Art Gallery of South Australia (2018); ’Imaginary Accord’, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2015); ‘GOMA Q’, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2015); ‘When Silence Falls’, Art Gallery of New South Wales (2015-16); ‘Encounters’, National Museum of Australia (2015-16); ‘Brutal Truths’, Griffith University Art Gallery (2015-16); and ‘Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia’, Harvard Art Museums (2016). In 2020 Ah Kee presented a major new work as part of his solo exhibition ‘The Island’ at Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney. Ah Kee’s work is held in a number of major collections within Australia and overseas including the Tate Modern, London.

Price

Graduate - $70
AIA Member - $100
Non-member - $125

Price includes the ferry to the island, catering on board, and to hear from artist Vernon Ah Kee.

FAQS

Image: Megan Cope, Nyanba tahbiyilbanjara nganany (He knew his saltwater country) - French Connections, 2019, lithograph on BFK Rives, 55h x 229.5w cm. Courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane.

Delicious meal and drinks on ferry.

Participants advised to bring their own jacket/hat; umbrella; sunscreen/insect repellant; camp chairs/picnic blanket; battery-powered torchlight; bottled water.

A postlude event of the Asia Pacific Architecture Festival.
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