Imploding the Vectors: Mithu Sen
VAULT reviews mOTHERTONGUE at ACCA – at once embrace and subversion of the institution, the exhibition, language itself.
Image credit: Mithu Sen, MOU (Museum of unbelongings) 2023, detail, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2023. Courtesy the artist, supported by Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi. Photograph: Andrew Curtis
There are many things I love about living in Melbourne, but a consistently outward, global-looking attitude is not necessarily one of them. Here, we all like to think we are super progressive but historically the art industry hasn’t always demonstrated this. The reach of colonial class-imperialism is felt perhaps more strongly than in other Australian places – old money, private-school networks and expensive holiday houses are the norm, and they seem to still rule professional networking. But while the ‘keep-it-in-the-family’ attitude still prevails (hello nepo-babies), there also exists a growing community that is actively and urgently seeking out new voices from a diverse range of lived experiences.
Max Delany’s programming at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Arts (ACCA) is part of this much needed paradigm shift. And while this is not new (he’s been Artistic Director and CEO since February 2016), Delany and team have turned ACCA’s pre-2016 Eurocentric history of programming around, instigating a myriad of important initiatives demonstrating both commitment to diversity and actual relevance to Australian audiences. This includes the Yalingwa exhibition series, highlighting First Nations contemporary art practice of southeast Australia. Also as part of this framework, the ACCA International series presents an annual solo exhibition by an ‘influential artist on the international stage’ – in 2023,
it’s New Delhi-based Mithu Sen.
Born in West Bengal in 1971, Sen is one of India’s most renowned contemporary artists, recognised globally for a prolific body of work that has been supported through an array of ... Subscribe to read this article in full
