Presented in partnership with 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art and in association with Sydney Festival

'Wansolwara: One Salt Water' is a series of exhibitions, performances and events from across the Pacific and throughout the Great Ocean. Wansolwara — a pidgin word from the Solomon Islands meaning ‘one-salt-water’ or ‘one ocean, one people’ — reflects not a single ocean, but rather a connected waterscape that holds distinct and diverse cultures and communities. Through art, performance and conversation, the project celebrates the depth and diversity of contemporary visual and material culture throughout these regions, placing customary practices alongside contemporary articulations in art, writing and the moving image.

Unfolding across multiple sites over the summer of 2020, 'Wansolwara: One Salt Water' profiles the creativity of the region through multidisciplinary forms. Artists Terry Faleono, Ruha Fifita, Rebecca Ann Hobbs, Shivanjani Lal, Paula Schaafhausen and Vaimaila Urale all present significant bodies of work that trace connections to the Pacific through language, tradition, dance and ceremony.

Artist and curator Léuli Eshrāghi also presents the major exhibition ‘O le ūa na fua mai Manuʻa’. This focus within the project expands the Pacific from a geographical region to consider networks and exchange facilitated by the Great Ocean. The exhibition brings fresh international perspectives to current endeavours to embody and awaken Indigenous sensual and spoken languages in works that focus on language, the body, gender, sex, desire and pleasure. It features works by asinnajaq, Sarah Biscarra Dilley, Sebastián Calfuqueo Aliste, Mariquita Davis, Amrita Hepi, Caroline Monnet, Faye Mullen, Shannon Te Ao, Angela Tiatia and Gutiŋarra Yunupiŋu. Sydney-based collective, Troppo Galaktika, will also curate the third iteration of ‘Club 4A’ focused on the continuing and contemporary cultures of the Pacific.