Presented by Illuminate Adelaide and the Australian Network for Art + Technology (ANAT), and following a national call out, NEW LIGHT featured commissioned work that explores compelling and complex concepts.

NEW LIGHT  screened everyday and evening 1-31 July, at Adelaide Festival Centre media screens, as part of Illuminate Adelaide. 

We were delighted New Light 2022 also screened at Purrumpa, a national gathering and celebration of First Nations arts and culture, held in Kaurna Yerta at the Adelaide Convention Centre in November, presented by the Australia Council, with the First Nations Strategy Panel.

In 2022 there were three successful commissioned First Nations artists

Amala Groom, Daen Sansbury-Smith and Jaydenlee Tong

AMALA GROOM’S work Myths & Legends: Britannia (abridged) is a single channel moving image work that iterates Groom’s Popular Sovereignty poster from her series Myths & Legends (2022) into a piece of site specific performance art positioning the poster alongside the artist in front of Buckingham Palace.

Across western ‘thinking’ the Aboriginal experience of transdimensionalism is positioned as ‘fantasy’ and defined as science fiction. Myths & Legends seeks to reposition this fallacy with fifty interventions into popular fantasy illustrator Steve Hickman’s posters now overlayed with bold statements in ethereal red text that position’s aspects of western operations that upon deeper reflection are only ‘real because we believe in them’. This series invites the audience to question the power and authority that we as a populace acquiesce to in a civic space; when we are ‘willing subjects’ – not because we choose or decide to but because we are not ‘not willing’.

AMALA GROOM is a Wiradyuri conceptual artist whose practice, as the performance of her cultural sovereignty, is informed and driven by First Nations epistemologies, ontologies and methodologies. Articulated across diverse media, Groom’s work often subverts and unsettles western iconographies to enunciate Aboriginal stories, experiences and histories, and to interrogate and undermine the legacy of colonialism.

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DAEN SANSBURY-SMITH’S Adja Country ARt; is an artistic exploration through Narungga country by following the four Totems. The artwork has been created to allow viewers the ability to travel and to develop or maintain a connection to the country when sometimes for many reasons we cannot. Immerse yourself in this short clip and witness how easily these totems navigate the complex relationships between each other as well as the environment.

DAEN SANSBURY-SMITH is a Narungga/ Kaurna and Trawoolwaway content producer, visual artist and founder of Adjadura Art (My peoples art in Narungga). He has experience in Audio Engineering, Directing/ Writing and Program Management. In 2022 Daen continues to work on Augmented Reality Artworks and exhibitions, multiple Film productions, Music Projects and cultural art programs nationally.

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JAYDENLEE TONG’S Tarndanyangga Dreaming is a visual interpretation of the Tarnta (Red Kangaroo totem or Red Kangaroo dreaming) and his journey to the meeting place where the Adelaide Festival Centre now stands, where he commences the men’s initiation ceremony. This artwork is influenced by traditional Aboriginal paintings through its use of texture, colour and design. Tarndanyangga Dreaming invites the younger generations to engage with cultural stories through the use of modern technologies and techniques as a way to learn about Kaurna people and their cultural and spiritual connection to country and place.

JAYDEN TONG is an emerging digital artist working primarily in 2D animation and moving image. Born in Adelaide, South Australia, Jayden is a Kaurna and Narungga man. As well as his Aboriginal family connections, Jayden is also of Chinese and European descent. Coming from a diverse and rich background, Jayden is able to draw on these perspectives which continue to inspire his artistic endeavours and exploration with digital mediums.

New Light 2022 is presented by Illuminate Adelaide and ANAT in association with Adelaide Festival Centre’s Moving Image program.