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The 2016 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) program was launched on Thursday 5 May along with the CIAF 2016 event app, presented by Artistic Director Janina Harding at the Pullman Cairns International.
CIAF 2016 features more than 100 artists with some of Queensland’s most renowned Indigenous artists from remote art communities, including those from Mornington Island, Lockhart River and Pormpuraaw, along with local Cairns galleries and national commercial galleries. This year viewers will be able to enjoy a different understanding of the artists and their work and what defines their country and community.
The three-day art fair features a daily program of free and ticketed events including dance and musical performances, a bustling art market, workshops and conversations and a curated art exhibition. It will also host the Cairns premiere of Spear, a film by Stephen Page, and a collection of archival films depicting Queensland Indigenous culture of past decades.
Artistic Director Janina Harding has created a broad ranging program, designed to engage those at every level of interest in indigenous art and culture. This year CIAF strengthened relationships with Cairns cultural organisations to present exhibitions, theatre productions and film screenings. Known as satellite events, they have become a program feature, broadening the pool of CIAF artists and extending the reach of audiences.
CIAF 2016 offers a range of singular events, from a fresh take on the hugely popular art fashion performance that sold out last year, to a new social initiative focused on the art of Queensland Indigenous prison inmates, in an exhibition entitled ‘Freedom of Expression’. The exhibition was open to any artistic approach, it’s aim, to transcend the inmate artist’s current emotional situation.
Harding is also working with community-based art centres under a theme for this year’s curated collection entitled Cultural Bliss; a survey of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander happiness. Harding explains that artists are asked to draw inspiration from all the elements of living in community, to reveal a life that is complex, buoyant, meaningful and fun; “As First Peoples, adversity should not challenge strength and pride. On country, with family – this is Cultural Bliss.”
Art curator, Hetti Perkins, coordinates the 2016 Collectors and Curators program, exclusively tailored for invited participants. The program hosts representatives from private collections, major art galleries and institutions from Australia and around the world to view and buy the work of renowned Queensland artists, including Christian Thompson, Mavis Ngallametta, Rosella Namok and Fiona Omeenyo and a host of emerging artists, who will exhibit at CIAF 2016.
Welcoming crowds of more than 50,000 visitors last year, CIAF 2016 is set to be bigger and better than ever and will kick off at a spectacular Opening Night event, on Thursday 14 July and continuing through the following three days. Don’t forget to experience the highly-charged final performance of CIAF 2016 in an acknowledgement of farewell for this year with the last clap of the clap sticks and beat of the Torres Strait drum at the closing ceremony.
Don’t miss a thing with the new CIAF event app, an innovative program feature that delivers the CIAF program, allowing event-goers to create a personalised schedule for attending the event. Keep ahead of the hordes and buy your tickets for Opening Night and the CIAF fashion event with direct access to ticket purchasing. Download the app for free on iOS from the App store and Android from Google Play now.
CIAF is dedicated to supporting the careers of Queensland Indigenous artists by providing a platform for exposure and income generation, offering an ethical art market place, attracting national and international collectors and curators, commissioning new work and providing pathways for emerging visual and performance artists. CIAF provides a platform for Queensland Indigenous artists to tell their stories through visual art, performance, theatre, fashion, screen, workshops and much more, offering those who visit a unique opportunity to experience Indigenous culture.
Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF)
15 to 17 July, 2016
Queensland
From left to right: artwork by Rosella Namok, artwork by Girringun Aboriginal Art Centre and the 2015 fashion performance
