Carriageworks, Sydney, is excited to reveal the first major solo exhibition by Sydney-based Australian-Fijian artist Salote Tawale. Titled I remember you, the exhibition is set to open to the public on Friday, 17 November 2023, and will be on display until Sunday, 28 January 2024.
Tawale’s expansive exhibition explores the concept of memory through various mediums such as installation, painting, sculpture, and an intriguing component of karaoke. It is curated across two spaces within Carriageworks, and each space offers a unique exploration of how memory shapes identity.
Bay 21 hosts Tawale’s interpretation of Carriageworks’ architecture, transformed into a ‘memory bank’. This immersive environment includes artworks like hanging masks, plywood cut-outs of people and plants, and a unique installation of the artist’s Fijian family home. The gallery also features a karaoke booth, inviting visitors to engage through song. This intriguing installation of partially formed memories, with missing panels and fading flowers, reflects the unpredictability and fallibility of memory.
In the Public Space, a stunning 14-meter long bamboo raft titled No Location (2021) is anchored, originally presented at the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. This piece, based on a childhood memory of a traditional Fijian watercraft, reinterprets the process of making a raft, symbolising Tawale’s experience of displacement.
I remember you draws from Tawale’s personal experience as part of the Pacific diaspora in Australia. It embodies her exploration of the relationship between the individual and the collective, materialising memories into tangible forms. The exhibition is accompanied by a variety of public programs, including art-making workshops, guided gallery experiences, cooking demonstrations, and insightful conversations.
Salote Tawale describes her exhibition, “Memory is a pathway to our identity. It is a translation of histories that relate to me and my body. Through the manipulation of found materials, I reconstruct, expand, and collapse these moments in time.”
Carriageworks CEO Fergus Linehan expresses his delight, saying, “It’s been a privilege to provide Salote a space to explore and develop her artistic practice. I remember you importantly foregrounds Pacific diasporic experience, inviting visitors to consider their own relationship between identity and remembrance.”
I remember you is open free to the public at Carriageworks from Wednesday – Sunday, 10am – 5pm. The project has been assisted by the New South Wales Government through Create NSW. Bloomberg is a Major Partner of Carriageworks and is a proud presenting partner of Salote Tawale: I remember you.