Melbourne-based artist and writer Atong Atem, is set to showcase in Auckland for the very first time as part of this week's Aotearoa Art Fair. She talks to Mairātea Mohi about exploring curiosity and authenticity.
Cultivating a maximalist whimsy of otherworldly proportion, Atong Atem is boldly attempting to illustrate the world around her. Atem, of South Sudanese descent, is an artist and writer based in Naarm Melbourne who works mainly within the realm of photography. Having been born in Ethiopia, she often uses portraiture to explore migrant stories and postcolonial histories of the African diaspora.
Through hyper-stylised costuming and makeup of vivid hues, Atem traverses the secular, the personal and sometimes dramatic through beaux arts. Ornate composition oozes neo-classicism and captivates audiences with a sometimes ethereal quality. Atem attributes these feats to the strong foundations fostered in her teens and early twenties.
“From as far back as I can remember [art] was something I did. I never really imagined a lot of the things that I’ve experienced, so far, but I did always hope that I could travel and see the world with my art.”
Fulfilling these ambitions, Atem has shown works within her home country of Australia, while also finding a place in galleries across New York, Amsterdam and Milan. However this week will be her first visit to Aotearoa, where she will be showcasing alongside 180 other creatives in this week's Aotearoa Art Fair. Speaking of the privilege to travel and showcase abroad, Atem communicates the personal journey of inquiry and wonder in her work.
“I had a curiosity about the world, and a curiosity about history and my place in it. My thinking and even my mediums of choice have changed a fair bit since then but I’m still mostly inspired by curiosity.”
She explores this pursuit of identity through a critical and sentimental lens. Working not only in the medium of photography, but writing and fabric weaving too, Atem is a creator of many talents.
Often labelled a champion of diversity for her unique insights into everyday living, she believes these tags to be unproductive in the fight for authentic representation.
“I don’t think diversity means what it’s often intended to mean. I think what people like myself are asking for is an honest depiction of the world and communities we live in, and a curiosity about ways of thinking outside of the usually celebrated. Diversity is often used to excuse tokenism, which I think is really dangerous,” she says.
Surprisingly that pursuit of curiosity does not include the reactions of audiences, Atem affirms. “I don’t mind so much anymore how people view my works. It’s not really useful to try to convince people to see things from my perspective, especially because the works are so personal,” she says. “That being said, I often speak about my intentions so that level of understanding is always available to people if they want it.”
In lavish, ostentatious fashion Atem is wholeheartedly unapologetic about her art. She says this good work comes from continuous practice.
“Artists that I admire have always said that making work is the best way to make good work, that being curious and experimenting is at the core of having an arts practice.”
It seems practice really does pay off. This year Atem was the inaugural recipient of the La Prairie Art Award in partnership with the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW). She won the award with a sequential series of self-portraits entitled, ‘A yellow dress, a bouquet’ (2022).
She alludes to classical Western painting traditions through her postures and the symmetry of the group. Yet Atem also maintains what she refers to as a ‘decidedly African, postcolonial aesthetic style’ through her emphatic use of colour and texture.
Next week Atem, represented by Melbourne’s Mars Gallery, will bring this powerful use of chroma to Aotearoa, giving opportunities for New Zealand audiences to give their own impressions on the personal.
Aotearoa Art Fair, New Zealand's premier showcase for contemporary art, returns on November 16 - 20 at The Cloud on Auckland's Queens Wharf. Find more details, and buy tickets, here.
