5 March 2021

Moorina Bonini’s, Australian Melting Pot, 2018 is a digital exhibition presented by Shepparton Art Museum (SAM) in partnership Blak Dot Gallery and NETS Victoria. It can be accessed by audiences from anywhere in the world, both near and far, throughout the month of March.

This exhibition can be viewed at www.sheppartonartmuseum.com.au and is on show from the 1-28 March 2021.

This work demonstrates an intentional action undertaken to understand the construct of the Australian identity. Through uncovering, re-learning and mixing together, the perfect identity stew is presented. Simmering idealistic fantasies rise to the top of the pot and the fire that burns under Nonna’s gnocchi pot in addition to cooking the stew, stains the outside surface with black. The same tone that remained after the intentional burning for the desire of regrowth and gain. Jenna Rain Warwick the First Nations Engagement Coordinator at NETS Victoria says: “NETS Victoria is delighted to partner with Blak Dot Gallery to present Moorina Bonini’s work digitally at Shepparton Art Museum. Moorina’s work is a poignant reflection on the tropes of Australian identity and the ways by which the media commodifies this identity. Her work offers an opportunity to interrogate the makings of our Nationhood.”

Belinda Briggs, SAM’s Curator (Indigenous) said, “Australian Melting Pot takes a poignant look at identity in Australia and the many determining factors that shape our perceptions about who we believe we are. Moorina presents her audience with a complex recipe of ingredients including historical events, intergenerational and cultural influences, and environmental factors like societal attitudes and the media. Moorina’s familial and Ancestral ties as a Yorta Yorta woman localise her work in SAM’s regional boundaries and at home on Yorta Yorta Country.”

Moorina Bonini is a proud descendant of the Yorta Yorta Dhulunyagen family clan of Ulupna and the Yorta Yorta and Wurundjeri-Woiwurrung Briggs/McCrae family. Moorina is an artist whose works are informed by her experiences as an Aboriginal and Italian woman. Her practice is driven by a self-reflexive methodology that enables the re-examination of lived experiences that have influenced the construction of her cultural identity. By unsettling the narrative placed upon Aboriginal people as a result of colonisation of Aboriginal Australia, Bonini’s practice is based within Indigenous Knowledge systems and brings this to the fore.

Moorina holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from RMIT University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) from the Victorian College of the Arts. Moorina is currently a candidate at Monash University where she is undertaking a Master of Fine Art within the Wominjeka Djeembana Research Lab. Her work has been exhibited at various shows and galleries such as Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Sydney Festival, Blak Dot Gallery, c3 Contemporary Art Space, Centre for Contemporary Photography, KINGS, SEVENTH Gallery, Bus Projects, Koorie Heritage Trust and Brunswick Street Gallery. Moorina has produced and co-curated art and cultural programs across RMIT University and the University of Melbourne. She is a board member of SEVENTH Gallery, where she is currently the First Nations Programming Coordinator.

Australian Melting Pot is a Blak Dot Gallery digital exhibition touring with NETS Victoria. Curated by Kimba Thompson.

This project is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.

Image: Moorina Bonini, Australian Melting Pot 2018, video (still), 4 min 18 sec. Image courtesy of the artist © the artist