The Northern Territory Emergency Response, colloquially known as ‘The Intervention’ has, as of this year, been inflicted on communities for the past decade. During these ten years rates of displacement, incarceration and suicide have risen categorically. Xenophobic actions of the Australian nation state have also continued in similar trends; activities that include the continued operation of offshore detainment camps. The works developed for Terror Island are a response to these episodes. They have been executed by utilising canonical Christian iconographic traditions as a foundational starting point. Step ashore.
About the artist
Ryan Presley was born in 1987 in Alice Springs. His father’s family is Marri Ngarr and originate from the Moyle River region in the Northern Territory. He currently lives and works in Brisbane. His art practice is a reflection of his locale, which he audits and critiques. In doing so Presley mounts a larger inquiry that interrogates the articulations of power. Presley’s work has been acquired by the University of Queensland’s Museum of Art, Murdoch University’s art collection, Griffith Artworks and the Museum of Brisbane. In 2016, his artwork has been included in the ‘33rd Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards’ in Darwin, ‘Frontier Imaginaries: No Longer at Ease’ at the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane, and was featured in the ‘2016 TarraWarra Biennial: Endless Circulation’. He has recently completed a PhD (2016) at the Queensland College of Art.
Image: Ryan Presley, 2017, ‘Fair Coin (Sum Zero)’, oil and gold leaf on Hoop pine panel (detail).
