No erected Big Top today
no sawdusted arenas or rolls of painted canvas
a dark sideshow has found its way
into a womb of Colonial privilege
Star-spangled banners exert unease
Ms Ready emphatically reclaims this sacred space
her legs mirroring the strength of its marble columns
an exotic Koori knockout, she harnesses the spirits
stolen from those caged
in the rusty menagerie over which she towers
These Aboriginal faces reflect historical human zoos
sadly mirrored today in jails countrywide
unnatural spectacles without safety nets
spell-binding juggling acts are needed to sidestep those circuses
as the magicians who manipulate such entertainments continue to shine
ticket prices skyrocket as risks and casualties increase
Mr Ready firmly stands his ground
not just a boxing-tent performer
his fists help him to protect and survive—day in, day out
tattoos share daredevil stories and legacies
scars of resilience
just like tightrope walkers, who demand respect
Knife-dodging acts, gun-shooting cowboys and bareback riders
fires rage with spectacular damage
evidence of a nation with holes in buckets
which leak more than water
“There’s a gaping hole in this bucket, dear Liza,
how on earth can you fix it dear Henry, dear Henry?”
The clowns enter and the show goes on…
An artist’s book by Stuart Geddes and Trent Walter.
Edited by Jessyca Hutchens, Brook Andrew, Stuart Geddes and Trent Walter.
Commissioned for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney.
The Biennale of Sydney team and authors of this publication acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation; the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation; the Bidiagal, Dharawal and Gamaygal people, on whose ancestral lands and waters NIRIN gathers.
NIRIN is a safe place for people to honour mutual respect and the diversity of expression and thoughts that empower us all.
NIRIN NGAAY is a compilation, a collection, a volume, an Artist Book, a Reader, an artwork, a sprawling, excessive heterogenous space of connections. Published as part of the 22nd Biennale of Sydney (2020), titled NIRIN, A Wiradjuri word meaning ‘edge’, this book is a space where ideas, themes, research, and experiments arising out of NIRIN find places on pages. Traversing many disciplines and forms, encompassing new and previously published works, complete works as well as excerpts and fragments and responses, each piece may ask for new modes of reading and seeing. Instead of disorienting, we see many lines darting and weaving across these works, beautiful moments of syncing and overlap, affective and abstract resonances, moments of density, as well as pauses to breathe deeply. Read and see and touch at random or with resolve – we hope that you will appreciate the way these works unfold and twist together, creating movements of meaning between them. ‘NGAAY’ is a Wiradjuri word meaning ‘see.’ To really see ‘edges’, might also be to sense and feel and trace them, they come into view with clarity, hover in the periphery, or drift away like memories.
Buy the book
Copies of NIRIN NGAAY can be purchased at the
Biennale of Sydney Shop
Book credits
First published in 2020 by the Biennale of Sydney Ltd.
Published with generous support from Aesop and the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.
This publication is copyright and all rights are reserved. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced or
communicated to the public by any process without prior written permission of the copyright holder.
© Biennale of Sydney Ltd
All texts and artworks © the author or artist.
Published for the exhibition the 22nd Biennale of Sydney: NIRIN, 14 March – 8
June 2020.
ISBN: 978-0-9578023-9-1
Biennale of Sydney
Chief Executive Officer: Barbara Moore
Artistic Director: Brook Andrew
Editors: Jessyca Hutchens, Brook Andrew, Stuart Geddes and Trent Walter
Publications team: Sebastian Henry-Jones, Liz Malcolm and Jodie Polutele
Designed, typeset and printed by Stuart Geddes and Trent Walter on a Heidelberg GTO 52. Some sections printed by Printgraphics and Newsprinters.
The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Biennale of Sydney.
Biennale of Sydney Ltd
Level 4
10 Hickson Road
The Rocks NSW 2000
Australia
Film credits
Directed & Edited by
Amy Browne
Camera by
Amy Browne
Jason Heller
Kim Nguyen
Isabella Plaza
Sound by
Ben Coe
