The Geography of Here and There

Opening Friday 27 May 6-8pm Following a 1-month residency in Darwin (in association with George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens and supported by the Australia Indonesia Institute) in October 2015, Jogjakarta-based early-career artist Dito Yuwono responds to ‘betwixt-and-between’ ideas of Darwin as Asian/Australian, city/town, natural/built environment. “I am interested in the issue of spatial history and memory. Space and memory are interrelated. Spatial history is an intertwined memory that is constructed and often reinterpreted. How a geographical space cultivates collective memory, and how each memory of the citizen constructs the image of a place interests me [to] explore the relationship between memory, history, people, and places. By presenting the correlation between those elements, the spatial history of a space and a city can be seen side by side with personal narrative of the citizen.” In The Geography of Here and There Yuwono explores Darwin’s proximity to Asia, and how NCCA is placed/located as an institution and through the archived memories of artists who have passed through it. Dito Yuwono is a young Indonesian contemporary photographer from Mes56 artist collective, Jogjakarta, Indonesia. He graduated in 2010 from Mass Communication of Atma Jaya Yogyakarta University. In 2011, he co-founded an independent space that aims to build a supportive and positive environment for young artists – Lir Space, Yogyakarta. Dito’s artistic practice is varied between photography, mix-media installation, video, and performance. He is especially interested in working with community and recollecting memories to find the link between memory-citizen-history. His work often serves as a form of storytelling using personal approach to subtly grasp the bigger picture of sociopolitical environments. Recent solo projects include: Have We Met? (2011), Finding Stillness (2012), The Memories of Unidentified Experience (2014), and Recollecting Memories: Tukang Foto Keliling (2013-now).