Dr Christian Thompson AO: Sydney Contemporary 2024

At the 2024 edition of Sydney Contemporary, Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin will present a bold new photographic series by leading contemporary artist Dr Christian Thompson AO.

Titled Yabunbarru, this suite of four spectacular new images marks a thrilling evolution of the Bidjara artist’s singular practice and arrives at a significant moment in his globally celebrated career.

Earlier this year, Thompson was one of eight international artists chosen by the Marina Abramović Institute for a program of original performances staged at the Adelaide Festival. This project was closely followed by a major solo exhibition at the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, which saw the public debut of newly commissioned still and moving images alongside select works from his photographic archive. The debut of Yabunbarru also precedes MELT Festival, for which the artist will exhibit oversize photographs across the city of Brisbane.

Building on these recent creative triumphs while reflecting on the themes that have threaded through his practice over more than two decades, the artist’s upcoming series presents a dazzling inversion of the visual dynamics at play in his iconic flower walls. Once again, Thompson casts himself at the centre of his artfully constructed floral profusions, which appear thick with symbolism and swirl with questions around Australian history, legal fictions, notions of nationhood and intersectional identities.

But where these fecund arrangements once cascaded in abundance, swallowing the figure and flattening the pictorial plane, here, they cloak the artist’s body like armour and throw him into arresting relief against otherwise minimal, boldly coloured backdrops.

A distinctly Bidjara form of rarrk recurs throughout the series, staying true to the style of the artist’s Country and people. Taking its title from the Bidjara word that loosely translates to ‘the other side’, Yabunbarru is a powerful statement of First Nations sovereignty and queer subjectivity.

We are excited to host the international debut of Yabunbarru by Dr Christian Thompson AO at Sydney Contemporary, open 5–8 September at Carriageworks.

To receive a preview and priority access to the series, please email danielsoma@michaelreid.com.au