Passage: The Art of Atong Atem at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia

Through portrait photography, Melbourne-based South Sudanese artist Atong Atem (born 1991, Ethiopia) uses her body as a canvas adorned with textiles, paint and symbolic objects. Richly layered and vibrant, Atem’s work draws together a lineage of African studio photography, family archives, Catholic imagery and science fiction, connecting the earth and cosmos.

Atem traces a transcontinental and intergenerational journey that honours the myths and traditions of Dinka Bor culture – a Nilotic ethnic group from South Sudan. Central to this enquiry is the relationship between the individual, their environment and the ancestors. Her portraits explore performance, both in daily life and before the camera, creating spaces where history, memory and imagination intertwine. In this way, the artist’s body becomes a site where memories gather, taking the form of a map, a vessel or a constellation.

Passage is Atem’s first major Australian solo exhibition, presenting new and existing works by a leading contemporary photographer of her generation. Noting the neglect of East African contributions in mainstream art history, Atem places herself and her community within her photographs. Photography, historically used as a colonial instrument, becomes a tool for reclaiming agency – asking where we come from, where we belong, and what might exist beyond what we already know.

For more information visit: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/passage-the-art-of-atong-atem/