TARRYN GILL / PILAR MATA DUPONT

Born 1981 in Perth, Australia (both). Lives and works in Perth (both).

Tarryn Gill and Pilar Mata Dupont, So That Liberty Shall Not Perish From This Earth, 2007, c-type print, 76.2 x 50.8 cm. Courtesy the artists and Goddard de Fiddes

Tarryn Gill and Pilar Mata Dupont are a collaborative duo from Western Australia. They are multidisciplinary artists, producers and performers who have worked together since 2001 in a practice that encompasses photography, performance, choreography, film, installation, theatre work and design. In 2004, Gill and Mata Dupont teamed up with Perth-based writer/artist Thea Costantino to form creative company Hold Your Horses, and develop Heart of Gold, a theatre work that debuted in late 2009 at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA). The musical composed by Ash Gibson Greig tells the story of a family living in the fictional wheat belt town of Paucity, and of their troubled son Angus who has imaginings of a Western Australian succession and an ensuing civil war fought by an allfemale, pin-up ‘Heart of Gold’ army. The artists have spent the past few years developing visual art projects that explore the character, scenery and choreographed language of the Heart of Gold musical in their ‘Heart of Gold Projects’, numbering five. Their work draws on historical sources such as Busby Berkeley choreography, Disney musicals from the mid-twentieth century, the 1960s’ Revolutionary Chinese ballets of Jiang Chiang (aka Madame Mao), the early films of Leni Riefenstahl, and Jerome Robbins’ choreography for the musical West Side Story mixed in with a good dose of Australiana kitsch.

In late 2009/early 2010, the duo spent time in Argentina conducting research for a new work, specially made for the 17th Biennale of Sydney. It was the beginning of a series of works relevant to their respective family histories. Lament of the Argentine Military (2010) is the result of research into Mata Dupont’s family history and is based on the country’s turbulent past – in particular, the twentieth century. A singing narrator, modelled on the patron saint of Argentina – the Virgin of Lujan – complements a large cast of performers representing the Argentinean military. The narrator and ensemble allude to the close relation between the Catholic Church and military dictatorships in Argentina. Gill and Mata Dupont, working with once again with Gibson Greig and Costantino, include tango, music theatre and martial formations in the work, presented here as a video and suite of photographs.

Gill and Mata Dupont’s work is in essence a playful yet assertive investigation into nationalism, history and traditional cultural propaganda, revealing a love and respect for the traditions of popular storytelling, folklore and magic realism. It also marks a realisation that new forms of ideology have to be developed to create a future in which freedom of expression is really universal, rather than the limited privilege of the powerful.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2008 ‘From the Heart of Gold Projects’, Perth Centre for Photography, Perth, Australia
2003 ‘Good Show Pony’ (Pilar Mata Dupont), The Bakery Window Box, Perth, Australia
2001 ‘The Musical’, performance, Central Park Gardens, Perth, Australia

Selected Group Exhibitions

2008 ‘Linden 1968’, Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, St Kilda, Australia
2008 ‘Contemporary Australian Art – Optimism’, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
2008 ‘Primavera’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
2007 ‘Girl Parade’, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, Australia
2006 ‘Flux2’, Lawrence Wilson Gallery, Perth, Australia

Selected Bibliography

Robert Cook and Hannah Mathews, ‘Everybody’s working for the weekend’, Artlink, vol. 27, no. 4, December 2007, pp. 26–31
Thea Costantino, ‘Tarryn Gill and Pilar Mata Dupont: Heart of Gold’, Photofile 80: Panic and Paranoia, Australian Centre for Photography, winter 2007, Sydney, pp. 48–51
Kate Ravenswood, ‘Tarryn Gill and Pilar Mata Dupont: Into the heart of nationhood’, Contemporary Australian Art: Optimism Catalogue, exhibition catalogue, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2008, pp. 102–05
Hannah Mathews, ‘Tarryn Gill and Pilar Mata Dupont’, Primavera 08, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2008, pp. 22–25