Warraba Weatherall is one of 15 First Nations artists from around the world, commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with partner the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, to create new work. Weatherall’s wall-based sculptural works reframe the institutional narratives of Kamilaroi cultural material held in museum archives. The presentations, exploring museum filing cabinets and church confessional booths, prompt a reflection on how institutions present and preserve cultural voices.

New Zealand based artist Benjamin Work joins Weatherall in presenting at the museum, with sculptures that explore the resilience and continuity of culture, drawing on his Tongan and Orcadian/Shetlander hohoko (lineage). Archival images of his ancestors prompt explorations of how Western clothing and materials merged with traditional Tongan dress, during the colonial era. Through their garments, his ancestors asserted autonomy during a time of political pressure, a legacy Work honours by illuminating resilience and cultural continuity in his art.

Artistic Director for the Biennale of Sydney Hoor al Qasimi said: “Rememory connects the delicate space between remembering and forgetting, delving into the fragmented and forgotten parts of history, where recollection becomes an act of reassembling fragments of the past—whether personal, familial, or collective. Through the defiant act of sharing, seeing, and understanding, the artists and cultural practitioners I’ve invited to participate explore the hidden effects of history and how it continues to shape the present in an evolving and consuming conversation."

The Chau Chak Wing Museum is the only multidisciplinary institution to co-present the 25th Biennale of Sydney.

“Being a venue for the Biennale is more than hosting an exhibition,” said Dr Paul Donnelly, Deputy Director of the Chau Chak Wing Museum. “It’s an opportunity to enrich our spaces and collections through poetic and provocative relationships that spark dialogue beyond the museum’s walls.

“As a university museum, we occupy a unique position at the intersection of research, education and public engagement. The Biennale allows us to push boundaries for artists, students, scholars and the wider public. It offers new ways to experience art and rearticulate our collections of antiquities, natural history, historic photographs, cultural artefacts, and art."