Chromatic Visions was an exhibition combining prints from Sacred Legacy, the historical photographic portraits of Native North American culture by Edward Sheriff Curtis, with selected works by Australian artists Fiona Foley, Tracey Moffatt and John Nixon.
The exhibition was officially opened by representatives of the exhibition's supporters: Janet Mooney, Director of the Koori Centre; Sean Gallagher, USSC Chief Operating Officer; Alexei Kral, Public Affairs Officer of the Consulate General of the United States, Sydney; and Colin Rhodes, Dean of the SCA.
Sacred Legacy documents Native American culture during the early 1900's. Curtis' photographs reflect a time when Native American culture was considerably untouched by European culture. During his explorations, he was given unprecidented access to their daily and sacred lives. He grew to respect, admire and learn from his experiences. This journey came at a great personal toll for Curtis, yet he continued on a thirty-year journey that culminated in a comprehensive anthropological record of Native American culture, in the twenty volume The North American Indian.
Using the prism of Curtis' iconic images, Chromatic Visions explored themes of development, loss and reclamation as they resonate within a contemporary context. Nixon's monochrome paintings, alongside the works of Foley and Moffatt, created a dialogue between contemporary Australian art, contemporary Australian Indigenous art and the anthropological prints of Curtis.
