Michael Riley (6 Jan 1960 – August 2004) was an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

photographer and

filmmaker Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

, and co-founder of

Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative The Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative was founded in 1987 in the Sydney suburb of Redfern, New South Wales. Among the legacies of the Co-operative are the Deadly Awards for achievement in the Indigenous Australian community, which occu ...

. A significant figure in

contemporary Indigenous Australian art Contemporary Indigenous Australian art is the modern art work produced by Indigenous Australians, that is, Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people. It is generally regarded as beginning in 1971 with a painting movement that star ...

, Riley's work is held by many public art institutions, including the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

Early life and education

Riley was born on 6 January 1960 in

Dubbo Dubbo (; ) is a city in the Orana (New South Wales), Orana Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre in the Orana region, with a population of 43,516 at June 2021. The city is located at the intersection of the ...

, central

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, to Allen Riley and Dorothy, née Wright. His early years were spent on the Talbragar Aboriginal Reserve with his parents and siblings David, Wendy and Carol."Up in the sky, behind the clouds", in Croft, Brenda (ed.), ''Michael Riley: Sights Unseen'',

, Canberra, 2006. His mother grew up on one of the two Aboriginal missions in Moree.

Career

Riley moved to

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

in 1976, and attended a photography course at the

Tin Sheds The Tin Sheds was the common name of the Sydney University Art Workshop, an Australian art workshop in Sydney, New South Wales, founded in 1969. Its name lives on in the Tin Sheds Gallery at the University of Sydney School of Architecture, De ...

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

. He subsequently worked as a technician in the photography department of the

Sydney College of the Arts The Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) is a contemporary art school that was a faculty of the University of Sydney from 1990 until 2017, when it became a school of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Until the end of 2019, the campus was locat ...

, where he continued to study. In 1986, his work, comprising five portraits of Aboriginal women, was included in the first exhibition of Indigenous photography at the Aboriginal Artists Gallery in Sydney. In the same year, along with nine other Sydney artists founded the Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative. Along with working at Boomalli, Riley worked at

Film Australia Film Australia was a company established by the Government of Australia to produce films about Australia in 1973. Its predecessors were the Cinema and Photographic Branch (1913–38), the Australian National Film Board (1939–1955, under differ ...

, making his first two documentary films: ''Boomalli: Five Artists'' (1988) and ''Dreamings'' (1988), the latter to accompany an exhibition of

Aboriginal art Indigenous Australian art includes art made by Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, including collaborations with others. It includes works in a wide range of media including painting on leaves, bark painting, wood carving, ro ...

at the

Asia Society The Asia Society is a 501(c)(3) organization that focuses on educating the world about Asia. It has several centers in the United States (Manhattan, Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle) and around the world (Hong Ko ...

galleries in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. In 1990 he created a series of photographs of people from the two missions of his mother's hometown, Moree, called ''A common place: Portraits of Moree Murries''. Many of the subjects were relatives of Riley. Riley set up an outdoor studio in Moree and invited community members to participate. The exhibition was shown first at the Hogarth Gallery in Sydney, and then travelled to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England, where it was shown in 1991. The large prints from the exhibition were presented to the Moree Plains Gallery (now BAMM: Bank Art Museum Moree). The

State Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establis ...

has digitised images of the photographs. In 1993 it acquired 10 smaller prints from the Boomalai Art Collective, printed and signed by Riley, and in 2016 acquired five further archival prints to complete the series, at which time it mounted an exhibition of them in the Amaze Gallery. The exhibition included a photo of Lyall Munro Snr and his wife Carmine Munro. In 1996 Riley was commissioned by the

Museum of Sydney The Museum of Sydney (MOS) is a historical collection and exhibit, built on the ruins of the house of New South Wales' first Governor, Arthur Phillip, on the present-day corner of Phillip and Bridge Street, Sydney. Description The museum is ...

to make ''Eora'', a permanent video installation celebrating the

Eora people The Eora (; also ''Yura'') are an Aboriginal Australian people of New South Wales. Eora is the name given by the earliest European settlers to a group of Aboriginal people belonging to the clans along the coastal area of what is now known as ...

of the Sydney region. His film ''Empire'' (1997) looks at environmental destruction as a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...

for the impact of

colonisation 475px, Map of the year each country achieved List of sovereign states by date of formation, independence. Colonization (British English: colonisation) is a process of establishing occupation of or control over foreign territories or peoples f ...

on his culture.

Themes

Riley's photographs range widely, but with an emphasis on portraiture, and on symbolic, sometimes surreal images. His parents were churchgoers, and Riley appropriated the

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

of his "creepy" religious experiences, particularly in projects such as ''Fly Blown'' (1998) and the

digital art Digital art, or the digital arts, is artistic work that uses Digital electronics, digital technology as part of the creative or presentational process. It can also refer to computational art that uses and engages with digital media. Since the 1960 ...

series ''Cloud'' (2000). Many of Riley's photographs and films explore Indigenous identity, experience and politics, including ''Malangi: A day in the life of a bark painter'' (1991), ''Poison'' (1991), ''Blacktracker'' (1996), and ''Tent Boxers'' (2000).

Recognition and posthumous exhibitions

Riley's work was among that of eight Australian Indigenous artists selected for an architectural commission for the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris in 2006. Riley's first digital series, ''Cloud'' (2000), was included in Photograhica Australis at ARCO in Spain, the Fourth

Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art The Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) is an art museum located within the Queensland Cultural Centre in the South Bank precinct of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. Opened on 2 December 2006, the GOMA is Australia's lar ...

at the

Queensland Art Gallery The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is an art museum located in South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. It complements the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) building, situated only away. The Queensland Art Galle ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, and the 2003

Festival of Sydney Sydney Festival is a major arts festival in Australia's largest city, Sydney, that runs for three weeks every January since it was established in 1977. The festival program features over 100 events from local and international artists and inclu ...

. In 2009, a dance work paying tribute to Riley, called ''Riley'', was choreographed by his second cousin Daniel Riley and performed by

Bangarra Dance Theatre Bangarra Dance Theatre is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance company focused on contemporary dance. It was founded by African American dancer and choreographer Carole Y. Johnson, Gumbaynggirr man Rob Bryant, and South African-bor ...

. Daniel had been inspired to do this after seeing an exhibition of Michael's photographs at the

in 2007. The work premiered as part of a double bill at the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...

, and was a huge success. In November–December 2016, his work was included in an exhibition celebrating the 40th anniversary of

NAISDA The NAISDA Dance College (usually referred to as simply NAISDA) is a performing arts training college based in Kariong, New South Wales for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. It was established as the Aboriginal Islander ...

Carriageworks Carriageworks is a multi-arts urban cultural precinct located at the former Eveleigh Carriage Workshops in Redfern, New South Wales, Redfern, Sydney, Australia. Carriageworks showcases contemporary art and performing arts, as well as being use ...

in Redfern. ''Naya Wa Yugali'' ("We Dance" in Darkinyung language).

Death and legacy

He died in August 2004, aged 44.

Collections

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most import ...

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, ...

* Dubbo Regional Art Gallery *

Macarthur Institute of Higher Education Macarthur Institute of Higher Education was an Australian tertiary education institution (College of Advanced Education) from 1974 to 1989. It was known as the Milperra College of Advanced Education until 1983. Milperra College of Advanced Educati ...

* BAMM: Bank Art Museum Moree *

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...

National Museum of Australia The National Museum of Australia (NMA), in the national capital Canberra, preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. It was formally established by the ''Nation ...

* Sydney International Airport *

Selected filmography

*Boomalli: Five Koorie Artists (1988) *Breakthrough series: Alice (1988) *Dreamings: The art of Aboriginal Australia (1988) *Frances (1990) *Malangi: A day in the life of a bark painter (1991) *Poison (1991) *Quest for country (1993) *Welcome to my Koori world (1993) *A passage through the aisles (1994) *Kangaroo dancer (1994) *Eora (1995) *Blacktracker (1996) *The masters (1996) *Empire (1997) *I don't wanna be a bludger (1999) *Tent boxers (2000)

References

External links

*
Michael Riley
at the Commercial Gallery {{DEFAULTSORT:Riley, Michael 1960 births 2004 deaths Australian Aboriginal artists People from Dubbo