Bonita Ely
Australian artist, Bonita Ely’s cross-disciplinary artworks typically explore environmental and socio-political issues. For example, during the 1970s in London, New York then Australia, the causes and effects of environmental destruction - pollution, consumerism – coalesced in the installation, At Home with the Locust People. Her Dogwoman series (residencies, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 1981- 82, 1986) critiqued history’s gendered bias. Nature’s power is manifest in Sleepers/Ties her cathartic response to witnessing the 1994 LA earthquake. Public artworks include sculptures in Hue, Vietnam and a solar powered artwork, Thunderbolt commissioned for the Sydney Olympic’s Tenth Anniversary (2010). Her installation, Interior Decoration for 2017’s Documenta14 in Kassel addresses the inter-generational affects of PTSD as an outcome of war. In the Athens iteration of Documenta14, she exhibited Plastikus Progressus, an ironic, futuristic solution to the plastics pollution of water. Retired from academia at UNSW, her current project examines the Great Artesian Basin and mining. She is represented by Milani Gallery, Brisbane.
Current work and inspiration
Bonita's creative methodology is based on the premise that a particular idea requires the deployment of particular mediums, disciplines and siting, resulting in an experimental, inter disciplinary, multisensory, contemporary art practice. Her early artworks, such as the installation, C20th Mythological Beasts: at Home with the Locust People (1975), the performance, Murray River Punch (1980) addressed socio-political issues foreshadowing her current art practice. Her public artwork, Thunderbolt (2010), for Sydney Olympic Park to celebrate the Tenth Anniversary of the ‘Green Olympics’, used solar powered lighting to signal to the local community the level of their energy consumption. Menindee Fish Kill (2019) continues her concern for vulnerable natural environments. Interior Decoration (2013 -15), funded by the Australia Council, explores the intergenerational transfer of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as an outcome of war. Her artwork is in national and international collections and has been selected for prestigious national and international events such as Documenta14. Represented by Milani Gallery in Brisbane.
Bonita's current work addresses the Great Artestian Basin (GAB), inspired by fieldwork investigating the natural environment in the vicinity of the Adani mine, which is located within the vicinity of the GAB.
Bonita's work can be seen at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), where two of her performances, Murray River Punch & Controlled Atmosphere are in the Artists Room, & a video of the performance, Jabiluka UO2, is outside the Artist Room in the MCA Collection exhibition (show runs until 6 November 2022). This is also on display in the Tate Gallery, London in the exhibition, Australia 92.
The Menindee Fish Kill is in Venice at the European Cultural Centre's event, Personal Structures.
From 22 June 2022 to 11 October 2022, four brush and ink works on paper, a video, Life in a Day, and the photographic etching, The River's Edge, will be part of the exhibition in the event, All air, all space, all light, at the Goulburn Regional Gallery. Monash University's Caulfield campus gallery, Melbourne, features her performance, A Mother Shows Her Daughter to the Universe, (1982).
Website: bonitaely.com