Tell Me My Truth seeks to address persistent and often contentious relationships that frame the individual within the group. Exploring the motivations of artists for whom a questioning of the veracity of the status quo is a defining aspect of their practice, Tell Me My Truth presents works that give form to alternative narratives. Contrasting fiction with the documentary, remembrance with negation, responsibility with impunity, and privacy with surveillance within the public realm, Tell Me My Truth is at once a provocative demand and an admission of the futility of splendid isolation in a world that more than ever is defined by our connectedness.

This is the second exhibition instalment of MASS GROUP INCIDENT, a major five-month multi-stage project curated and produced by 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. Comprising a series of exhibitions, site-specific projects, performances, film screenings and public programs, this broader project’s central theme is the power and limits of social engagement and collective action as experienced by the individual. Within this construct, Tell Me My Truth takes a more analytical and meditative approach in its investigation of the causes of social friction and mutual understanding.

Bringing together artists from Australia, Asia and abroad, new works have been commissioned by 4A especially for this exhibition, complemented by significant existing works presented in Australia for the first time. Taking longer historical views are works that seek to reveal the hidden or otherwise suppressed aspects of identities and geographies, for instance, those that relate to Sydney’s Chinatown and Indonesia’s persecuted Chinese minority. Underscoring history’s immense role in shaping individual lives are deeply personal studies, as in an artist’s attempt to re-stage a moment from his mother’s past, contrasted with investigations into the spatial dynamics of public space in which mass demonstrations are contained. Whilst Tell Me My Truth focuses on the use of digital technologies in recording and relaying often abstract and de-personalised experiences, more traditional methods of representation are also utilised to articulate marginalised perspectives.

Tell Me My Truth holds a mirror up to audiences, one in which we might recognise the embodiment of dissent and the dangers of expediency in the age of perpetual revolutions.

Access the Media Release here.

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Media Coverage

Erin Smith, “Sydney’s 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art Announce “Tell Me My Truth” Exhibition” , The Au Review,  March 26 2015.

Sue Wang, “4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art announces “Tell Me My truth” featuring eight Australian and international artists,” CAFA ART INFO, March 26 2015.

Rachel Storey, “The Asian art market is expanding but is Australia looking in the right direction?,” ABC Arts News, May 13 2015.

Rachel Ang, “Sydney Is All About The Art,” A Magazine, April 21 2015.

Dee Jefferson, “Tell Me My Truth,” Timeout Sydney, March 27 2015.

Artists James Newitt and FX Harsono, as well as co-curator of Tell Me My Truth, Toby Chapman appeared on 2ser 107.3 (radio and online) March 26 2015.