Salote Tawale: I remember you

Salote Tawale, Carriageworks Clothing Store Artist Studios, 2022. Photo: Jacquie Manning. Courtesy: the artist and Carriageworks, Sydney.

I remember you is an ambitious presentation of new work by Anglo-Australian and Fijian artist Salote Tawale. Conceived as a ‘memory bank’, the installation considers how identity is formed through memory. Inside the gallery we encounter hanging faces, cut-out figures, and a partial replica of the artist’s Fijian family home – built on cinder blocks and clad with corrugated iron – complete with a clothesline out the back. At a distance pop music plays from a make-shift karaoke booth, inviting us to sing-along.

Made from memories, the work references Tawale’s personal experiences of growing up in Australia as part of the Pacific diaspora. Drawing on the material of life – her life – I remember you acknowledges the subjectivity of experience to explore the relationship between individual and collective identity.

Curated by Aarna Fitzgerald Hanley.