ART AFTER DARK
Initiation OA_RR, Reko Rennie
Bunjil Place Outdoor Screen
3 July – 31 July
5.00 pm - 7.00 pm (daily)
The Art After Dark program continues throughout Winter on the Outdoor Screen. In July, to celebrate NAIDOC week we are proud to exhibit the mesmerising work Initiation OA_RR by highly acclaimed First Nations artist Reko Rennie.
Image Credit: Reko Rennie, Initiation OA_RR, 2021. 4K three-channel digital video, stereo sound, 7:37 min. Image stills by Justin McManus.
Reko Rennie
Initiation OA_RR, 2021
4K three-channel digital video, stereo sound, 7:37 min
Commissioned by RISING Melbourne
Initiation OA_RR
Initiation OA_RR follows a metallic pink 1973 Holden Monaro cruising the working-class streets and industrial docks of Footscray, the Melbourne western-suburb where artist Reko Rennie grew up. Engine revving, tyres squealing, the car performs a series of burnouts on open tarmac, a gesture layering 'Westie' drag-racing culture, First Peoples initiation practices reimagined in an urban context, and the sand engraving motifs of the Kamilaroi/Gamilaroi people.
A follow-up to Rennie's 2016 work OA_RR, the piece operates as both self-portrait and homage to his grandmother, who once dreamed of becoming an opera singer. That unrealised aspiration is given voice through a newly commissioned operatic score by renowned Yorta Yorta composer and soprano Deborah Cheetham AO, performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and sung in Kamilaroi language — Cheetham’s voice carrying spectacle into cultural sovereignty and intergenerational healing.
"The work is a road trip going back to the suburb of my birth and relates to my experiences growing up in the 1970s and 80s working class western suburbs of inner Melbourne. I was born in an urban environment where traditional notions of initiation were experienced in a completely different way to my ancestral home of the Kamilaroi/Gamilaroi people of North Western NSW."
— Reko Rennie
Reko Rennie
Reko Rennie (b. 1974, Naarm/Melbourne) is an interdisciplinary Kamilaroi/Gamilaroi/Gamilaraay artist whose largely autobiographical practice spans painting, sculpture, installation, video and public art. Beginning in Melbourne's graffiti scene as a teenager, Rennie translates the visual language of street art and the traditional diamond designs, hand-drawn symbols and repeat patterning of his Kamilaroi heritage into bold contemporary forms that assert Aboriginal identity in urban environments.
Rennie has exhibited widely across Australia, Asia, the United States and Europe. In 2024, the National Gallery of Victoria staged his first major retrospective, REKOSPECTIVE: The Art of Reko Rennie, and he was named GQ Artist of the Year. He was awarded the 2023 Mordant Family–Australia Council Affiliated Fellowship with a residency at the American Academy in Rome, and his major commissions include the sixth Loti Smorgon Sculpture Terrace Commission at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (2023), the landmark public artwork Where Eels Lie Down, Parramatta (2023), and the Artbank + ACMI Commission, Australian Centre for the Moving Image (2019).
His work is held in significant public collections including Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Victoria, the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the Kluge-Ruhe Institute, University of Virginia, USA, the Koorie Heritage Trust, the Wesfarmers Collection, and the New Contemporary Art Museum, Nanjing, China.
Rennie is represented by Ames Yavuz (Sydney, Singapore, London).
Initiation OA_RR was commissioned through RISING’s A Call to Artist initiative, a program supported by Creative Victoria, City of Melbourne and Besen Family Foundation.
Image credits:
Reko Rennie, Initiation OA_RR, 2021. 4K three-channel digital video, stereo sound, 7:37 min. Image stills by Justin McManus.
Film credits:
Director Reko Rennie
Produced by Film Camp
Philippa Campey
Samantha Dinning
Original Composition Deborah Cheetham AO
Performed by Deborah Cheetham AO and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Director of Photography Bonnie Elliott
Editor Carlo Zeccola
Drone Cinematography &
Additional Camera Carlo Zeccola
1st Assistant Director James Short
Production Manager Molly O'Connor
1st Assistant Camera Lisa Cushing
2nd Assistant Camera Alanna Raif
Drone Operator Chris Armstrong
Gaffer Matt Begg
Lighting Assistant Andrew Hechenberger
Lighting Assistant Crispian Hayler
Grip Peter MacDonnell
Grip Assistant Dion Caramalis
Grip Assistant Edward Barlow
Locations Hugo Cran
Unit UrbN Vans, James Pipino
On Set Nurse Kirrily Frigo
Stills Photographer Justin McManus
Assistant Editor Kale Elbourne
VFX Scott Zero
Post Production Facility Crayon
Colourist Abe Wynen
More info about Reko Rennie can be found on the Ames Yavuz website.
