Performance Ngara pinta-rru thirri’laa (that truth while dancing) by Tammi Gissell

Ngara pinta-rru thirri’laa (that truth while dancing) 2024 is a new choreographic work by Murruwarri/Wiradjuri artist Tammi Gissell, made in response to Francis Bacon’s 1976 painting Study for self-portrait, and performed inside the Making Worlds exhibition in the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ north building, Naala Badu.

Commissioned by the Art Gallery to conceive of a new work in dialogue with the collection, Gissell was drawn to Bacon’s 1976 painting, currently on display in the 20th-century galleries in the south building, Naala Nura. She likens Bacon’s distinct visual language – where the body exists in self-enforced isolation, moving through states of flux and hard-edged geometry – to form a choreography.

Created and performed by Gissell, with sound design and an original score composed by Awabakal musician Meeghan Oliver and costume design by Darug artist Peta Strachan, Ngara pinta-rru thirri’laa is a solo endurance artwork in which Gissell interrogates what her own self-portrait should be. By indulging in and giving form to memories as they bear on the ‘now’ of a performed self-portrait, the work gently explores how we see ourselves against how we wish to be perceived.

Ngara pinta-rru thirri’laa (that truth while dancing) 2024 was commissioned by the Art Gallery of New South Wales and supported by the Keir Foundation.

This event is part of the Art Gallery of New South Wales program Make it May