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Carly Lane returns to AGWA to head Indigenous art programs: her interview with Paint It Blak’s Emma Garlett

Two years ago, Carly Lane was mired in doubt, unsure if she still had passion for her life’s work of curating Indigenous art at the most prestigious galleries in the country. She left her role at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, took another job, and took time to reflect. “I’d love to say that was, you know, a fun moment, but actually, I had burnout,” Lane admits. “I really needed to recharge and, I guess, consider whether I really loved art as a profession and curating as a profession. And I came to the realisation after a two-year period that in fact, it is in my blood.” As Lane returns to the State gallery, as its curator of Indigenous art and head of its Indigenous programs at a time of expansion and focus on First Nations creativity, the innate spark of her commitment to the sector is clear. It’s there in the way her face lights up at the pink glow of Amanda Bell’s work, From our lip, mouths, throats and belly (a neon sign reading Moorditj, the Noongar word for good, or awesome). It’s there as she urges caution for STM’s photographer as he backs up a little too closely to another work in pursuit of his shot. Lane, a Murri woman from Queensland, has a wealth of knowledge and experience gathered over a career spent in world-class institutions, including the National Gallery of Australia, National Museum of Australia, and the Berndt Museum of Anthropology. She also happens to be the first Aboriginal “first lady” of WA — she’s married to Premier Roger Cook. As Lane explains, she sees art as so much more than canvases or sculpture — it is about creating innovative spaces to provide connection and collaboration, and about advocating for social justice by reflecting a First Nations experience and voice. In her new role, which puts her in AGWA’s senior executive team, Lane will lead a drive to connect WA to First Nations art and stories globally. She’ll work with overseas institutions to oversee an ambitious program of research, exhibitions, residences and developing collections, including facilitating opportunities for WA artists to be showcases on the world stage. Lane will also be responsible for commissioning a significant new work for the gallery’s sculpture garden, part of the Perth Cultural Centre redevelopment, and developing exhibitions of WA artists to tour the State and internationally. Lane will also collaborate with the new Aboriginal Cultural Centre in the lead-up to its opening, and help finalise AGWA’s bid for a new contemporary art gallery. It’s a mammoth task, but one Lane is excited about. After all, she sees art as social justice and her role as a conduit to give a platform to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Her method is simple — it is inclusive and allows many people to be involved, to be excited and to get something out of the process, the exhibition, the publication, or live event that she may be curating. AGWA has increasingly moved to centre its Indigenous art programs — it was the first gallery in Australia to turn itself over to Indigenous artists for the BlakLight exhibition in 2022, curated by Lane’s acclaimed predecessor, Clothilde Bullen, who has moved to a senior role at ECU City. Now Lane’s job is to expand that focus globally. Lane says that her aspirations include creating a long-lasting bond with other First Nations groups, including those in New Zealand and Canada, where there is a shared lived experience of the colonial regime. “They would be my first points of contact, and equally, I liked some of the curators that work in those countries,” she says. “Like I say, it’s when you collaborate, that magic happens.” Lane is also passionate about representing the diversity and evolution of Aboriginal art, from the traditional and well-recognised dot painting techniques to modern contemporary art. “All art grows,” she says. “So what’s contemporary today won’t be contemporary in 100 years’ time; it’ll be considered traditional. It is this revolving, and evolving space. It’s fun. “The experience of art can’t just be those who have been practising for years but they tell a particular story. Artists who are considered mid-career or emerging, they tell their own story as well. So you mix it up and you get this really lovely conversation, a narrative that goes on. So, one is not better than the other.” A lot of what makes Lane a sought-after curator is, she says, down to experience — and gut instinct. Born in Queensland, the youngest of five children — “I was the baby … one of the little kids that people had to look after” — she’s lived in WA for 32 years, including graduating with first class honours from her anthropology degree at UWA. It was here that she “really started to explore being an adult, or you know, adulting,” she laughs, and Perth is now home. Before she returned to AGWA, Lane worked as principal advisor and curator of strategic projects for the State Government’s Aboriginal History Unit. But after that break away, she recognises that art has always been her calling. As she returns to the gallery, Lane’s fingerprints are already everywhere — she conceived and initiated the colossal 34m-long, 5m-tall work by Noongar artist Christopher Pease, Targets, that wraps around the rooftop, and delivered the Balancing Act exhibition, which helped usher in a new era of record visitation at AGWA in 2022-23. Her curatorial instinct is strong. She knows the feeling she gets when she sees the right artwork, how pieces fit together in a space, when there is cohesion and where something is out of place. “It’s probably about seeing how an artwork speaks to me, how it engages with the other works around it,” she says. “You innately know when something’s not working. It’s not necessarily an obvious statement of activity. But if things don’t sit together, you feel the friction,” she says. “It comes from the feeling … To make a space inviting, it’s got to be welcoming in terms of colour, placement of works of art next to each other, the stories that they tell. As this current exhibition says, it’s a balancing act.” Sitting on Whadjuk Noongar land in a heritage-listed building, AGWA might seem daunting to some but its director, Colin Walker, wants to change that. Indigenous art is an integral part of fulfilling his quest to make the gallery an inviting space for people to access from all walks of life. The gallery’s audience numbers are 64 per cent higher than pre-COVID levels, and Walker notes that the age cohorts have shifted considerably. Where the gallery was once mostly frequented by those 55 and older, now its largest audience is aged 16-34. “It’s those groups that have really bought into what we’ve tried to do, which is just to have a much broader representation of voices and experiences and opportunities within the gallery,” Walker says. “Young people have responded and responded well to them … There are so many strong possibilities for First Nations stories to connect with one another, starting from here and then exporting them, or bringing them back. “It’s important in the sense that one, it’s the right thing to do. But it’s also what’s driving the demand, the interest as well … I think (young people) have a much better sense of social justice, regardless of which parts of the political scale they come from. I think they’re just more attuned to things that matter. And I think they’re just really, really curious.” Currently AGWA holds 18,600 pieces in the state art collection, with 3,000 of those Indigenous art. Walker has ambitions to build a new gallery, explaining that with more space “we could become a real great centre for telling different types of First Nations stories and exhibitions but in ways which are can be both immersive and object based”. Lane’s second stint at the gallery should be less arduous than her first, which encompassed the outbreak of the global COVID pandemic. During that time, she was instrumental in ensuring Indigenous artists could survive, leading an acquisition of Aboriginal art as part of AGWA’s $1.5 million stimulus package. “We spoke about how best we could look after the artists during this very tumultuous period, where there was a lot of uncertainty,” Lane explains. “We talked about existing artists who were in the collection and about the experience of remote communities, who often rely on the art world for their economy … We were really worried that with all that was closed down, particularly in Western Australia, that artists weren’t going to survive. “So that’s where the art gallery stepped in. That’s where all the curators came together and said, we want to support artists.” The pandemic was also an intense time for her husband, then the health minister. He was elevated to the top job in dramatic fashion when then-Premier Mark McGowan suddenly stood down in May. The months since have been somehow the same and different, Lane says. “It’s essentially your partner doing what they love, and you get to go along for that ride, and it just so happens that you turn out to be ‘first lady’,” she says. “I see Roger as much as I used to when he was Deputy Premier, but the intensity is far greater.” She jokes that “the food and the wine is just as tasty,” alluding to the perks and privileges of her partner being in politics; the fashion pressure to dress the part is less enjoyable. In her private life, one of Lane’s hobbies is researching her family roots from the 1800s and early 1900s; she has a tattoo representing her apical ancestors. “I do a lot of family history, particularly using ancestry.com as well, and reaching out and finding those connections that occur,” she says. “I’m trying to find my granny Mabel.” For other Aboriginal people wanting to find their history and family — an all-too-common story due to the Stolen Generation — Lane advises them to reach out into their communities as a starting point, acknowledging that Aboriginal people are an archive. Looking forward, Lane believes the arts could be better promoted in WA, with “different spheres, different sectors, different quarters working together to be able to give little kids the opportunity to be able to engage”. And what advice does she have for those future generations, as a role model and leader, particularly to Aboriginal women? “Follow your passion,” Lane says simply. “Because if something doesn’t excite you, then it’s really hard to go to it each day. And don’t give up.” Watch Emma Garlett’s interview with Carly Lane on The West Australian’s Paint It Blak video series at youtube.com/c/paintitblakthewest.

The West Australian exclusiveCarly Lane returns to AGWA to head Indigenous art programs: her interview with Paint It Blak’s Emma Garlett

exclusive
Carly Lane returns to AGWA to head Indigenous art programs: her interview with Paint It Blak’s Emma Garlett