Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien (France)

White Bay Power Station

Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien works across a variety of mediums including textile, drawing, sculpture, photography, painting, video-performance, engraving, and installation. She seeks to juxtapose diverse cultural elements, bringing them together to form new, syncretic pieces with additional layers of meaning. Interested in the complex relationships between notions of a universal popular culture, everyday life, and traditional handmade construction processes, Manlanbien creates physical encounters between industrial and artisanal materials. The artist speaks of her intention to create ephemeral, poetic narrations which are in perpetual renewal, resulting in tangible pieces which both ‘witness’ and ‘trace’ past diverse cultural histories. She sees her practice as an ongoing development and an exploration into the intersectional positionalities of women.

Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with assistance from the Embassy of France in Australia.