Australia's stunning 'Songline' digital exhibit lights up KL's National Art Gallery

At the National Art Gallery in KL, the 'Walking Through A Songline' from Australia offers a multi-sensory digital installation in which visitors can immerse themselves in ancient Aboriginal Australian knowledge communicated through new technology. Photo: Bernama

Australia’s immersive multimedia installation Walking Through A Songline is now on show at the National Art Gallery (NAG) in Kuala Lumpur until Sept 11.

It is NAG's first international exhibition after being closed for renovation for over two years.

Based on a component of the National Museum of Australia’s internationally acclaimed exhibition Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters, which takes visitors on a journey along the epic Seven Sisters Dreaming tracks, the digital exhibition celebrates Australian Indigenous arts, culture, and creativity.

Walking Through A Songline offers a multi-sensory digital installation in which visitors can immerse themselves in ancient Aboriginal Australian knowledge communicated through new technology. The installation is also a celebration that gives visitors the feeling of walking through a "songline" themselves. It is suitable for all ages.

Songlines, or Dreaming tracks, map the routes of Ancestral beings as they travelled across Australia, creating the land and its people.

Australia's High Commissioner to Malaysia Dr Justin Lee said Malaysians were the first international audience to experience the pop-up version of this digital installation.

"Viewers can immerse themselves in the stories, ancient knowledge and artistic ingenuity of the First Australians and gain an appreciation for their unique relationship to the land”, the High Commission cited Lee as saying in a statement.

The light installation was produced by the National Museum in partnership with Mosster Studio, and supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as part of its flagship public diplomacy initiative - Australia Now.

Margo Neale, senior Indigenous curator and head of Indigenous knowledges at the National Museum, said, "We need to remind the world that, although this story has ancient origins, it has critical contemporary relevance and uses contemporary technology as well as more conventional art forms.”

Admission to NAG is free. - Bernama