No.1 Neighbour: Art in Papua New Guinea 1956-2016

118 №1 NEIGHBOUR MAKING MEN Eric Bridgeman is a multi-disciplinary artist of Chimbu (Yuri clan) heritage based in Brisbane. His work in ‘No.1 Neighbour’ has been created with family members in Papua New Guinea, at times, under the brand YAL TON. Known for his strong performance and photographic practice focused on sexual and racial politics, Bridgeman regularly spends time in the Highlands engaged in collaborative art-making with his extended family. CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE ORIGIN OF YAL TON? The concept of YAL TON began around 2012, when I was preparing to make work for a show at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Sydney, called ‘TABOO’. I had been going back to PNG to visit family members quite regularly since I finished art school in 2008, but I hadn’t really made a project there. When I began thinking about the MCA project, I felt that the work I could make in PNG was a lot different to the work I could make in Australia — not just in terms of geography, but also because of the sort of person I feel I become when I am there. I decided I wanted to have this brand YAL TON. In some way, YAL TON is an alter ego, but it is also a collaborative group. For the MCA work Hausman 2012, I brought my cousins together and we brainstormed ideas. A lot of the direction of the work comes from them and I wanted to honour them and their contributions. The group is quite fluid. I work with different people in my family each time because it is too difficult each trip to gather the same people together. HOW IMPORTANT IS MASCULINITY IN YOUR RECENT WORK? The first work YAL TON made was a short video called The Fight 2010. My cousins and uncles directed it, orchestrating this faux enactment of a village fight. It seems to revisit early Leahy brothers’ ethnographic films. It is a high energy, high masculinity performance to watch, but looking closely, the humorous nature of the skit becomes apparent. The trick was in blurring the authenticity of ethnographic role-play, and the joke was on the ethnographer and the audience. The people of the Highlands have a reputation in PNG for being warriors, strong women, and brutally hardheaded. There is a strong patriarchal system in place and this has naturally shaped my experiences, being surrounded mostly by my uncles and male cousins. In my clan, we no longer practice ritualistic initiation ceremonies for men, where we jump off trees and things like that. We have time in the hausman, where we are taught things, and although there is a deeply-rooted culture of warfare, manhood also means showing you are a responsible and hardworking member of the family. For example, my cousin Moses Motè built me a makeshift house in Kujip, Jiwaka Province, for when I go to stay. After a few years, I made it more permanent, which was a significant thing. I wasn’t out to impress, but it was a way of proving, both to me and to all the people around, that I was committed to the development of my relationships and goals within the community. I was also making my presence known in the Wahgi Valley. Making those profound gestures goes a long way. The work I have created for ‘No.1 Neighbour’ looks at these relationships and the time I have spent with my family. Life in the Highlands in a small village can have heavy moments, but there is also lots of wonder. We spend a lot of time telling stories, but I prefer to see them as important exchanges. My family’s stories may seem remarkable to the outsider, but are almost average narratives in the complex, and sometimes rough, terrain of the many tribes who hold the ground in the PNG Highlands. The works are images of my mates (Yalkuna) and my family (Haus Lain), as well as intimate memories of exchanges on the Papa Graun (home). CAN YOU TALK ABOUT SHIELDS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF SHIELD DESIGN? In our Yuri language, we call shields ‘Kuman’. Important objects are often named after people; one of the big families in the clan is Kuman and my grandfather’s name was Muka, which is the Yuri name for arrow. ERIC BRIDGEMAN INTERVIEW BY RUTH M c DOUGALL