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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

Enlighten projections

Spirits Shapeshifting

Daily from Friday 3 March until Monday 13 March 2023
Spirits Shapeshifting, 2023 Kate Beynon, Rali Beynon and Michael Pablo
Video: 30 seconds

Spirits Shapeshifting blends watercolour and digital animation to bring vibrant beings to life amid botanical dreamscapes, atmospheric skies and kaleidoscopic visions. Interwoven with giant lotus and a future-fantastic forest is a cast of supernatural characters and sci-fi versions of family including beloved animal spirits.

This collaborative work by Naarm/Melbourne-based creative family collective Kate Beynon, Rali Beynon and Michael Pablo draws inspiration from their blend of diverse cultural backgrounds, including Cantonese-Malaysian, Afro-Caribbean, First Nations Pima-Mexican, Welsh/Celtic and Nordic ancestries.

Exploring ideas of storytelling, kindred spirits, shapeshifting, fluid and hybrid identities through guardian spirits and talismanic imagery, Spirits Shapeshifting evokes an otherworldly space to counteract earthly anxieties and troubled times.

This site-specific work was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery for the 2023 Enlighten Festival. Kate Beynon’s work is also featured in the Portrait Gallery’s new contemporary art exhibition Portrait23: Identity.

Two people at a bench covered in sheets of paper in a room with a wooden floor and a large brown couch
Kate Beynon and Rali Beynon in the studio during a Collingwood Yards Bank of Melbourne Residency, 2022 Mark Mohell. Photographed on the land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation.

Special thanks: National Portrait Gallery, Kamberri/Canberra; The Electric Canvas; Events ACT; Centre for Projection Art, Yandell Walton, PluginHUMAN; Creators Fund/Creative Victoria; Collingwood Arts Precinct & Collingwood Yards; Guest Work Agency; Sutton Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne; all the Fam & Fur-Fam.

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Ancestors past, present and future of the Woiwurrung Wurundjeri people on the Country where we live and create, and the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people of Kamberri/Canberra on the Country where our work will be situated and experienced. In solidarity we pay respect to all First Nations people worldwide.

Kate Beynon is represented by Sutton Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne.

Instagram tags

@tudokb
@suttongallerymelbourne
@collingwood_yards
@rali_beynon

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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

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