Iluka Sax-Williams is taking over the SIGNAL building for an exhibition titled Dabana as part of YIRRAMBOI 2025.
You may have seen Iluka Sax-Williams’ work without realising it – rattling past on an Art Tram or at group exhibitions. He’s been working with YIRRAMBOI since 2019, but this festival, he takes it to a new level with Dabana, an immersive solo exhibition and curatorial takeover at SIGNAL.
“YIRRAMBOI has always been an amazing experience for me,” explains Williams. “I’ve been able to really cultivate my artwork over the years, using YIRRAMBOI as a big stepping stone. Having a platform and festival run by mainly First Nations people is amazing, and it lets me build a body of work I can be proud of.”
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This year, Williams is branching out, putting forward multiple pieces on wood, kangaroo skins, a photographic series and animations, broadening his creative mediums.
“I never really see my artwork as staying on the kangaroo skin. I feel like these days, with how things can be digitised and how art is moving, you can work across many platforms. So, having the opportunity to do those types of things and stay true to my core work gives me the best of both worlds. It’s also a necessary shift.
“I was working with a group once doing possum skin burning, but some of the group members weren’t comfortable with this from an animal liberation point of view, so we shifted to wood. I find that when I apply my work to different mediums, it speaks to different people and age groups as well. Kids weren’t interested in the work I did on a wooden artifact until I moved it to a skateboard, you know?”
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Williams explains that considering the viewer and their experiences or knowledge level is part of his job as an artist.
“I’m working to awaken something and to get the viewer to ask questions or look a bit deeper while staying true to who I am and my people’s practice. As a young Indigenous person working within art, I have the things I’ve learned from elders, which I try to respect and combine with a new generation of young entrepreneurs, creative minds and leaders that have new ways of thinking, interpreting and expressing.”
YIRRAMBOI’s 2025 theme, Futures, Past, is well suited to Williams’s latest work, which explores identity and place as a young Indigenous person, taking unique perspectives shaped by his urban environment and connection to ancestral roots. Williams explores how modern city life and traditional practices intersect to inform his sense of self.
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“I’m on the ground working with people, engaging with the elders in my community, making sure I’m asking questions and adhering to protocols that we run through our communities to make sure the things that we do remain respectful. I’ve been able to grow up around many strong women and men who have shown me the ropes and how we work together to build new ideas that pay homage and respect, which at the end of the day is all we’ve got.”
Williams has been working within a lot of different industries of late, pushing his art further into new areas and mediums. His work on the Art Trams has helped to make history at the 2024 Anthem Awards in New York, winning Gold in the Education, Art & Culture category.
“It was amazing seeing my work blown up on a moving vehicle. It brings a whole new dynamic to the art, which was originally just for a kangaroo skin that we photographed and collaged into the final piece. I think the tram really spoke to a lot of people because it’s this landscape moving along another landscape, and it’s something a lot of people may have never seen before.
“I think a lot of people just think Indigenous art is restricted to dot painting. Down here in the Southeast, it’s a lot of line work, so a big part of what I do is trying to express to the rest of the world that the Southeast has something to say: we’re down here, we’re working hard and we’re producing these amazing pieces of work.”
Dabana by Iluka Sax-Williams will run from May 2 to 10 at Signal as part of YIRRAMBOI 2025. For more information and to grab your tickets, head here.
This article was made in partnership with YIRRAMBOI.
