SYDNEY.- The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia today unveiled a new site-specific sculpture Remember Us (2023) by contemporary Australian artist Reko Rennie. Rennie’s work is the sixth Loti Smorgon Sculpture Terrace Commission and will be on view from 4 October 2023 until September 2024.

Melbourne-based artist and Kamilaroi man, Reko Rennie (b. 1974), is well-known for his diverse practice working across sculpture, painting, video work and installation. Rennie’s art draws upon his Aboriginal identity to provoke discussions surrounding Indigenous culture, self-determination and identity in contemporary urban environments.

'Remember Us (2023)' is a memorial to the 551 Aboriginal people who have died in police custody, at the time this work was made, since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody final report was submitted in 1991. Since that report little has changed, and the number of deaths continues to rise.

This significant work is the first in a series of monumental sculptures the artist is making from marble. Rennie draws on the weight and gravitas of the stone to highlight the abuse of power within the Australian policing system. Installed on Gadigal land, the work references the marble monuments and inscriptions of ancient Rome. Through the reclamation of a Eurocentric medium of marble by a First Nations artist, Rennie seeks to elevate the magnitude of a pressing national issue to an international platform, imploring wider acknowledgement, discourse and action.

On the new commission, artist Reko Rennie states: “Remember Us asks us to question, why is this still occurring in 2023? Where is accountability from those in power? This is a national and international travesty of justice. Words fail such violations of human rights. Numbers speak volumes. Those who are no longer here to speak deserve to be remembered, have their cases heard, and the results actioned.”

Lara Strongman, Director, Curatorial and Digital, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, said: “MCA Australia has a long history of working closely with contemporary artists on projects that speak of the most pressing issues of our times. We are proud to present this significant new commission by Reko Rennie, one of Australia’s leading artists for the Loti Smorgon Sculpture Terrace. The weight of the marble Reko has used underscores the political charge of the work.”

Suzanne Cotter, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, said: "MCA Australia is dedicated to presenting the work of today’s most significant living artists. Reko Rennie’s new work for the Loti Smorgon Sculpture Terrace Commission inaugurates a revitalised program of annual commissions that respond to the cultural significant and spectacular site of the MCA on Tallawoladah overlooking Sydney Harbour/Warrane.”

The Loti Smorgon Sculpture Terrace Commission is named in honour of Mrs Loti Smorgon AO (1918–2013), who, together with her husband Victor Smorgon, donated 149 artworks to the MCA Collection. The creation of a sculpture terrace for the Museum realised a long-held desire by Loti Smorgon to support Australian sculptural works. Remember Us (2023) is the sixth in a series of site-specific commissions for the outdoor sculpture terrace which overlooks one of the best views of Sydney Harbour. Past commissions include works by Cameron Robbins (2021–2023), Danie Mellor (2019), Caroline Rothwell (2016), Sangeeta Sandrasegar (2014), and Hany Armanious (2012).

The Loti Smorgon Sculpture Terrace Commission is generously supported by Ginny and Leslie Green.

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Reko Rennie: Remember Us (2023)
October 4th, 2023 - September 2024