Yuriyal Eric Bridgeman

Yuriyal Eric Bridgeman develops a practice closely tied to his family and clan, Yuri Alaiku (Simbu Province). Photography, painting, performance and installation operate in relation to the raun haus, a communal structure reconfigured as a site for making, gathering and exchange. Co-founder of the collective Haus Yuriyal, he operates there as both artist and facilitator. The kuman (shields), derived from the masculine practices of his clan, become pictorial surfaces that combine personal and collective expressions, questioning the relationships among portraiture, social commentary and cultural continuity.

The Biennale de Lyon acknowledges the tribal Elders and Leaders of the Yuri tribe, the members of the Haus Yuriyal Arts Collective; Yuriyal’s mother Veronica Gikope, the Chancellor of University of Goroka, PNG – Dr Joe Sine Wemin; Aunty Sana Balai, Bougainville Elder and Mittelheuser Great Ocean Scholar ; and Toya Momal Yal, Kerikane clan elder, Yuri tribe.

The Biennale de Lyon extends this acknowledgement to Yuriyal Eric Bridgeman, senior member of the Yopa Moya clan, of the Yuri tribe of Simbu Province in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, and lead artist of the Haus Yuriyal collective; as well as to Peter Dii Morua, senior member of the collective, and member of the Pilé Clan, of the Yuri tribe.

With the support of the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body
With the support of the Australian Embassy in France