Vivid Sydney: Vincent Namatjira turns the MCA into a subversive rock concert

Vincent Namatjira’s King Dingo projection on the Museum of Contemporary Art for Vivid Sydney lit up earlier this week for a media preview before the event kicks off on Friday, May 23.
The subversive animation lifts from Namatjira’s witty, highly symbolic painting series.
The world-renowned artist has turned the MCA into a full-blown rock show with the story of the dingo blended with historical symbols of power.
READ MORE: The ultimate guide to Vivid Sydney.

There are many moments of pure, tongue-in-cheek brilliance during King Dingo, a large-scale projection conceived by one of this country’s most important artists, Vincent Namatjira, for Vivid Sydney. This year’s annual Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition has turned the symmetrical sandstone building into a symbolic rock concert, led by animated iterations of Australia’s treasured dingo, long-held as a symbol of Indigenous strength and power.

You’ll see King Dingo in royal regalia, historical attire, and just stalking around country as the crunchy riffs of rock and roll ring out across Sydney Harbour. It’s perfectly aligned with the wit and rebellion that has made Namatjira a world-renowned iconoclast, often using US presidents, Australian PMs, and, most famously, Gina Rinehart, as motifs to express connections between wealth, power and influence.

King Dingo even stages a rock concert with his friends, giving the mesmerising projection a sonic spine that should resonate well with the crowds as they flood into Vivid Sydney from Friday, May 23.

King Dingo on the Museum of Contemporary Art / Vivid Sydney — *Vincent Namatjira has created one of the best MCA projections to date (photo: Destination NSW).*

The score comes from Namatjira in collaboration with Indulkana-based composer Jeremy Whiskey. And while it’s set at the perfect volume as to not completely overwhelm Circular Quay, hearing it, and seeing it in full panorama, from across the Opera House side of Circular Quay should easily be one of the many Vivid Sydney highlights this year.

“King Dingo represents Aboriginal strength, pride and resilience, and respect for Country, culture, and Indigenous leadership past and present,” said Namatjira when he was originally explaining the motif.

“[In 2021] I had the pleasure of painting the huge foyer wall commission at the MCA, and I guess the only way to go bigger and more epic than that is to take over the entire outside of the building.”

Projection specialists The Electric Canvas worked closely with Namatjira to supersize his imaginative caricatures in many different ways. A bright sandy-yellow dingo strutting across the MCA’s Art Deco facade starts the show, which continually builds towards surrealistic imagery. The best moments work with the building’s symmetry.

*King Dingo is best viewed in full-scope from across the waters of Circular Quay (photo: Destination NSW).*

One of the of the most impressive scenes starts in the centre with dozens of cloned dingos on horseback flittering in all directions. It’s one of the best moments I’ve seen in Vivid Sydney’s long history of commissioning many different artists for the MCA projection. Another, having King Charles (with a Dingo head) looking lost in Central Australia is a perfect example of Vincent’s ferocious humour.

Nearby, Vivid Sydney reveals its very first high-profile fashion collaboration. For this year’s Customs House projection, Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales from famous fashion label Romance Was Born have turned the historic building into the House of Romance. It’s a hyper-colourful display of pure whimsy, drawing on the many colourful motifs from the label’s history to give Vivid Sydney another sure-shot.

With the full (and completely free) Vivid Light Walk opening this Friday, May 23, Sydney is once against set to shine on the world stage as artists, musicians, thinkers and chefs arrive to once prove that our beautiful city is the world’s greatest canvas.