Gallery gleanings

 As part of a renewed focus on slowing down and enjoying things, and also investing in the idea of an art-filled life, Barry and I are trying to make a time each week to visit/view some art.  We managed that last week in Maryborough (see previous post) and the week before that, we headed to Caboolture and saw two amazing Indigenous Art exhibitions.  Some of my favourite moments follow.

Vernon Ah Kee - exploring notions of becoming; and identity.

I refuse you my death by Dale Harding.  Kangaroo hides, re-stitched and re-formed .

Detail of work by Rosella Namok

The most beautiful display...

The photograph of the attribution panel for the works above and directly below is completely blurry and I apologise for no attribution. The display was part of Manggan - gather, gathers, gathering featuring Indigenous artists from Girringun Aboriginal Art Centre alongside collected objects from the South Australian Museum.

These works are Bagu with Jiman - traditional fire-making tools of the Girrigun rainforest Aboriginal people.

Breathtaking in many ways.

It was due to this visit to the Greater Brisbane Region that we then had to go into self-isolation for three days - worth every minute of it. We didn't go there knowing that we might have to isolate, the government decision came about two days later.

In conversation...

I mentioned a little while ago that I had work on show in the University of the Sunshine Coast Art Gallery's Exhibition from the Collection - Women's Work.

We had a great opening night and this Saturday, I will be in conversation with the Gallery Manager Megan Williams and two other artists Johanna DeMaine and Kym Tabulo. We will be talking about our practice, our process and our inspiration.

Saturday 27 April
11am -12pm
University of the Sunshine Coast Art  Gallery

If you are interested in coming along, you can register here.

I am thrilled with how the book is displayed - quietly and serenely.

One of my goose bump moments was when I realised I was in an exhibition with Eubena Nampitjin, an Aboriginal artist of great renown. We have been fortunate enough to collect one piece of Eubena's work and I love it so very much.

This shot shows my book and a glimpse of Eubena's work Kinyu 2008 - glee!

And then a detail of her work on show.

And the piece that hangs in our dining room area.

I also did a wee interview with the local telly. Which you can watch and listen to here 

It always makes me laugh what they film and record and what they use.  I thought I did an excellent bite about how fabulous it is to see women's art taking pride of place in a gallery; that for too long women's art was considered a leisurely pastime or hobby and they weren't taken seriously, yet here we see such fabulous professional women artists' work on display.

Nonetheless it is great to get televised coverage of local artists and exhibitions so I was thrilled.

APT 9 Part 1

The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT) has been on show at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in Brisbane since late last year.  Despite thinking of it often, we hadn't managed a trip to the city to view it, until today. I realised a wee while ago that it was closing soon so we had to get organised and Sunday was a free-ish day, so we had a family lunch and delivery of kitchen items, but first of all we went to GOMA to see APT9.

There was only one piece I knew I really wanted to see. Jonathon Jones' untitled (giran) 2018.

We arrived as soon as the gallery opened and I asked a security person where we would find it and headed straight there.  I knew that if I saw nothing else I needed to see this.  And we did. And it was everything.

 "Understanding wind is an important part of understanding country. Winds bring change, knowledge and new ideas to those prepared to listen". Jones writes.

In collaboration with Dr Uncle Stan Grant Snr AM, the work suggests a map of wind currents, of birds circling above, almost like the murmurations of starlings seen in the UK. A coordinated dance in the skies.

The key elements are traditional tools, and bound to each tool with hand made string is a small bundle of feathers. Many people answered Jones' call for feather to incorporate in the work, and they were delivered to him from all over the country.

Emu egg spoons, mussel shell scrapers, weaving start, bone awls, wooden spear points and stone knives make up the work, incorporating almost two thousand individually, hand crafted pieces.

And here it is in a panoramic shot which give you a sense of it, yet still not full ness of it.

It was accompanied by a sound scape - the whistle of the wind and of wings beating; the language of the Wiradjuri people, the air moving, bird song, breath...

It was exquisite.

ADDENDUM: Here is a link to a video (17 minutes) of Jonathon Jones speaking about this work.

The rest of the gallery had many moments of magic, but nothing moved me quite as much as this work. Here are some others.

Detail of work by Pannaphan Yodmanee.

Astonishing weaving and a bank of shells used for currency. Gunantuna (Tolai People) led by Gideon Kakabin.

A bomb which held hundreds of bombs and has been recovered in Laos, now being used for functional beauty - a garden bed from land mines. Lie of the Land by Bounpaul Photyzan.

Detail from Shinro Ohtake's Time Memory/Nairobi constructed from packing materials that arrived in his mail.

The beauty of dyed pandanus weavings of dilly bags. Mindirr by Margaret Rarru Garrawurra and Helen Ganalmirriwuy Garrawurra.

And a shadow from one of Louisa Humphry's headdress works.

On Tuesday I will share another favourite work and the colourful pieces that I enjoyed - this one was all about the muted, soft and soulful colourings.

The wall of small things

In recent times, Barry and I have found that we are purchasing less art, yet we still love to buy it! The slow down has mostly been because our house is filling up with lovely sculptural and 3-D pieces; and our walls are pretty much full with our Aboriginal art collection.

We have nonetheless bought a lot of small pieces and have been talking for a while of making 'a wall of small things' in our office.

Previously on the wall we had a triptych by Walala Tjapaltjarri, one of the Pintupi people who is about my age, but walked out of the desert when he was in his twenties, never having see a white person.  Not really that long ago…

And so because we have been planning and working out what we want to do and achieve, and how we want to spend our time, today we spent the afternoon creating our wall in the office.

Bits and pieces on our work table...

Barry screwing in D-Rings and other holders...

The two anchor pieces by local artist Katie Wells.

The top line organised…

Katie, Rob Natoli and Donna Watson…

Rob, Thich Nhat Thanh, Donna, Massimo Pollelo, local artists Alex Bridges,  Kym Barrett, Jinty Stockings 

Annie Atkinson, David Paulson and Katie.

This is where we got to this afternoon.  We figure if you have to sit at the computer or the desk and work, then you might as well have lovely art to gaze upon!

We still have quite a few to be framed so the afternoon has encouraged us to act on that as well. It was fun, and really the best thing is that we discovered we have room for more beautiful small things!

Here is where Walala's triptych has ended up - on top of our linen cupboard! Still, we get to see them a lot when we come up and down the stairs…

A visit to the city

Not so much about making art but viewing art. I have just returned from a day in the city - I headed down to Brisbane this morning to spend the day with a dear friend who was visiting from Sydney. The weather was sublime - 25 degrees in the middle of winter so we enjoyed our wander along the river and into and through the cultural institutions that hug the river bank.

We visited the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) and spent a long time working our way through "My Country, I Still Call Australia Home" - an exhibition of works by Contemporary Aboriginal artists.

In typical fashion I forgot to take my camera - life is way too full to remember details like that - so I relied on my phone camera to record some of my favourite pieces.

I had seen magazine articles and photos of this piece, but nothing prepared me for the power of it.

In Sorry, Tony Albert  uses kitsch items depicting Aboriginal people and spells the word sorry backwards - in reference to how ineffectual the Apology to the Stolen Generations was considered to be by some Aboriginal people.

Across the gallery on the opposite wall was this piece by Bindi Cole I forgive you. Again, in response to the Apology, but in this work, she recognises how important it was for her to acknowledge the apology and forgive people. As Karen said - the walls are talking to each other.

 

Each letter was made from multiple emu feathers..

Another piece which captured me was this series of tiny bibles, which had been re-worked to incorporate book page sculptures of each of the churches on Aboriginal Missions.  Each piece was called On a Mission from God with the name of the mission in brackets after it. I think these two might have been On a Mission from God (Darnley Island) and (Mappoon 1819).

And as we finished the final gallery I looked out through the entrance/exit  to be re-entranced by Arthur Koo-ekka Pamebagan Jr.'s Flying Fox Story Place. A series of hanging pods/poles which just look beautiful. I would love to have a space large enough to hang something like this...

It is always good in amongst the madness, to stop, take time out with friends, and wander through some art. Even better when it makes you stop and reflect on the world.

Mosaic magic

We have spent a bit of time at Umbukumba school during our stay - talking with staff and parents and in one instance undertaking surveys with the senior class as it worked with their curriculum. They had been designing  a survey themselves, and enjoyed participating in ours and sharing ideas about research.

In amongst the grey green of the grasses and gum trees; and the red dusty earth is this bright and magical mosaic at the entrance to the school. It makes me smile every time I pass it.

Umbakumba School mosaic

 The mosaic shows lots of images of local animals that are important in the people's lives here. Fish - there are so many fish around here!

Umbakumba mosaic - fish detail

 This part shows the turtles making tracks back to the sea after laying their eggs in the sand...

Umbakumba mosaic - turtle detail

 I think this might be mud crab - but I just loved he vivid colours!

Umbakumba mosaic - crab detail

There are also dugongs, tiger sharks and crocodiles depicted.

This is a photo of some of the school buildings all painted with traditional imagery. The school caters for children from 0-3 in a playgroup on site to 16 and 17 year olds and somehow holds it all together!

The entrance to Umbakumba Community School

Desert art and off to Tiwi

As many of you know, we have been on the road, many roads, for a month or so now and are heading off again tomorrow.

One leg of our journeys took us to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Alice is hot, dry desert country and stunningly beautiful at the moment after so much summer rain. The bright blue sky, the red red earth and the grey green foliage erupting everywhere.

We were fortunate to have some time after work to go looking in galleries. There is an abundance of Aboriginal art to be viewed in Alice Springs and we enjoyed wandering around, looking at the different techniques and styles.

We actually already have a fair bit of Aboriginal art in our house and were excited to see some well-priced work by artists we already own and or have always admired. And some new work by new artists as well. Here's what we bought:

My favourite piece from this trip (Tingari) by Walala Tjapaltjarri. Walala was born in about 1963 and is known as one of a family group of about 9 desert folk who walked out of the bush/desert in 1984 (he was about 21) and discovered white people for the first time. Tells a bit about the vastness of this land.

Another favourite artist Kudditji Kngwarreye. Kudditji was the first artist we ever bought and we have a great affection for his work. This (My Country) is stunning I think.

Gloria Petyarre - This is classic Gloria and the first of her pieces we have bought. I love the black and white starkness of this piece (Bush Medicine).

A new artist to us - but the abstract nature of this work kept talking to us. It felt like when Picasso started making square circles - the usual circles of water holes and so on are are depicted more abstractly here. Tingari by Nyilari Tjapangati. (Tingari stories provide the foundation for the tribal beliefs of the Pintupi people).

Tomorrow we head to Pirlangimpi on Melville Island - one of the Tiwi islands north of Darwin.  It is hot, humid, sub tropical country - very different to the desert but we are sure we will see some more beautiful art up there.  And we'll be working!