Week 10

Michael Nelson Jagamara


Possum and Wallaby Dreaming

This painting was the inspiration and basis of Parliament Houses' mosaic situated directly in front of the enterance. Five artists were asked to come up with desgins for the mosaic, these included; Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Paddy Carrol Tjungurrayi, Maxie Tjampitjinpa, Two Bob Tjungurrayi and Michael Nelson Jagamara. They each submitted two designs, in a range of natural colours which corresponded with the colours available to stone mosaic pieces.

It then took 18months for the stonemasons to complete the master piece.

Week 9

Desert Country

In this exhibition there were 95 different artists showing 100 works; some on canvas with acrilic and others in the natural ochre. This exhibition shows many artists all from the desert regions of Australia, through this we can learn culture differences many groups have, including; language, rituals and ceremonies. These paintings are a translation of the Dreaming stories, which have been passed down over many generations and thousands of years.

Some of the Artists include;

Papunya Tula

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri --> With his painting of Honey Ant Ceremony.
Link; http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/agsa/home/Learning/docs/DesertCountryResource.pdf

He uses bright and bold colours, with strong, gestural lines intergrating patterens into one another, which creates an amazing effect, your eyes don't know where to look!

Utopia

Angelina Pwerle --> She has beautifully created a layering effect in Bush Plum, with deep pinks as an under-coat layer, then coming back in with a fine white and painting dots, using a bamboo skewer, and concentrated in particulr sections to build up the white. She is seen to create more the abstract works.

Warmun Art, East Kimberley

Mabel Juli --> Moon Dreaming; Mabel uses all natural ochres, which are made into powder, then mixed with glue to create paint. She has painted on 6 layers of this black ochre, to create this satin texture, then dotted onto the black to create a moon.

Ngaanyatjarra Western Desert Mob

Tommy Mitchell --> Walu Tjukurrpa, uses a complex series of colours to create many layers of dotting; Walu suggest this wind."

"This painting tells of two uncles and their young nephew who camp at Walu rockhole, a site on the Wati Kutjarra (Two Men) Dreaming route. While the uncles were out hunting, the boy would sneak into the Owl people’s camps and steal their meat. The Owl people complained to the uncles, but the boy denied his crime. The uncles then became angry with the Owl people and a big tornado swept them away. The men again went

hunting and returned with an emu. They were cutting it up for dinner when the greedy boy pulled out its heart and ran away, dripping blood. The blood is still visible today on stained rocks. One uncle, a powerful magic man, conjured a giant willy-willy and turned the boy into wind.
 

Week 7

Mimi Spirits; in rock art




The Mimi Spirits have said to have taught Aboriginal people living on the land how to hunt kangaroo, how to prepare the meat and how to use fire.
They are depicated as being very tall and very thin figures, which are in danger of breaking from the winds as they are so thin. This means that they dwell in caves and rock holes, this may be the reason why many of the earlier paintings which were found, were in the caves.
After sometime though, the Aborginial people of northen Australia began to paint them on bark, in rich earthy tones.


John Mawurndjul



'I always think of new ways to paint, always look for something different. My work is changing.' From interview with Apolline Kohen 2003

 Yawk Yawk
meaning young girl's spirit.

John Mawurndjul is one of the most experimental bark painters in Arnhem Land. Mawurndjul grew up in his country near Mumeka on the Mann River. He lived for a considerable time in the newly established Aboriginal town of Maningrida in the 1960s, but returned to Mumeka from 1972. Today he moves regularly between Maningrida and his outstation at Milmilngkan, south of Maningrida. He was taught to paint by his father, Anchor Kulunba, his brother Jimmy Njiminjuma and his uncle Peter Marralwanga. Mawurndjul's early work of the late 1970s reveals his meticulous attention to detail and very fine rarrk (crosshatching) technique. - Art Gallery NSW.

He has created works that comprise crosshatching with circles representing waterholes enmeshed in the grid. These paintings relate to Mardayin body paintings, and focus attention on the abstract representation of features of the associated landscape.

Bula Bula Arts

This is a place where there are 16 different clans who speak in 14 different languages, and was the film sight of the movie 10 canoes.

This is a map of the top end land.

This is the type of tree the people use to create woven objects. Whether they be baskets, carry bags or bowls.
They cut off the hanging parts of the tree (Pandanus) and then boil it in water with roots and other things that colour the straw-like substance. Then it is laid out in the sun for a number of hours till it's completely dried then it's ready to be used for weaving.

 And the finished product is achieved;


 End

Lin Onus

Week 5

Author: Ms Margo Neale, tribute

A tribute to the celebrated artist Lin Onus who died prematurely in 1996 aged 47. Onus had a remarkable career, from motor mechanic and political activist to maker of marvellous, witty and original paintings and sculptures. He was also widely loved and respected for his compassion and willingness to lead the cause of Aboriginal advancement. He was a cultural terrorist of gentle irreverence who bridged divides in a way in which very few are able.

Fruit Bats 1991

polychromed fibreglass sculptures,

        polychromed wooden disks,
        Hills Hoist clothesline
All have a cross-hatching design painted on their wings.


Detail;

Every bat is hand-made and they all have different features and expressions. There are over 100 hundred bats hanging upside-down on a typical Australian looking and iconic washing line. It was said that it really brings the Aboriginal culture and art into our Australian backyard, per say. Even though Aboriginal art has and will always be apart of Australian history and culture, I think that people don't really relate to it, as not many understand it. But I think that it does really bring Aboriginal art to our world, as it is in our 'backyard' but we just don't see it that much.

Maralinga 1990


fibreglass, pigment, plexiglass, paper stickers

Week 4 - Artists

Ricky Maynard

He is a photographer of black people, in their homes, their lives and their country. He talks about the 'Black War' which drove black people living in Tasmania to the Flinders Island. And European history tells that the people in these parts were going extince and dying out, but Maynard says that this is a lie and this is only white people's history not their history. And he claims that the people living on the Flinders Island were a strong group and that their culture was very much alive and not going extinct at all.
He says that white people did this so that it would seem as if black people were disappearing and that they wouldn't have to explain about where they had gone. And this is much of what his photography is based around, this was like a record of the people and their lives.

Here are a select few images of his works;


Broken Heart, 2005
from the series; Portrait of a Distant Land
Gelatin silver print

"When we left our own place we were plenty of People, we are now but a little one."

I think this is a very touching image, as you can feel the pain and lost and suffering that this man is going through, you can almost see the heartache and how much he has gone through to be where he is. I get a feeling of loss and abandonment when I look at this image.

Link; Stills Gallery,Ricky Maynard,http://www.stillsgallery.com.au/artists/maynard/,viewed 10/08/2011 

A little information on Ricky Maynard;

"Ricky Maynard was born in Launceston, Tasmania in 1953. He is a self-taught photographer who initially began work in the industry as a darkroom technician at the age of sixteen. In 1981 he undertook a photography course at Hobart Technical College, Tasmania to further his knowledge of chemistry and optics.

Maynard worked as trainee photographer at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), Canberra from 1983, and studied photographic optics at Reid TAFE College, Canberra in 1984. He was selected as one of the photographers of the After 200 Years project in 1985 and worked as the Aboriginal Arts Development Officer at the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, Hobart in 1987.

Maynard was employed as a contract photographer for AIATSIS from 1989 and first exhibited his photographs in Narragunnawali at the Canberra Contemporary Art Space that same year. In 1990 he was the recipient of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board Grant from the Australia Council, which enabled him to undertake a year's full-time study as part of the degree program in Documentary Photography at the International Centre of Photography, New York.

Maynard's photographs were included in Balance 1990: Views, Visions, Influences at Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane that same year. In 1992 he established a freelance business, Jollygood Productions Studio, in Adelaide. Maynard participated in Urban Focus: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art from the Urban Areas of Australia at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra in 1994. That same year he was awarded the Mother Jones International Fund for Documentary Photography for his black deaths in custody series No More Than What You See (1993), which was later exhibited at Stills Gallery, Sydney.

Maynard returned to Sydney in 1995 as artist-in-residence at the University of New South Wales. In 1997 he held the solo exhibition Urban Diary at Manly Art Gallery and Museum, Sydney. Maynard's photographs were included in the exhibitions Endangered Species at Horsham Regional Art Gallery, Victoria and Off Shore-On Site (part of the Festival of the Dreaming, Olympic Arts Festival) at the Casula Powerhouse, Sydney that same year. Maynard received the Australian Human Rights Award for photography in 1997. He is a founding member of M.33 Photoagency, Melbourne.

Artist statement — Ricky MAYNARD

This body of work embraces all of what the endeavour of photography is. In giving compassionate understanding for black deaths in custody it required a truthful accuracy with insight. They carry messages of our survival, not only of man's inhumanity to man, but a feeling of what it's like to be born black.

These pictures will live on in history, showing the moment to itself, showing what needs to be changed and hoping some day we can look back and see how far we have progressed as a society."

Link; Real Audio, Ricky Maynard,http://nga.gov.au/retake/artists/00000008.htm, viewed 10/08/2011.

Doreen Reid Nakamarra

When Doreen paints it makes her feel better as a woman and as a part of this world. She is able to share her stories of Dreaming and her husband's country through her paintings; “It’s women’s dream,” says Nakamarra, whose first language is Ngaatjatjarra. “When I paint it, I feel good. Strong.”
She only began painting when she was in her 40s, which is quite common for Indigenous people, as art is seen as something the older people would do, not for younger ones. The explosion of Nakamarra’s work followed the death of her husband, George Tjampu Tjapaltjarri. Before he died, George passed on to his wife a women’s dreaming associated with his country at Kintore, which Nakamarra now paints. This is why she now paints a woman's dreaming, from her husbands country.


The Rockhole Site of Wirrulnga, 2007
122 x 153cm

She uses a similar pattern for many of her paintings, as her 'style' to show you the land of a woman's dreaming.

"The lines in the painting represent the surrounding tali (sand hills) in the area around Wirrulnga. A group of ancestral women once gathered at this site to perform the dance and sing the songs associated with the area. Wirrulnga is known as a traditional birthing site for the women of the area, and while the women were at Wirrulnga a woman of the Napaltjarri kinship [group] gave birth to a son who was a Tjupurrula. While at Wirrulnga the women also gathered the edible berries known as kampurarrpa or desert raisin ... These berries can be eaten straight from the bush but are sometimes ground into a paste and cooked in the coals to form a type of damper."

Link; Collection Search, Doreen Reid Nakamarra, http://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=163800, viewed 10/08/2011

Australian Art Collector, Doreen Reid Nakamarra; Shimmering Lands, http://www.artcollector.net.au/DoreenReidNakamarraShimmeringLands, viewed 10/08/2011 

Tjukurpa - Anangu culture

Week 3

video: About Tjukurpa

video: Creation story

video: Bush foods

video: Working together

video: World Heritage

'Tjukurpa Katutja Ngarantja' | Tjukurpa above everything else

Tjukurpa is the foundation of Anangu life and society. Tjukurpa refers to the creation period when ancestral beings, Tjukaritja, created the world as we know it, and from this the religion, Law and moral systems.
Tjukurpa is not written down, but memorised. It is a cultural obligation to pass on this knowledge to the right people. Ceremonies play an important role in the passing on of knowledge. Specific people or groups in the kinship system have responsibilities to maintain different sections or 'chapters' of Tjukurpa. These chapters may relate to a specific site, or a section of an iwara (ancestral path) and this knowledge is carefully passed on to people who have inherited the right to that knowledge either through their birthplace, or through having earned the right by progressive attendance at ceremonies.
Tjukurpa is taught and remembered through specific verse of inma (songs), site related stories, ritual dances or rock art. The iwara (ancestral paths) are recalled in long sequential lists of sites, sometimes including sites beyond country which have been visited, and including sites belonging to other people. Tjukurpa may also be recorded in physical forms such as ritual objects and some objects are created for a specific ritual and then destroyed, and others are very old and passed on from one generation to the next. These objects are extremely important, and knowledge of their form and existence is highly restricted. They are not discussed in front of children, and may be specifically restricted to men or women.
Tjukurpa is also recorded in various designs and paintings, such as the 'dot' paintings of the Western Desert region. Designs are often sacred and their use may be restricted to specific groups or individuals. Some sounds are associated with particular Tjukurpa, for example the sound of the bullroarer is associated with sacred men's ceremonies. It is for this reason that Anangu don't want bullroarer objects sold to tourists.

Tjukurpa and park visitors

While Anangu welcome visitors to the park, they ask that you respect the importance of the place. For Anangu an essential part of 'keeping the Law straight' involves ensuring that knowledge is not imparted to the wrong people and that access to significant or sacred sites is not gained by the wrong people, whether wrong means men or women, Piranpa (non-Aboriginal) visitors or certain other Anangu. It is as appropriate for Anangu to care for these places as it is for non-Aboriginal religions to care for their churches, sacred precincts and relics. Even inadvertent access to some sites may be sacrilegious.
Within the bounds of appropriate access, Anangu want visitors to understand how they interpret this landscape through Tjukurpa/Wapar, and believe it will enhance their experience.
Anangu explanations of the park's landscape form the core of interpretive materials prepared for visitors. Information about Tjukurpa/Wapar can be foudn throughout the park as well as in the following parks notes.


Link; http://www.environment.gov.au/parks/uluru/culture-history/culture/index.html

STILLS Gallery

Week 2

Link; http://www.stillsgallery.com.au/artists/riley/index.php?obj_id=about&nav=0




Michael Riley


The late Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi artist Michael Riley is one of the most important Indigenous artists of the past two decades. Over his career he created an impressive body of work ranging from black & white portraiture to film, video and large-scale digital photograph. Throughout, his concern was to celebrate the spirit of his people while also bearing witness to their struggles. He had a deep commitment to the process of reconciliation.


Riley continues to be exhibited widely nationally and internationally. In 2006/2007 a major retrospective of Riley's work was held at the National Gallery of Australia, touring to the Art Gallery of NSW in 2008. Michael Riley: sights unseen revealed the prolific talents of a quiet observer whose photomedia, video and film continues to have a profound effect on Australia's contemporary representation and comprehension of Indigenous Australia. flyblown, Riley's 1998 was exhibited at Stills Gallery in 2008 and takes as its primary subject matter the land, its importance and its destruction. This is potently portrayed in an image of a dead galah lying on parched cracked earth. Symbolic objects such as the bible, crosses, water and skies, tell a story of Aboriginal degradation and dispossession by the process of white colonisation.
Riley's photographs have also been included in Reveries: Photography & Mortality (2007), at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, and at WAVEfront (2006), Tokyo Wondersite, Japan. Riley is one of eight Indigenous artists whose work was selected to be featured in the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris (2006), which showcases Indigenous art from around the world. The landmark commission, curated by prominent Indigenous curators Brenda L. Croft (Senior Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, National Gallery of Australia) and Hetti Perkins (Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts, Art Gallery of New South Wales), is a permanent, site-specific public artwork.


Riley's last and most significant series cloud (2000) continued his investigation of Indigenous spirituality and attachment to country. The ten large-scale colour photographs depict objects such as a feather, a cow and a boomerang suspended against brilliant blue skies. A sense of loss pervades this work. In 2004, Riley was awarded one of three Grand Prizes at the 11th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh for his cloud series, a significant achievement for the Australian artist whose work was selected from more than 300 artists from 44 countries.


Sacrifice (1992) a series of 15 beautiful and enigmatic images was perhaps Riley's first conceptual body of work. It symbolically reflects on the relationship between Indigenous people and Christianity commenting upon the conflicting role of the church as both protector of Indigenous people and destroyer of traditional culture. In 2006, Michael Riley - Sacrifice was released as a box set, at Stills Gallery.
Riley had an impressive career as an artist and cultural activist. In 1987 he was one of the founding members of Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative, set up to promote the work of urban Aboriginal artists. His work is held in many private and public collections. In 2002 Empire and cloud traveled to ARCO in Spain as part of Photographica Australis and in 2003 cloud and Sacrifice featured in the Asia Pacific Triennial at the Queensland Art Gallery. Michael Riley continues to be represented by Stills Gallery in collaboration with The Michael Riley Foundation.


'Cloud' Series

Untitled, 2000 from cloud Chromogenic pigment print 110 x 155cm, edition of 5 1 AP Not Available

Untitled, 2000 from cloud Chromogenic pigment print 110 x 155cm, edition of 5, SOLD 1 AP Not Available

Untitled, 2000 from cloud Chromogenic pigment print 110 x 155cm, edition of 5, SOLD 1 AP Not Available

Untitled, 2000 from cloud Chromogenic pigment print 110 x 155cm, edition of 5, SOLD 1 AP Not Available

Untitled, 2000 from cloud Chromogenic pigment print 110 x 155cm, edition of 5, SOLD 1 AP Not Available

Untitled, 2000 from cloud Chromogenic pigment print 110 x 155cm, edition of 5 1 AP Not Available

Untitled, 2000 from cloud Chromogenic pigment print 110 x 155cm, edition of 5, SOLD 1 AP Not Available

Untitled, 2000 from cloud Chromogenic pigment print 110 x 155cm, edition of 5, SOLD 1 AP Not Available

Untitled, 2000 from cloud Chromogenic pigment print 110 x 155cm, edition of 5, SOLD 1 AP Not Available

Untitled, 2000 from cloud Chromogenic pigment print 110 x 155cm, edition of 5 1 AP Not Available

'Sacrifice' Series

Michael Riley Sacrifice - boxed set 15 silver gelatin fibrebased prints 16.5 x 26cm, edition of 20				Enquire about images from this series

Untitled XI, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 44 x 61cm, edition of 10

Untitled VII, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 61 x 44cm, edition of 10

Untitled X, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 44 x 61cm, edition of 10

Untitled XIII, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 44 x 61cm, edition of 10

Untitled III, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 61 x 44cm, edition of 10

Untitled IV, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 44 x 61cm, edition of 10

Untitled XV, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 44 x 61cm, edition of 10

Untitled VIII, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 61 x 44cm, edition of 10

Untitled XII, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 44 x 61cm, edition of 10

Untitled V, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 44 x 61cm, edition of 10

Untitled II, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 61 x 44cm, edition of 10

Untitled VI, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 44 x 61cm, edition of 10

Untitled I, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 44 x 61cm, edition of 10

Untitled XIV, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 61 x 44cm, edition of 10

Untitled IX, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 44 x 61cm, edition of 10