transformations: aboriginal art today

TRANSFORMATIONSAboriginal Art Today

Transformations: Aboriginal Art Today supports the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, an Australian based charity which aims to raise literacy levels andimprove the lives and opportunities of Indigenous children living in remote andisolated regions. This is done through the delivery of books and literacy

www.ilf.org.au

resources, publishing and visits out to remote communities of Australia.

Charity Event | Tuesday 19th MayAn Evening Lecture and Reception with Nicola Pagano and Wirra Wirra Wines

£35 per ticket enquire with the gallery


13 23 May 2015

Lacey Contemporary Gallery8 Clarendon Cross | W11 4AP | London

Transformations: Aboriginal Art Today

SCRATCHING THE SURFACE: THE CONTEMPORARY PRESENCEOF ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN ART | by Henry F Skerritt

Every work in this exhibition is a revelation. Some are intended to knock yousquare between the eyes, to bowl you over with the sensuous impact of riotouscolor combinations and cascading forms. Standing before the paintings of YaritjiYoung, Barbara Mbitjana Moore or Lilly Hargraves Nungarrayi is like looking upat an explosive display of pyrotechnics. Like ireworks, their effect is bold andimmediate. Their visual appeal hits you before you have time to think what itcould possibly mean. Such paintings might seem textbook illustrations for theold Kantian dictum that aesthetics precedes reason. We might even stretch thisobservation further to include the somber ochre works of Phyllis Thomas andFreddie Timms. Surely even the most casual viewer must sense the gravitas andelemental authority in the muted earthiness of these bold expressions of country?

For some viewers, this initial aesthetic impact might be enough. And yet, byvirtue of the fact that you are reading this essay, taking the time to explore thesecomplex and mysterious works further, I am going to guess that you are lookingfor something more. I am going to guess that these works have given you an itch,that there is something in them that compels you to scratch beneath the surface.In the decade that I have been writing about Aboriginal Australian art, I havefound this to be a common response. I don’t think this is accidental. As the arthistorian Ian McLean has succinctly noted, “These paintings are aimed at theWestern world with all the power and accuracy of a wellthrown spear.” Thereis a tendency in the west to view indigenous art forms as the last gasps of disappearing cultures. But these artworks are not sentinels protecting a disappearing regime of knowledge; they are occupying forces spreading theirmessage with persuasive affect. This is guerrilla aesthetics, iniltrating your consciousness with the aim of making you see the world differently.

Lacey Contemporary | 13 23 May 2015

Indeed, it doesn’t take too much digging before these paintings begin to revealcomplex histories of place, detailed ecological knowledge, the joyous expressionof ancestral creation, and the scars of colonial encounter. If we are to begin toappreciate the profundity of these revelations, we must irst delve deep into theconcept of “country” that runs through these works. The sociologist VivienJohnson has described Western Desert paintings as being “deeds of title” to

ancestral country. While this is certainly true, it is a very different model of landtenure to that of Western property law. The rights enshrined in these “deeds”cannot be transferred, because it is an authority that comes from the reciprocalsense of also belonging to the land. Hence, Aboriginal artists will often describea painting as being both a landscape and a selfportrait.

At the same time, the meaning of “country” is deined by the continuing presenceof ancestral beings. During the creation period (often referred to as the Dreaming), these beings shaped travelled across the country, creating all things,and leaving their residue in the landscape. These are the types of narratives recounted in the works of Bob Gibson and Esther Giles: narratives whose presence gives the earth its spiritual power, and whose commemoration keepsthe generative ability of country strong.

For Aboriginal Australians, this ancestral presence reveals itself in the creativepotential and visual activity of the landscape. The shimmer of a dried waterhole,shifts in light and color, or the blooms in Spring are all tangible expressions ofancestral experience. They are the way in which the Dreaming is made visible.Painting translates these effects and presents them as a knowable feature ofplace. For Yolngu artists, such as Dhurrumuwuy Marika and RalwurrandjiWanambi, this effect is known as bir’yun: the brilliance of designs interpretedas an index of ancestral power. We might see a similar process at work in theshimmering optical effects marshaled by Maureen Poulson Napangardi. In an age in which art, information and people move with increasing speed (albeit not always voluntarily, nor with equal agency), these paintings ask us tostop. They ask us to slow down, to look carefully, to pay attention to what the


natural world reveals to us. On their most literal level, these paintings ask us tobe conscious of the presence of spirits and ancestral beings. In a broader sense,they force us to acknowledge the presence of different ways of seeing and valuingthe same world.

This is the most contemporary claim imaginable. Every signiicant work of artis an attempt to make sense of the world. In our increasingly networked age, thedeining task of artists is to imagine both our shared connectivity and our differences. Globalization has thrown different cultures and ideologies into unprecedented contact and conlict. Shaping these differences into meaningfulconnections has become the deining problem for contemporary artists everywhere. The most important contemporary artists today speak within andacross cultures (El Anatsui/Ai Wei Wei), embody parallel worlds (Paul Chan/JuliMehretu), and reveal disjunctive ways of understanding time and space (PierreHuyghe/Rabih Mroue). These are the very same features that characterize thework of leading contemporary Aboriginal Australian artists.

The true contemporaneity of the artworks in this exhibition does not come fromtheir use of bright colors or modern materials, but from the insistent claims thatthey make on the present. Whether in the bold shapes of Keturah Nangala Zimran, or the spiraling lutter of Joy Kngwarreye Jones, these paintings demandyour recognition of the persistence and beauty of Aboriginal Australian culturesand the Dreaming Law that underpins them. Another way to consider this isthrough Regina Pilawuk Wilson’s delicate rendering of Syaw, a design basedupon the ish nets that she remembers her parents and grandparents weavingbefore the arrival of missionaries during the 1940s. Recording this memoryserves as a bulwark against the process of forgetting. In doing so, it weaves thesetraditional practices into the practice of contemporary life. Wilson describes itlike this: “My way—the [Syaw] story—it’s there, from a hundred thousand yearsago. I’ve got to paint the story on the canvas. It’s like our history.” It is their abilityto effectively communicate this history crossculturally without sacriicing anyof their distinctive cultural identity that places artists like Wilson at the vanguard


of global contemporary art practice.

You might enjoy looking at these works. You might bask in their glowing colorsand radiating energy. Indeed, they invite you to do so: this is their lure. But todo so is to allow yourself to be occupied by ancestral presence. Allow yourselfto be overtaken and you just might see a world more magical than you ever imagined: a world big enough to contain spirits and gods, but small enough toallow meaningful conversations between different cultures, united across thesensuous plain of the canvas.

Henry F. Skerritt is a curator and art historian based in Pittsburgh, Penn-sylvania. He is editor of the book ‘No Boundaries: Aboriginal AustralianContemporary Abstract Painting’ (Prestel Publishing, 2015).


ARTISTS AND REGIONS

KIMBERLEY

ARNHEM LAND

NORTHERN TERRITORY

WESTERN AUSTRALIA SOUTH

AUSTRALIA

QUEENSLAND

NEW SOUTHWALES

ACTVICTORIA

TAS

Fitzroy Crossing

Kununurra

Ruper River

YirrkalaManingrida

Darwin

Mornington Island

Brisbane

Sydney

Canberra

Hobart

Melbourne

Adelaide

Alice Springs

PerthLajamanu

UtopiaYuendumuPapunya

AmataErnabella

Parjarr

CENTRAL DESERT

Artists - Kimberley

Pampila Hanson BoxerPatrick BitingFreddie TimmsClaude Carter

Artists - Arnhem Land

Bob BurruwalLena YarinkuraMiko RostronLeslie LaniganDhurrumuwuy MarikaMalaluba GumanaNawurapu WunungmurraRalwurrandji WanambiRegina Pilawuk Wilson

Artists - Central Desert

Phyliss ThomasLily HargravesKathleen KngaleAnnie Petyarre HunterJoy Kngwarreye JonesBarbara Mbitjana MooreAlice NampitjinpaKeturah Nagala ZimranMaggie Major NampitjinpaMaureen Poulson NapangardiYaritji YoungEsther GilesBob Gibson


FEATURED WORKS:


Alice Nampitjinpa (left)Porcupine Tjukurrpa

Acrylic on Linen122x92cm

Alice Nampitjinpa Porcupine Lore at the Waterhole



Alice Nampitjinpa (left)Tali-Tali (Big Mob Sandhills)


Annie PetyariArowilya Awelye



Barbara Moore Untitled



Bob GibsonPatjantja

Acrylic on Canvas36x36cm

Bob GibsonPatjantja


Bob GibsonPatjantja


Bob GibsonPatjantja



Bob Gibson Warlutu



Claude CarterLimestone Ridge at Gooboogooru Cave

Natural Earth Ochres on Canvas120x90cm


Claude CarterLimestone Ridge at Gooboogooru Cave

Natural Earth Ochres on Canvas180x190cm


Dhurrumuwuy MarikaRulyapa

Natural Earth Pigments on Laminate92x122cm


Freddie TimmsGum Creek

Natural Earth Pigments on Canvas120x270cm (triptych)


Esther GilesPurrungu - Python Story



Esther GilesMinymarr Tjukurrpa



Kathleen KngaleAnekwet J - Bush Plum 2009



Joy Kngwarreye JonesAyipa Grass 2010

Acrylic on Belgium Linen90x90cm


(left)Keturah Nangala ZimranPuli Puli - Big Mob Rocks


Keturah Nangala ZimranPuli Puli - Stones



Lily HargravesTurkey Dreaming



Lily HargravesDuck Ponds Dreamings


Maureen PoulsonNapangardiKapi Tjukurrpa - Kalipinyka




Rosie TasmanCentipede and Butterly Dreaming



Phyllis ThomasGemerre 2008 (triptych)

Acrylic and natural earth pigments on board80x100cm (x3)


Maggie Major NampitjinpaItilangi Tjukurrpa



Rosie TasmanBush Potato Dreaming



Regina Pilawuk WilsonSyaw



Yaritji YoungTjala Tjukurpa



Leslie LaniganMimih Spirit

Carving175x6cm

Miko RostronMimih Spirit

Stringy Bark withOchre Pigment andPVA ixative130x5cm

Miko RostronMimih Spirit

Stringy Bark withOchre Pigment andPVA ixative138x5cm


Malaluba GumanaDhatum Larrakitk, 2013

Hollow Logs with Natural ochresand PVC ixativevarious height approx 160180cm


Lena YarinkuraWarum (ish increasing spirit)

Ochre Pigment on Kurrajongwith PVA Fixative178cm (height)

Bob BurruwalWarum (ish increasing spirit)

Ochre Pigment on Kurrajongwith PVA Fixative178cm (height)


Nawuwapu WunungmurraMokuy

Carving247cm (height)

Patrick BitingLightning Man

Natural Pigment on Wood140x40cm

Nawuwapu WunungmurraMokuy

Carving200cm (height)


Ralwurrandji WanambiTrial Bay

Bark58x242cm

(right)Ralwurrandji Wanambi Bamurrumu

Bark Painting77x177cm


Pampila Hanson BoxerHand Crafted & Painted Boomerangs

Black Wood with Natural Earth Pigments andKangaroo Fat Oil5488cm (approx)


Dhuwarrwarr MarikaYolngu Mokuy

Painted Wood Carving63cm

Dhuwarrwarr MarikaMokuy

Painted Wood Carving82cm


JGM Art Ltd

JGMART is a London gallery founded by private dealer, Jennifer GuerriniMaraldi.She exhibits and sells contemporary aboriginal paintings and sculptures collected each year during her travels into the remotest areas of Australia. Jennifer is a leading expert in Australian Contemporary Art offering paintingsand sculpture by artists from the world’s oldest cultural traditions to collectorsworldwide.

Jennifer is renowned throughout Australia for her integrity and keen eye, working closely with art advisors from oficial community art centres. She takespersonal responsibility to ensure that artists are paid correctly and new artistssupported. All artworks are accompanied by an oficial certiicate and provenance. The Gallery represents the work of a wide selection of artists. Workscome from communities on Mornington Island and the Tiwi Islands as well asregions of the Kimberley, APY and NPY Lands, Top End and Arnhem Land, Western and Central Desert areas.

JGM Art is a proud member of the Indigenous Art Code. Their Australian NationalCode of Conduct promotes and monitors professional conduct among dealers inindigenous visual art.

www.jgmart.co.ukph: 07860 325 326


Lacey Contemporary Gallery

Lacey Contemporary is a new art gallery based in Holland Park, London. Sinceopening in October 2014, Lacey Contemporary has showcased contemporaryemerging artists who show impressive promise through their technique andcraftsmanship. Lacey Contemporary represents a small stable of Britishbasedartists and aims to create longterm relationships with their artists, and providefull promotion and opportunities for their work.

Alongside their program of represented artists exhibitions, Lacey Contemporaryis proud to present a series of exhibitions that celebrate and promote the emerging markets. The gallery has selected exhibitions that collaborate with artcurators and artists from abroad, as well as expert art dealers in exciting newmarkets such as African and Aboriginal Art – with works that are in keeping withthe gallery ethos of exhibiting vibrant and dynamic emerging, contemporarypainting and sculpture.

“From the beginning we’ve aimed to represent vibrant, unique and original paint-ings and sculpture by some of the most promising emerging contemporary artistsin Britain. Our secondary specialism in the emerging markets will retain these values through the careful selection of work by our expert curator partners”

– Andrew Lacey, Gallery Director

www.laceycontemporarygallery.co.ukPh: 0207 313 9068


Lily Nungarrayi Hargraves painting at Lajamanu, near Katherine, Northern Territoy, Australia



13 23 May 2015

transformations: aboriginal art today

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