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The Alchemists is not comprehensive of the broad practice of Aboriginal weaving across Australia, yet it presents recent imaginings of the form, colour, textures, and subject matter of fibre art from key art centres and artists of Maningrida, Elcho Island, Bula’bula, Gapuwyiak, Milingimbi, Anindilyakwa, Pomparruaw, Martumili, and Baluk Arts, as well as individual fibre arts practitioners from Grace Lillian Lee’s exquisite and potent interpretation of grasshopper weaving, to Kieren Karritpal’s translation of inter-generational weaving onto canvas, Noongar weaver, Janine Mcaulley Bott’s Western Australian series of endangered bush animals and Vicki West’s jacket vine kelp and flax installation.
SHARMILA WOOD
Curator; FORM, building a state of creativity
Aboriginal fibre arts practice represented in The Alchemists emerges from a repository of social and cultural knowledge that enables artists to transform raw materials into a range of aesthetic forms. Artists perform creative alchemy as they fuse ethnobotanical knowledge of their particular Country with chemistry, creativity, and individual expressions into various woven forms that move fluidly between social change and transformation, renewal and innovation. Artworks remain distinctly connected with place, and the broader cultural ecosystem, as part of a web of intergenerational knowledge, personal practice, social interaction, Country and language.
Artist’s hold an in-depth understanding of the tactile way materials can be stretched, bent, shaped, pulled and pushed. The ideas and culture that find expression in fibre art are informed by a relationship between artists, material and place. In an era with a growing awareness about the impact of climate change, and the mobilisation of movements against mass production and industrialised processes, the woven form as an expression of local community production and involvement has lessons in ingenuity, and sustainability, highlighting the interconnectedness between individuals, communities, and the environment. Often guided by relationships between women weavers across the generations as teachers, guides and mentors, the culture of weaving is also about relationships and our responsibility to each other.
In The Alchemists, fibre refers to predominantly natural materials of pandanus, sand palm, kurrajong, kelp, jungle vine and palm fronds, but also represents artists’ creative adaptation of ghost nets, as well as found and manufactured materials. Weavers translate fibre into various forms, from baskets, to sculptures, and wall works in intriguing and surprising ways that can be seen in many dimensions, and alternately hang, hover, and float. The scope of Aboriginal fibre art is vast, and diverse, often distinctively regional as representative of a shared communal cultural identity informed by local places and botany on Country, yet highly individualised, with each artist demonstrating their own technique and vision of weaving in their chosen medium.
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Batjbarra (water chestnut scoop) | 2019 Mary Dhapalany Bula’bula Arts Pandanus and bush string with natural dyes 900 x 550mm
$3,310
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Fish Trap Mary Dhapalany Bula’bula Arts Pandanus and bush string with natural dyes 750 x 260mm
$890
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Bathi Mul | 2018 Mandy Batjula Gaykamungu Milingimbi Art and Culture Pandanus and native fig root. 230 x 90mm
$710
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Mindirr | 2017 Mandy Batjula Gaykamungu Milingimbi Art and Culture Pandanus and native fig root. 150 x 110mm
$860
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Bidiyunawuy Mindirr | 2017 Helen Ganalmirriwuy Milingimbi Art and Culture Pandanus and natural fibres. 260 x 130mm
$890
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Mul Bowl Mandy Batjula Gaymangu Milingimbi Art and Culture 100 x 340 x 310
$560
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Mul Bowl Mandy Batjula Gaymangu Milingimbi Art and Culture 380 x 370
$560
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Mul Bowl Mandy Batjula Gaymangu Milingimbi Art and Culture 250 x 240
$420
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Woven Mat | 2018 Margaret Djarrbalabal Malbirr Bula’bula Arts Pandanus with natural dyes 800mm
$590
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Woven Mat | 2019 Mary Dhapalany, Bula’bula Arts Pandanus with natural dyes 2200mm
$5,520
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Jin.gubardabiya | 2019 Helen Kamajirr Stewart Maningrida Arts and Culture Pandanus with natural dyes 4750 x 1720mm
$2,940
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Fish Trap | 2018 Audrey Marrday Gapuwiyak Arts Pandanus palm 1100 x 350mm
$1,290
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Yawkyawk | 2018 Anniebell Bindalbindal Marrngamarrnga Maningrida Arts and Culture Pandanus with natural dyes 2280 x 800mm
$11,000
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Yawkyawk | 2018 Anniebell Bindalbindal Marrngamarrnga Maningrida Arts and Culture Pandanus with natural dyes 2120 x 820mm
$8,460
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Waterholes | 2016 Lulu Laradjbi Maningrida Arts and Culture Pandanus with natural root dyes 2500 x 2800mm
$4,000
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Basket with Handles Patricia (McTaggart) Marrafura 555 x 250mm
$715
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Basket with Handles Patricia (McTaggart) Marrafura 530 x 280mm
$715
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Basket with Handles Patricia (McTaggart) Marrafura 565 x 340mm
$715
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Body Armour - A Weave of Reflection Pink and Orange, 2018. Photography by Wade Lewis. Image courtesy of Grace Lillian Lee.
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Double Twist Beaded Weave | 2019 Grace Lillian Lee Cotton webbing
$830
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Double Twist Beaded Weave | 2019 Grace Lillian Lee Cotton webbing
$830
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Body Armour - A Weave of Reflection Black and White | 2018 Grace Lillian Lee Cotton webbing 750 x 900mm
$13,780
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Body Armour - A Weave of Reflection Green | 2018 Grace Lillian Lee Cotton webbing 750 x 900mm
$13,780
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Fish Net 2 | 2019 Kieren Karritpul Merrepen Art Centre Acrylic on linen 1275 x 710mm
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Wauipan 2 | 2019 Kieren Karritpul Merrepen Art Centre Acrylic on linen 1240 x 1040mm
$4,680
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Merrepen Yerrgi - Mat Mer | 2019 Kieren Karritpul Merrepen Art Centre Acrylic on linen 2200 x 1880mm
$14,100
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Walupan (Fishing Net) | 2019 Patricia (McTaggart) Marfurra Handwoven and naturally dyed Merrepen palm. 1200 x 2100mm
$22,000
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Weaved Pipe Clay Vessel | 2018 Cassie Leatham Baluk Arts Woven fibre and found natural materials 190 x 140mm
$750
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Bloodllines | 2018 Lisa Waup Baluk Arts Woven fibre and found natural materials 130 x 120mm
$1,640
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Oceans Deep | 2018 Gillian Garvie Baluk Arts Woven fibre and found natural materials 95 x 75mm
$630
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Blue Bird | 2018 Lisa Waup Baluk Arts Woven fibre and found natural materials 100 x 80mm
$1,420
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Passing Down Knowledge | 2018 Gillian Garvie Baluk Arts Woven fibre and found natural materials 125 x 80mm
$710
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Shared Culture | 2018 Lisa Waup Baluk Arts Woven fibre and found natural materials 160 x 150mm
$1,340
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Meeting of the Waters | 2015 Lisa Waup Baluk Arts Woven fibre and found natural materials 120 x 110mm
$1,970
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Family | 2018 Lisa Waup Baluk Arts Woven fibre and found natural materials 70 x 120mm
$630
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Basket | 2019 Ngamaru Bidu Martumili Artists Minarri grass and wool 330 x 350mm
$370
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Basket | 2019 Ngamaru Bidu Martumili Artists Minarri grass and wool 570 x 550mm
$550
Basket | 2018 Kumpaya Girgirba Martumili Artists Minarri grass and wool 450 x 460mm
$200
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Basket | 2018 Elizabeth Toby Martumili Artists Minarri grass and wool 540 x 570mm
$540 41
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Untitled | 2019. Vicki West. Jacket vine kelp and flax 3000 mm
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Barramundi Jill Yantuba Pompurrauw 880 x 1400mm
$3,300
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Coronation Coral Trout David Holroyd Pompurrauw 680 x 1260mm
$3,300
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Phascogale | 2019 Janine McAullauy Bott Jacaranda seed ears, palm fronds, gum-nut eyes and emu feathers with woollen tail Western Australia 530 x 90mm
$690
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Chitty (Willy wagtail) | 2019 Janine McAullauy Bott Karrajong seed head, palm fronds and emu feather tail Western Australia 300 x 170mm
$730
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Wombat | 2019 Janine McAullauy Bott Woven Sculpture Western Australia 360 x 290mm
$690
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Possum | 2019 Janine McAullauy Bott Woven Sculpture Western Australia 450 x 470mm
$690
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Kookaburra (Mozart Musician of the Bush) | 2019 Janine McAullauy Bott Woven Sculpture Western Australia 450 x 380mm
$720
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Frill Neck Lizard | 2019 Janine McAullauy Bott Woven Sculpture Western Australia 620 x 210mm
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Set of three bush rats | 2019 Janine McAullauy Bott Woven Sculpture Western Australia 155 x 100 mm
$180
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For interest or queries please contact Sharmila Wood sharmila@form.net.au Tayah Lee-Traub tayah@form.net.au 52
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Exhibition initiated and managed by FORM
Gallery Partner
A L C H H EE M M II SS TT SS
Principal Partner
Government Support
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