Woven Together: Celebrating South Hedland

Spinifex Hill Studio acknowledges the Kariyarra people as the Traditional Owners of the land on which our studio is based, the Whadjuk Noongar people of Perth where FORM is headquartered, and Traditional Owners across Western Australia. We honour and pay respect to community Elders and to their ancestors who survived and cared for this Country. Always Was, Always Will Be, Aboriginal Land.

Artist Olive Joseph crocheting at Spinifex Hill Studio, July 2023, photograph by Rekeshia Goodwin.

Woven Together Celebrating South Hedland

Over recent years the artists of Spinifex Hill Studio have begun experimenting with weaving and other textile techniques, alongside their painting practices. Several of the artists use traditional basketry skills in the creation of practical and decorative objects, or knit and crochet at home. Woven Together provides creative inspiration to these artists as they advance in this new medium, via exchange with several Australian and international artists who employ weaving and textiles in innovative ways.

The guest artists all have ancestral links to various cultures that have a strong presence within the South Hedland population, and draw inspiration from the suburb’s multiculturalism in their choices of technique and subject matter. The repurposed and recycled materials and techniques they use reflect an awareness of the ecological crisis impacting every culture on earth.

Their practices also embrace collaboration, creative exchange and social engagement. The resulting experimental woven works presented here have been developed in collaboration with the Studio’s artists and people from the broader South Hedland community.

These are works in progress that will continue to grow and expand during the exhibition as the local community continues to add to them.

Complementing these installations are a selection of new canvases by the artists of Spinifex Hill Studio, which draw inspiration from weaving technique and the colour palette of the textile works. This collection of paintings has been curated by Ruby Djikarra Alderton and Samantha Burston from the Studio team, and include Alderton’s own paintings, which incorporate the distinctive woven line work of the Rirratjingu clan designs and stories the Yolgnu artist inherited from her mother.

“My art has always had a huge influence from my Yolngu heritage. What I create is both old and new stories using traditional and non-traditional mediums. I often paint the clan designs, which is my mother’s clan and the design and stories that I inherited. I love to be able to share my knowledge and culture whenever the opportunity arises.”

Ruby Djikarra Alderton, 2022

Maywokka (Mayiwalku) Chapman, Ngurra (Home Country, Camp), 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 61 x 91.5 cm, 22-493, $1,756

Maywokka (Mayiwalku) Chapman, Ngurra (Home Country, Camp), 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 76 x 35.5 cm, 22-509, $813

Ruby Djikarra Alderton, Untitled, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 51 x 61 cm, 23-256, $1,163

Ruby Djikarra Alderton, Mutjalandjal (Dolphin), 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 101.5 x 122 cm, 23-329, $4,919

Ruby Djikarra Alderton, Untitled, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 30.5 x 30.5 cm, 23-376, $363

Ruby Djikarra Alderton, Fishtrap, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 51 x 71 cm, 23-469, $1,500

Lena Willalang, Untitled, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 51 x 61 cm, 23-394, $544

Lena Willalang, Untitled, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 30.5 x 40.5 cm, 23-581, $225

Lena Willalang, Untitled , 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 51 x 61 cm, 23-474, $544

Lena Willalang, Untitled , 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 71 x 61 cm, 23-463, $819

Maisie Ward Nungurrayi, Untitled, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 71 x 101.5 cm, 23-437, $1,831

Maisie Ward Nungurrayi, Untitled, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 51 x 122 cm, 23-451, $1,538

Donovan Brown, Untitled, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 180.5 x 45.5 cm, 23-433, $2,919

Olive Joseph, Untitled, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 51 x 122 cm, 23-470, $1,781

Maggie Green, Kunmunya, Myroodah Station - Maggie green, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 45.5 x 76 cm, 23-444, $1,169

Selena Brown, Untitled, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 71 x 71 cm, 23-446, $1,363

Daisy Tinker, Untitled, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 51 x 71 cm, 23-458, $344

Daisy Tinker, Untitled, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 76 x 56 cm, 23-584, $1,038

Pauline Bunwarrie, Untitled, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 51 x 61 cm, 23-475, $431

Selena Brown, Untitled, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 51 x 71 cm, 23-486, $1,031

Mulyatingki (Muljadingi) Marney, Untitled, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 76 x 45.5 cm, 23-588, $1,500

Sandra Francis, Untitled, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 71 x 101.5 cm, 23-575, $913

Sandra Francis, Untitled, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 40.5 x 91.5 cm, 23-583, $469

“Sky is mirror. The constellations, the visible and invisible parts of the cosmos underpin the connections between ancient cultures and practices. There’s nothing quite like flying into Kariyarra Country, especially as the sun is setting. Pink, orange, purple, gold bands dance on the horizon and eventually a blanket of stars covers the big sky. My paternal grandfather

taught me about the stars and told me stories about how he learnt to navigate his way in the night. I take his stories with me everywhere and I have come to understand they were not just stories about navigating place so you wouldn’t get lost, but they were also stories about navigating relationships.

Paula do Prado, Weaving a Constellation, Spinifex Hill Studio and South Hedland Community, raffia, wool, acrylic and cotton yarn, canvas offcuts, thread, paper covered wire, dimensions variable, 2022-2023, not for sale.

I have had the opportunity to visit Spinifex Hill Studio twice, spending time with the artists and staff, and share my weaving practice. Weaving is and has always been about a lot more than the technical ‘how to’ of making something. Weaving is a space, a language and a way of relating. The works in this installation

represent moments shared and stories exchanged over cups of tea, laughter, impromptu song and all the emotions that can come up from remembering a way of doing. Weaving wakes up the hands and wakes up the heart.”

Paula do Prado, 2023

“This work invokes my birthplace, Montevideo, Uruguay. Uruguay is situated on the Rio de la Plata (also called the River Plate or La Plata River), shared with neighbouring Argentina. Uruguay contains a vast interconnected river network. The rivers, the waterways were the first roads. All of the rivers in Uruguay empty out into the South Atlantic Ocean where agua dulce (sweet water or freshwater) intermingles with salt water. This fluid, intermingled space resonates deeply for me as someone who holds African, Charrúan (Indigenous Uruguayan) and Iberian heritage.

Having migrated to Australia at the age of seven, the first connection I felt was to the sea, to the salt water, to the barnacles, shells and limpets that clung to the rocks, to the pebbles from faraway places made smooth by their impossibly long journeys through the sea. All my lineages venerate water: the rivers, lakes, streams, rain and the big expansive ocean. Today Uruguay is facing an unprecedented water crisis, not only through drought but because of the failure to protect the waterways from the paper mills and agricultural and mining conglomerates who, left unregulated, have polluted entire river systems. Water is life.”

Paula do Prado, 2023

Where the river meets the sea / donde el rio encuentra al mar, Paula do Prado, paper covered wire, various natural and acrylic yarns, wire, glass beads, fabric, kapok filling, 180 x 170 x 20cm, 2021, $11,620, image courtesy of the artist

“My Spinifex Hill Studio residency had a focused intention: to help reduce waste being sent to landfill via re-purposing for a collaborative weaving outcome. Interwoven Remnants seeks to inspire collaboration, connection and exploration through reciprocal dialogue concerning resources, discarded materials, and strategies on creative reuse in the studio and in the community. Inspired by László Moholy-Nagy’s approach in Vision in Motion (1947), I have capitalised his utopian philosophy regarding art’s capacity to initiate positive change in a productive way, putting forth, emphasising and focusing on a single material aesthetic.

Any successful art studio will discard materials, such as the random and irregular canvases offcuts used in this work. We stripped each into a long narrow piece, then folded and stitched them to hold a single zig zag pattern, with pairs of strips plaited together to create an intertwining weave. The fusion of the woven pieces and the ritual actions of repetitive movements and patterns gave life force and authority to this experimental work.

During my residency, the artists and I exchanged stories of family, cultural celebrations, intergenerational relationships among community members, and the need for a safe and supported environment in which to create. I shared similar sentiments about how I forged a sense of community in my newfound home of Broome.

Living and practising in a multicultural community is special. The motivation is different: it is respectful and demands sensitive storytelling. Culture comes from place, and the Kimberley and Pilbara have such rich and diverse narratives that grow from strong family connections. I continue to learn more about the resilience, stability and diversity of relationships in the South Hedland community, and that interdependence is channelled through this collaborative work.”

Left: Interwoven Remnants, Jacky Cheng, Spinifex Hill Studio and South Hedland Community, repurposed canvas offcuts, dimensions variable, 2023, not for sale

Right: Interwoven Remnants (i), Jacky Cheng, Spinifex Hill Studio and South Hedland Community, repurposed canvas offcuts, leftover acrylic paint, dimensions variable, 2023, not for sale

“At its most basic, weaving is two distinct sets of yarns or threads interlacing with each other at right angles, using the warp (vertical) and weft (horizontal) to form a fabric or cloth. Throughout my paper thread making and weaving practice, I have collected a sizeable stack of paper remnants, or scraps. In defiance of conventional thread or yarn weaving, Meanders is a continuative language of weaving experimentations celebrating the similitude of traditional weaving, but instead using offcut Japanese kozo papers. This work responds to Interwoven Remnants, investigating and creating a learning opportunity within the same zigzag fold, while exploring and initiating play within the medium.

The formation of the work stems from hundreds of folded paper strips, secured together with a slotting system and staggered in a repetitive manner creating a bas-relief assemblage. Aside from the sheer pleasure of seeing how these discarded papers were re-purposed, this design idea led to more explorative directions for other investigative works via technique and materiality. Perhaps more crucially, the design meanderings establish the vocabulary that offers a partial entrée and leaves much unexplored.”

Jacky Cheng, 2023

Jacky Cheng, Meanders I & II, Kozo papers 25gsm, copper foil, Hahnemühle 300gsm, each 84cm x 60cm, 2023, $3,080

Mulyana (Mangmoel) is a contemporary artist based in Indonesia who uses wool and textiles to create immersive installations evoking ocean environments. In 2008 he created his alter-ego, the Mogus (Monster), alongside the Gurita (octopus) and Sigarantang (Mulyana’s clan name). The hybridised nature of these playfully ‘monstrous’ creatures and their underwater ecosystem reflects his

interest in ‘amalgamation’, a term which in sociology refers to a form of unity consisting of several ethnicities.

Trained as an art teacher, Mangmoel learned knitting and crocheting at Bandung’s famous book shop collective, Tobucil. Moving to Yogyakarta in 2014, the artist was introduced to a

Mulyana (Mangmoel), Homage to the Ocean, crocheted yarn, plastic net, dacron filling and felt fabric, dimensions variable, 2023, price on application

transgender community in nearby Sorogenen village: a very small community, but one whose members seemed to be well accepted by the public, unlike in other parts of the country. Collaborating with this community, Mangmoel made his first immersive soft installations, which soon attracted a global audience. He now works with a number of villages in Java to create installations from wool left over from the textiles industry in Bandung.

Mangmoel’s works highlight the impact of human intervention on the ocean environment, and his use of repurposed scraps suggests more sustainable ways of making. His installation for Woven Together particularly draws attention to the fragile ecology of the coral reefs offshore from Port Hedland.

FORM Building a State of Creativity and Spinifex Hill Studio

For nearly two decades, cultural organisation FORM Building a State of Creativity has worked to support the creative community of Western Australia’s remote Pilbara region. In 2008, realising there was no established support for Aboriginal artists living in the Hedland area, FORM starting providing materials, art sessions and mentoring opportunities specifically so that local artists could paint together and develop their practices. This group of artists were the foundation of the collective that now paints at Spinifex Hill Studio, one of Australia’s most dynamic art centres, and the only Aboriginal art collective in the wider Hedland area.

In 2014, with the support of Principal Partner BHP, FORM established the Studio’s permanent home in South Hedland. This is essentially FORM’s base in the Pilbara, and the Studio’s Aboriginal and nonAboriginal support and management personnel are part of the FORM team. From Monday to Friday the Studio opens to facilitate the practices of a core group of around twenty artists daily, however around a hundred artists are associated with the Studio and will paint there when in town. With a focus on acrylic painting, artists are given professional support in the preparation, creation and documentation of artwork. They are also given transport to and from the studio, lunch, and the opportunity to work with studio staff in refining their paintings for exhibitions, awards, markets and other professional opportunities.

Artists regularly participate in major national exhibitions and events, and are represented in national collections including the Art Gallery of South Australia, The Art Gallery of Western Australia, Curtin University, Flinders University Art Museum, the Janet Holmes à Court Collection, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, and the Western Australian Museum.

The aim has been to make the Studio a safe, holistic and dynamic environment for artists, and it has grown into an important cultural and community place for South Hedland and the wider Pilbara region. It is relatively unique in Australia as an urban-based art centre representing Aboriginal artists from numerous cultural backgrounds and language groups; there is no dominant ‘house style,’ rather the Studio supports an eclectic range of art practices in recognition of the diversity of Indigenous experience.

Many artists have been able to build esteem and pride through their art making, gain confidence to share stories in a culturally appropriate way, travel outside their home region to attend exhibitions and art fairs, and create new income streams for themselves and their families.

Most importantly, the Studio has supported the artists in articulating their culture to audiences around Australia and the world, helping build the reputation of the Pilbara as a dynamic cultural and artistic artmaking region.

Spinifex Hill Studio is an initiative of FORM Building a State of Creativity. The Studio is supported by its Principal Partner BHP, and by the Federal Government’s Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support (IVAIS) program.

Spinifex Hill Project Space was constructed thanks to support from BHP, Major Supporter Lotterywest, and Project Supporter the Pilbara Development Commission through the Regional Economic Development (RED) Grant Program. FORM is supported by the Department for Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries Arts Organisation Investment program, and is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council.

©FORM 2023. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise stated, copyright for imagery and written content in this publication is held by FORM Building a State of Creativity or the individual contributing writers, where applicable. Every effort has been made to adhere to best practice ICIP protocols.

Woven Together, Celebrating South Hedland was curated by Ruby Djikarra Alderton, Samantha Burston, and Andrew Nicholls, and Project Managed by Emily Coy.

Spinifex Hill Studio

18 Hedditch Street, South Hedland WA 6722 +61 8 9172 1699 mail@spinifexhillstudio.com.au @spinifexhillartists www.spinifexhillstudio.com.au

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39 Gugeri Street, Claremont, WA 6010 +61 8 9385 2200 mail@form.net.au @formwa www.form.net.au

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