COLOUR FROM THE AUSTRALIAN DESERT
COLOUR FROM THE AUSTRALIAN DESERT september 29 - november 13 2021
Published on the occasion of the exhibition at: JGM Gallery 24 Howie Street London SW11 4AY info@jgmgallery.com Catalogue Design: Alice Wilson ISBN 978-1-9160585-9-0 © 2021 JGM Gallery and the artists All rights reserved cover image: Seed Dreaming (detail) by Rosie Tasman
Budgerigar Dreaming - Ngatijirri Jukurrpa acrylic on linen 150 x 180cm
The UK/Australia Season is a major new cultural exchange celebrating the diverse and innovative artist communities and cultural sectors of each nation. A collaboration between the British Council and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, The Season is a vibrant programme spanning theatre, film, visual arts, dance, design, architecture, music, literature, higher education and a public engagement programme. Designed to strengthen and build cultural connections, the Season theme is “Who Are We Now?” and will reflect on our history, explore our current relationship, and imagine our future together. The Season launches in both countries in September 2021.
I am extremely proud to present the exhibition Colour from the Australian Central Desert at JGM Gallery - showing the paintings of a group of highly celebrated senior indigenous women artists from Lajamanu, NT. Lily Nungarrayi Hargraves, Rosie Murnku Marnku Tasman, Biddy Yulngarri Long, Myra Patrick Herbert, Kitty Napanangka Simon, Ursula Napangardi Marks and Judy Napangardi Martin. This exhibition will also mark the September 2021 launch of the UK/Australia Season, at JGM Gallery. The UK/Australia Season Who Are We Now? initiates an exciting year of collaboration between The British Council and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It is a great opportunity to celebrate the diverse and innovative artists to whom I have been an advocate for more than 25 years, and I very much look forward to engaging in the conversations and with the audiences this initiative will generate. The artists showing in our exhibition are all Warlpiri women living at Lajamanu, representing the heartbeat of a small community of 900 in the remote Central Desert region, the most traditional and isolated community in the Northern Territory. My friendship with Louisa Erglis who manages the art centre and the work of these remarkable artists has been a wonderful journey over the past two decades and I thank Louisa for her generous contribution in curating this show. The paintings, with loose, energetic brushstrokes are full of energy, life and colour and are immediately beguiling, but more importantly the depth of traditional knowledge in the mark making within each work relates directly to the history and narrative of Warlpiri culture. Something that Professor Margo Ngawa Neale explains excellently in her essay for the exhibition, Walking Country. I am grateful to Margo for her input and insight. The paintings depict stories of waterholes, birds and animals (flocks of budgerigars and black headed python), seeds and plants used for food and medicine as well as women’s sacred sites. They demonstrate the artists’ profound knowledge of Warlpiri culture routed ‘in Country,’ these works are clear testament that the senior women artists have become the driving force behind the contemporary art from Australia’s central desert. I want to keep every painting in this stunning exhibition!
Jennifer Guerrini Maraldi September 2021
Turkey Dreaming acrylic on canvas 200 x 300cm
Walking Country
When you look behind, you see the future in your footprintsi
The seven artists in this exhibition—remind me of the seven sisters in the internationally touring exhibition, Songlines: tracking the seven sisters, showing at the Box in Plymouth.ii It is from their traditions embedded in Country that futures are forged in a concept of time that is circular, continuous and Place-based. Except for Ursula who is 42, the other six women Kitty, Lily, Rosie, Myra, Judy, Biddy, are elders in their 70s and 80s (Lily and Rosie passed away in 2018).iii Like the older sisters in the Seven sister’s epic saga, it was their job to care for the younger sisters, to teach them ‘proper way’ about gender relations, kinship, risks and resources, but most of all how to care for each other and for Country. These elder ‘sisters’ hold the ancient knowledge of their forbears and invest this knowledge into these paintings to guide the next generation to a future grounded in Country. Its values will help protect them from the uncertain future ahead.iv Like skin of Country these canvases have been lifted from the desert floor (sometimes the art centre floor) carrying the essence and sinews of Country with them.v They hold much more than paint and marks, they hold the stories these women are compelled to practice and pass on their dreamings, their attachment to Country and above all their responsibility to care for Country. Everything starts and ends with Country in the Aboriginal worldview, which takes in more than land. There is also Sky Country and Water Country. There are no beginnings in this worldview, nor are there any endings. Everything is part of a continuum, an endless flow of life and ideas emanating from Country, which some refer to as ‘the Dreaming’. Country in this worldview is not landscape. Landscape is a western construct, a view of surface, or the geography of the land, more physical than conceptual. While western artists may draw on landscapes as vehicles for expression of mood, or as metaphors, or simply to capture an appealing view of nature, this is not so for artists from the desert in this exhibition. They are connecting with their tract of Country, where their identity and responsibilities lie. These are not landscape paintings. i ii iii iv v
A common Aboriginal maxim unattributed. The Box Plymouth for the UK/Australia Season on Culture . These names are western names given to them originally by non-Aboriginal authorities. They are born into their real names such as Napangardi and Nungarrayi which are classificatory names that define their kinship relationships. Many Aboriginal people in remote communities returned to Country to ward off the pandemic which so far has protected them. This concept arose from an explanation given by artist Lynette Wallworth with her film work in the exhibition, Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters curated by Margo Neale with a community curatorium.
In the Dreaming, as in Country, there is no division between the animate and the inanimate. Everything is living: people, animals, plants, earth, water and air. Creator Ancestors created the Country and its interface, the Dreaming. In turn, Dreaming speaks for Country, which holds the law and knowledge. Country has Dreaming; Country is Dreaming. It is this oneness of all things that explains how and why Aboriginal knowledges belong to an integrated system of learning, which you will encounter in these paintings that take us deep into Country. They show how it is a way of seeing and relating to the world, where there is no separation between people and nature. In this worldview humans are not the centre of the universe, standing apart from nature and presuming a role as controller of nature - a stance that is not serving us well in this damaged planetary environment. It is time to learn from First Peoples who know how to live in balance with nature, and a good way to start is to learn from their art. Aboriginal people speak about Country like they would speak about a family member: how they miss Country and long for it; how they worry about Country, sing to Country and call to Country. These paintings can be likened to the artists calling to Country, reinforcing attachment to parts of Country they belong to. This contrasts with the western view of land as something people own. People belong to land; land does not belong to them. And further, as Aboriginal educator and farmer, Bruce Pascoe of the acclaimed book, Dark Emu says; ‘The earth is not our collateral, we are hers’vi These artists transport themselves to their place on Country in their mind’s eye and reconnect with Country through the act of painting. The works are not about Country, they are Country. Caring for Country is not only physical, like clearing waterholes but has spiritual and other values that need nurturing. These days, as people live more sedentary lives in communities often off-Country, painting becomes a vehicle for reconnecting with it. You have to continually ‘sing up’ Country through ceremony or painting to keep it alive, as you would if you were there. In fact the proceeds of many of these painting in the past was put towards buying a Toyota vehicle to take people back to Country so certain sets of paintings were referred to as ‘Toyota Dreaming’. vi
Bruce Pascoe, Country: Future Fire: Future Farming, Bill Gammage and Bruce Pascoe, Thames and Hudson/ National Museum Australia, Melbourne, 2021. The third book in a series of six books, the First Knowledge series (ed. Margo Neale) Publication forthcoming.
As gallerist Adrian Newstead notes, ‘Lajamanu is about as isolated a township as you will find on the vast Australian continent: ten hours’ drive south of Darwin; eight hours north-west of Alice Springs; and eight hours south-east of Derby. About 1000 Warlpiri people were forcibly trucked from their homeland in 1948 by the government during the assimilationist era to this small, remote part on the northernmost edge of the Warlpiri estate just after WWII’.vii So strong was their attachment to Country that these first groups walked back to Yuendumu in the Tanami desert, where they were removed from three times, a distance of some 600 kilometres each time. They were re-trucked back each time to Gurindji County on the northern edge of the Tanami, where Lajamanu is located, before they gave up. They learnt to settle and to find a way to make ‘a home inside themselves through acknowledging their homelands, and to continue to practise their law, ceremony, language and kinship/family connections.’viii A number of powerful paintings were created at Lajamanu, previously known as Hooker Creek, ‘by the old men, deeply steeped in tradition, to record their ancient Warlpiri stories on canvas for the first time in the mid-1980s’.ix They had to come to terms with their sacred knowledge being exposed and made permanent on portable surfaces, instead of the old way, in the sand where it was erased after each ceremony. From 1986 the women lead the charge. Paintings for these ladies of Lajamanu became ceremony on canvas too, but they were more adventurous and experimental than the men. You will see them touch various parts of the Country on their canvas, at other times they will close their eyes and chant or cry. These custodians will point in the direction of Country or align themselves to Country when painting. For all artists from such remote regions these visual statements are like journey paintings or visual prayers in homage to Country, to kin and to the ancestors. In other words, they are almost everything that western paintings are not. Maybe they share something with the performative aspects of process art. The other big difference is that these expressions of attachment and caring for Country are not individual expressions in the same way as painting is in the western world where great emphasis is placed on the individual and artist-asgenius. These painters of the Dreaming are like conduits or mediums for the ancestral knowledge that has been passed on to them by previous generations and it is beholden upon them to keep it alive by enacting it in various ways. It is a collective knowledge, not an individually owned knowledge. Even though this knowledge is expressed in individual styles of painting, they retain the integrity of the story in its telling. It would be a mistake to see each artist’s distinctive style as indicative of experimenting with the content. All but Ursula Napangardi Marks are elders of advanced years ranging from the mid 70s into their 80s. They are of the generation who grew up healthy on bush tucker and walked their Dreaming endlessly before the use of vehicles. Lily and Rosie walked together ‘all over the Country’ for hundreds of kilometres at a time. They knew their Dreaming intimately, they followed their songlines and this informed their paintings, heavily investing them with a high level of cultural authority. vii Adrian Newstead, OAM, Kitty and the ladies of Lajamanu (exhibition catalogue), essay, ‘The Continuing Gift – Out of the Past and Into the Future. Warlpiri Women’s Art’, Cooee Arts, Sydney, 2020. viii Milpirri Banners Home Page tracksdance.com. discusses a paper prepared for the Milpirri Ngurra-Kurla by Steve Wanta Jampijin pa Patrick, Miles Holmes and (Lance) Alan Box. ix Adrian Newstead, OAM, Kitty and the ladies of Lajamanu, (exhibition catalogue), essay, ‘The Continuing Gift – Out of the Past and Into the Future. Warlpiri Women’s Art’, Cooee Arts, Sydney 2020.
Until her passing in 2018, then in her 90s, Lily Nungarayi Hargraves along with Rosie Napurrurla Tasman were the senior Warlpiri law women of the group. They were also kinship cousins and inseparable to the extent that when they died within days of each other, they were buried together. Everyone in the collective is related either biologically or through the kinship system and not only do they share some Dreamings, but they share the urgency to stay connected to Country and to pass on all their knowledge as they approach the end of their lives. Their works consequently pulsate with the authenticity, power and originality that comes from this deeply felt cultural and societal responsibility. In digital terms it is like downloading all their data from their cultural database before moving on. Western artists on the other hand are more likely to retire and hang up their brushes as they approach the end of their lives, with a few notable exceptions and for different reasons. Lily’s compulsion to pass on her knowledge was heightened in her last years when these works were painted. ‘These Jukurrpa (Dreamings) were never separate from her’ as Louisa Erglis the art manager notes, ‘she was unaffected by the western dichotomies of self and religion. She lived with a Warlpiri world view that had their own. Spirituality, Warlpiri law, self, art and land’. She took her, ‘custodianship of land, duties, governance and lawx into her paintings, fuelling a distinctive painting style that bears little or no resemblance to other desert works. Her use of strong linear elements which overlay backgrounds of golden watercolour patchwork glow with the power of the land. The lines script their way across the canvas defining the journey of the turkey along the rock holes and watercourses. Significant sites are circled and linked along contours and ridges, while turkey tracks wend their way across Country from one water source to another, telling stories of survival. x
Louise Erglis, Warnayaka Arts flyer, 2020.
Bush Onion Dreaming synthetic polymer paint on linen 150 x 120cm
Similarly in her Purpurlala dreaming, works which refer to sacred rockholes, Lily ‘painted large tracts of land with the freedom ‘liberated by her intimacy with Country and unaffected by western art influences except for the materials’.xi The richness and liveliness of the surface, particularly in the works that are dense with iconography, owe something to the fact that they were painted straight after dancing the Purpurlala Yawulyu (Women’s Ceremony) with Rosie Napururla Tasman. Vibrating lines of high energy characterise Rosie’s canvases that focus on her seed Dreaming, one of which is overtly literal. It depicts piles of seeds the ants have collected aside oblong shapes of coolamons used to collect the seeds by women shown as semi-circles, where they sit to clean and winnow the seed in preparation for baking seed cakes. Her colour-drenched bold linework in dizzying closeness and emphatic dots are as dynamic as Rosie was. Octogenarian, Biddy Nungarrayi Long’s Purpurlala works show a variation of the patchwork style that grew out of the early painting style of the men. She has, however, created a block effect and added her own variation of the desert dot, with stippling. In stark contrast Biddy’s Women’s Dreaming looks like it came straight out of New York abstract expressionism with its gestural free-wheeling style. They have rejected the signature desert dot that dominates much desert art. Kitty Simon in her 70s is another artist who has a wide range of styles where each is consistent with the subject under the brush. A distinctive, singular aesthetic is clearly evident in Bush onion dreaming which, amongst other highly original styles, caused the senior men in the community to denounce her and other ladies for straying too far from the traditional idiom. However, after much negotiation and in deference to their cultural authority on women’s business, they relented, freeing the women up to invent new styles for their Dreaming stories, which excited the Australian art world and beyond. Kitty’s work has a universality that conjures up Rothko with its meditative quality, but of course the similarity is only superficial despite both artists dealing with forms of spirituality. Biddy’s work gives us an x-ray view through the earth to the xi Ibid
Bush Vine Dreaming acrylic on canvas 120 x 90cm
onions growing below in pulsating orbs integrated with the red soil and creating a shimmer often associated with desert mirages. Caring for Country is much more than the physical act of clearing waterholes, it is more about the spiritual and ancestral well-being of Country. The originality of these artists makes them a standout amongst many other art centres which often take on a discernible house style. Judy Napangardi Martin paints the significant Women’s Dreaming stories located around Yuendumu which include the Dreaming sites of her mother, renowned artist Lorna Fencer who also passed on her bold line structure and blocks of rich colour to map out her dreaming stories. These esteemed matriarchs of Lajamanu, past and present, lift each other up. They attain leadership and use art to empower themselves and their communities, yet speak to universal concerns of critical contemporary relevance and the role of indigenous knowledge in the 21st century.
Professor Margo Ngawa Neale September 2021 Head: Centre for Indigenous Knowledges, Senior Curator & Advisor to the Director National Museum of Australia
LILY NUNGARRAYI HARGRAVES
b.circa1925 d.2018
Purpurlarla acrylic on canvas 180 x 147cm
left to right: Women’s Dreaming acrylic on canvas 180 x 60cm Turkey Dreaming acrylic on canvas 180 x 60cm Snake Dreaming - Warna Jukurrpa acrylic on linen 180 x 60cm
Purrpalala Dreaming acrylic on canvas 178 x 149cm
Women’s Dreaming acrylic on linen 150 x 180cm
ROSIE MURNKU MARNKU TASMAN b.circa.1927 d.2018
Seed Dreaming acrylic on linen 150 x 120cm
Seed Dreaming acrylic on canvas 180 x 60cm
Seed Dreaming acrylic on canvas 180 x 60cm
opposite: Wampana Jukurrpa acrylic on linen 150 x 120cm right: Seed Dreaming acrylic on canvas 180 x 60cm
Seed Dreaming acrylic on canvas 150 x 180cm
left: Seed Dreaming acrylic on canvas 180 x 60cm opposite: Seed Dreaming acrylic on linen 150 x 120cm
Seed Dreaming acrylic on linen 150 x 180cm
Seed Dreaming acrylic on linen 120 x 60cm
Seed Dreaming acrylic on linen 150 x 120cm
BIDDY YULNGARRI LONG b.1931
Women’s Dreaming acrylic on linen 150 x 180cm
Bush Vine Dreaming acrylic on canvas 120 x 90cm
Purrpalala acrylic on canvas 150 x 120cm
KITTY NAPANANGKA SIMON b.1948
Bush Onion Dreaming synthetic polymer paint on linen 150 x 120cm
Minamina Dreaming acrylic on linen 120 x 150cm
JUDY NAPANGARDI MARTIN b.1939
Minamina Dreaming synthetic polymer paint on linen 150 x 120cm
URSULA NAPANGARDI MARKS b.1979
Bush Potato Dreaming - Yarla Jukurrpa synthetic polymer paint on linen 150 x 180cm
MYRA PATRICK HERBERT b.1946
Budgerigar Dreaming - Ngatijirri Jukurrpa acrylic on linen 150 x 180cm
The symbols or patterns that Jukurrpa paintings can contain aren’t abstract workings, but representative of marks left in the sand. Walk through the landscape and you may never see a lizard or animal, but look down and often the ground contains a story of footprints of all the little and large animals that have been there. You can see which way the wind has been blowing by studying patterns and marks on the ground. Though you might not see anything in the way of animals when you are out at midday in the Tanami, Warlpiri country tells a whole story of what was going on before you were there. You only need to look down on the ground in front of you and read it, understand what it is saying to you.
Louisa Erglis Life in the Digital Desert, 2013
opposite Budgerigar Dreaming (detail) 150 x 180cm