CROWNLAND

CrownLand began as a conversation between artists. A conversation that shifted and turned a few times moving between issues that punctuate public and private life consistently. This exhibition is filled with complex conversations that are as nuanced and idiosyncratic as the communities we live in. It is also filled with affectionate humour and grim irony. It was a project conceived long before a referendum for The Voice was announced and we have no doubt it will be a lightning rod for discussion and commentary.

The artists in this exhibition are Karla Dickens, Megan Cope, Vincent Namatjira, Ben Quilty, Andrew Quilty and Jake Chapman. With each artist offering different perspectives on a complex subject. From the work of UK based artist Jake Chapman aflame with punk humour and rage to the powerfully sad and beautiful maps of the ancestral country of Megan Cope. For Ben Quilty and Vincent Namatjira, this was a project that brought them together in the studio:

A few days after Queen Elizabeth II died, Vinnie came to my studio. We’d been planning to make paintings together since before Covid. As he walked through the door, he told me he wouldn’t be needing to paint the Queen anymore “Never again,” he said. “Now we’ll paint the King.”

We spent a week discussing the world, what the Queen’s death meant and how we both fit into modern day Australia, a country we both call home. We made paintings, ate, slept, and made paintings again and again. Vincent told me stories of his life, filled with humour but often cloaked in sadness. He worked from 7am every morning, coffee and a cigarette beside him, exploring a brand-new era of a regal dynasty on the other side of the planet; paintings about a family that had indirectly wrought a profound impact on the trajectory of Vincent’s own family. We laughed about his dog, a “desert corgi” and talked about his Grandfather and the legacy that old man left after he died, a few years older than I am now.

We discussed how our art allowed us to have a voice in big discussions – Ben Quilty.

Vincent’s voice is a powerful force in this exhibition and his words are echoed throughout:

Queen Elizabeth met my Great Grandfather Albert Namatjira in 1954 and awarded him the Queen’s Coronation Medal. This connection between my family history and the British Royal family is the reason why l’ve made so many paintings of the Queen and the royal family. When the Queen passed away I spent a lot of time reflecting on her connection to my family, especially the fact that she lived to 96, while my great-grandfather passed away when he was only 57. Personally I’d like to see Indigenous leaders and heroes past and present have the same level of recognition and respect that the royal family does – Vincent Namatjira.

The dialogue within the exhibition is underpinned by new work created by Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens alongside a powerful project honouring the Wonnarua elders and Queens of the Mindaribba Local Aboriginal Land Council women’s group. This project was an invitation to local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women to work with Karla to reimagine their own powerful status within our community. As Dr Lisa Slade writes in the accompanying exhibition essay:

The weight of the colonial crown is subverted in a project led by Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens, who poses the seemingly simple question of ‘who wears a crown?’ to the women of the Mindaribba Local Aboriginal Land Council. The answer is a dramatic series of performative photographs, in which local Elders, including those young and emerging, are adorned by self-made crowns that carry Country. Shells, feathers, seeds and string assert a new/ancient sovereignty and supplant the stolen gemstones of Commonwealth crowns.

This exhibition has been two years in development and made possible through the generous contributions of the artists and members of our community. Please join us as we invite you to step into the corridors of CrownLand and move within its complex world.

Gerry Bobsien, Gallery Director