2016 Queensland College of Art Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art graduate catalogue

CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN INDIGENOUS ART Graduates Catalogue 2016

Queensland College of Art

Griffith University

Graduates 2016

ContiUnity CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN INDIGENOUS ART CATALOGUE QUEENSLAND COLLEGE OF ART GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY 24–27 NOVEMBER 2016 SOUTH BANK CAMPUS

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

GRADUATES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

5 Bianca Beetson

6 Jordana Angus

22 Staff 2016

8 kurina (Andrew Gall)

24 Credits

10 Claudia Moodoonuthi 12 Tori-Jay Mordey 14 Mandy Quadrio 16 Venessa Williams Starzynski 18 Kevin Williams 20 Brolga (Kim Williams)

3

4

FOREWORD

This year’s Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art (CAIA) students’ third-year graduating exhibition is called ContiUnity.

It contextualises the artists’ belief in a living continuous Australian Indigenous culture. Together, these works amalgamate a diverse range of conceptual and creative works, which can be seen as visual expressions of enduring Indigenous cultures and histories.

These graduates are reclaiming traditional and contemporary practices and challenging what are currently accepted norms of Aboriginal art and culture. ContiUnity aims to erode the belief that Aboriginal art and culture are static and homogenous by exploring diversity and challenging artistic notions and cultural stereotypes.

This exhibition features eight graduating students: Jordana Angus, a descendant of the Narrandera people of New South Wales (NSW); Andrew Gall, a descendant of the Pakana people from the Lutruwita nation of Tasmania; Claudia Moodoonuthi, a descendant of the Lardil and Kayardild peoples of Mornington Island, Queensland (Qld); Tori-Jay Mordey, a descendant of the people from Badu and Murray Islands of the Torres Straits; Mandy Quadrio, a descendent of the Palawa people from north-east Tasmania; Kevin Williams, a descendant of the people from the Murrawarri Republic located on the Qld–NSW border; Kim Williams, a descendant of the Kullilli and Wakka Wakka people, Qld; and Venessa Williams Starzynski, a descendant of the Darug people, NSW.

These students embrace contemporary practices and work in a range of mediums, including jewellery, painting, sculpture, printmaking, performance, photography, and new media. Each of the graduating students brings a unique vision into the exhibition, which, when viewed in its entirety, reveals subjects and experiences shaping contemporary Aboriginal art today.

Key works in this exhibition provide us with an insight into the future of contemporary Aboriginal arts practice in Queensland.

This exhibition is a snapshot of the achievements, excellence, and diversity of the graduates from the CAIA program; furthermore, these graduates are a testament to the ongoing success of the program. The staff of CAIA would like to congratulate these graduating students and wish them well for their future career pursuits.

Bianca Beetson Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art Program Director Queensland College of Art Griffith University

5

JORDANA ANGUS 6

JEWELLERY AND SMALL OBJECTS jordi1483.wixsite.com/artbyjordana gadhang-yadhaa (Ocean dream) 2016 aluminium, sterling silver, ink, acrylic paint, resin 7cm diameter Fractures emerge 2016 green-lipped mussel shells, acrylic paint, gold leaf, resin 5 x 5 x 1cm

I am an established contemporary Wiradjuri artist and emerging jeweller. My traditional land is Narrandera, New South Wales; however I was born and raised in Redcliffe, Queensland.

This location has given me an innate connection to where the land meets the sea.

Currently, my works are focused on embellishing and reforming oyster shell remnants collected from family gatherings.

In my jewellery work, I experiment with embellishing metals that are often seen as undesirable to consumers.

Pieces I create are often abstract landscapes inspired by childhood cultural memories and my connection to Country. I am concerned with addressing environmental issues so I aim to invest meaning and value into materials that are overlooked or discarded.

By imposing cultural stories and traditions in contemporary practice, and through the use of bright colours and experimentation with mixed mediums, I raise awareness of personal stories and the search for the beauty that can be found in the everyday.

7

kurina (ANDREW GALL) 8

JEWELLERY AND SMALL OBJECTS kurina-art.com.au Erosion 2016 925 sterling silver Size 8-US, band width 8mm, band thickness 8mm withi tapilti - Moon Travel 2016 925 sterling silver 5 x 10 x 0.2cm Web of Life 2016 acrylic on canvas 50 x 51 x 3.5cm

As a pakana (Aboriginal man) from lutruwita (Tasmania), I create my artworks under my spiritual name kurina. Every piece I create tells a story that stems from my land and culture as well as my personal and spiritual past. A defining feature of my work is the intricate nature of the fine dot work I apply onto the delicate pieces I create, which are made from fine metals, such as sterling silver, gold and copper.

9

CLAUDIA MOODOONUTHI 10

INTERDISCIPLINARY SCULPTURE Ngawu Maku (Dog Woman) 2016 acrylic on MDF 114 x 61cm Grandfather’s resting place 2016 acrylic on canvas 76 x 110cm Kombali Story Places 2016 acrylic on Canvas 51 x 61cm

This body of work represents the traditional stories of the Kaiadilt people of Bentinck Island, in the Gulf of Carpentaria. In particular, Dog Woman and her hunting grounds. My Aunties, Netta and Dolly Loogatha have shared this story with me over the past four years.

Netta says, “Ngawu Maku is an eternal spirit, she represents an ancestor who is capable of recreating herself into the bodies of animals and human beings.”

Netta is an elder who carries the “dingo dreaming” with her. This means she is the custodian of the law and history of Kaiadilt dingoes. Much of the law pertaining to the

dingoes is kept secret and is in the hands of only a few people. Stories may only be told to a select audience.

Just over four thousand years ago, dingoes were brought to our island. Since then, dingoes have been woven into the fabric of our Indigenous life, law, and culture. They continue to serve as companion, protector— spiritually and physically—hunter, and a source of warmth. Suffice to say, Indigenous people and dingoes continue to stand side by side, sharing common ancestors and an identity that is inextricably tied to the land and equally to each other.

TORI-JAY MORDEY 12

FINE ART @tori_jyeay Siblings (Benton) 2016 copper etching prints 53.5 x 39cm Siblings (Tori-Jay) 2016 copper etching 53.5 x 39cm

This piece, as with many of my other works, is based around the concept of ‘identity’ and diversity within our identities. These copper prints feature images of my brother and I with parts of our faces merged with our parents. Growing up in a diverse family, with our mother being Torres Strait Islander and our father being English, it became clear to me how different we all were, but at the same time I wanted to emphasise how similar we are too. Because it’s not as simple as saying we’re different because of skin colour.

The aim of this piece was to create a harmonious balance between my brother and I that reconnects us with our parents and our families instead of segregating us because of our differences.

13

MANDY QUADRIO 14

INTERDISCIPLINARY SCULPTURE Not Detritus 2016 bull kelp and string 20 x 19 x 7cm Challenging the Aesthetics of Mythic Identity 2016 photograph 42 x 30cm Challenging the Aesthetics of Mythic Identity 2016 photograph 42 x 30cm

I am a palawa woman from north-east Tasmania, majoring in sculpture. My work uncovers personal and hidden history that I use to address great inaccuracies in Australian history.

Exploring issues around identity and heritage, my practice investigates objects of my material culture, such as bull kelp and string.

Combined with photographic explorations, this provides a means for me to give shape and depth to my flattened history.

I bring deplorable histories to contemporary attention and seek full acknowledgement of these histories so that healing can take place.

I make these works to assert my sovereignty.

15

VENESSA WILLIAMS STARZYNSKI 16

PAINTING a poetic history (video still) 2016 paper, graphite and cotton 100 x 100 x 30cm experimental studio work for a poetic history 2016 oil paint 60 x 90 x 15cm

My graduate exhibition incorporates two bodies of work for the Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art and my fine art major in painting.

My installations reveal an active association with cultural signs through painting, photography, collage, and tactile performative video works.

My practice-led research has arisen from an interest in how Indigenous cultures become fragmented when cultural sites and objects are removed from a living context. These signs have emerged from histories that I have unearthed in my Indigenous Australian and Irish ancestry, as well as my lived experiences and collaborations with communities.

As Galarrwuy Yunupingu states, Indigenous art is a performance of cultural life that has entered a contemporary socio-political context.

At this juncture, I am interested in the tension between the abstraction and objecthood in my art and how the layering of cultural signs produces a poetic history.

17

KEVIN WILLIAMS 18

INTERDISCIPLINARY PRINT MEDIA nivekgallery.com Night Journey 2016 linocut on Hahnemühle paper​ 24 x 31.5cm Thoughts​ 2016 screenprint on raw canvas​ 90 x 180cm​ Cityscape of Emotion 2016 acrylic wool/videotape/cassette tape and raffia 1500 x 40cm​

I am descended from the Murrawarri people (Southwest QLD). I was born and raised in Cobar, NSW; at the age of 17 I left home to spread my wings. In 2014, I started the Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art, majoring in Print Media.

My practice spans a wide range of mediums, from painting and printmaking to lacework. I don’t tell the stories that are normally passed down; I have my own unique style gained over my life. All my art is full of passion and emotions. Inspiration comes from nature and others from deep within. This is a journey that I am looking forward to showing.

19

BROLGA (KIM WILLIAMS) 20

INTERDISCIPLINARY SCULPTURE Woven History 2016 woven Picabeen palm 60 x 60 x 15cm Carrying the culture 2016 digital photograph 84.1 x 118.9cm Years of Hard Labour 2016 burnt Hardwood plank 200 x 25 x 5cm

I am a descendant of the Kullilli and Wakka Wakka clans. My interdisciplinary art practice includes medium- to large-scale sculpture, intricate cultural weaving, and painting. My style reflects my heritage as an Aboriginal woman and my grandmother’s life and stories of our cultural journeys. It is though our past and present Elders that these historical, traditional, and contemporary stories are told and enable our culture to be continuous.

My current work depicts the impact on our culture as a result of dispersal, stolen generations, and black slavery in Australia.

My passion is to restore and share these stories that have been passed down to me.

21

STAFF AND SUPPORT 2016

FULL TIME STAFF Bianca Beetson Program Director Debbie Taylor Lecturer Aileen Randle Administration Officer

SESSIONAL STAFF Laurie Nielsen Nancy Torrens Tamara Whyte Dianne Hall Glenn’s Briggs Jennifer Sanzaro-Nishimura Paula Payne​

22

23

CREDITS

EXHIBITION ContiUnity Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art Graduates 2016 24–27 November 2016 Queensland College of Art Griffith University South Bank campus

PUBLICATION Designed at Liveworm Studio Designer: Josephine Corben Creative Director: David Sargent Copy Editor: Evie Franzidis Cover image: Mandy Quadrio Challenging the Aesthetics of Mythic Identity 2016 Published by Queensland College of Art Griffith University griffith.edu.au/qca ISBN 978-1-925455-35-9

24

Jordana Angus

kurina (Andrew Gall)

Claudia Moodoonuthi

Tori-Jay Mordey

Mandy Quadrio

Venessa Williams Starzynski

Kevin Williams

Brolga (Kim Williams)