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Untitled (Uura) Curtis Taylor Education Notes Untitled (Uura) | Curtis Taylor 19 October — 22 December Untitled (Uura) Curtis Taylor 19 October — 22 December Image: Curtis Taylor, Nyunyjila – Tongues, 2018. Carved wood sourced from the artist’s Country, iron ore dust, ochre and paint, dimensions variable. Photo: Bewley Shaylor. Education Notes Untitled (Uura) | Curtis Taylor 19 October — 22 December Contents 3 About PICA 4 Exhibition Summary 5 Key Themes & Curricular Connections 6 Key Questions 7 Activities 14 Partners 2 Education Notes Untitled (Uura) | Curtis Taylor 19 October — 22 December About PICA Housed in a large and striking heritage building in the heart of Perth, Western Australia, PICA is the city’s focal point for those wishing to experience the best of Australian and international visual, performance and interdisciplinary art. PICA is both a producing and presenting institution that runs a year-round program of changing exhibitions, seasons in contemporary dance, theatre and performance and a range of interdisciplinary projects. It boasts one of the largest and most breath-taking exhibition spaces in Australia and has become known for the leading role it plays in the presentation of significant new work. PICA’s key aim is to promote, support and present contemporary arts and to stimulate critical discussion around the arts and broader cultural issues. Providing a site for experimentation, critical analysis, discussion, and debate is fundamental to its charter. PICA is known for the rigour and breadth of its artistic and education programs, high production standards and impeccable presentation. PICA is an icon of contemporary thinking – it is a catalyst for innovative and groundbreaking art and culture. Not constrained by convention, PICA gives artists and audiences a glimpse of what is possible. To learn more about our coming program, or to make a booking, visit pica.org.au or call 08 9228 6300. 3 Education Notes Untitled (Uura) | Curtis Taylor 19 October — 22 December Exhibition Summary Over the past decade, Perth-based Martu artist Curtis Taylor has emerged as one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists. His first solo exhibition, Untitled (Uura), brings together multiple streams of his practice including sculpture, installation and film. Untitled (Uura) presents work made over a two-year period of exploration as Taylor worked with new materials and processes of making, finding new forms through which to tell stories and record language. This period of practice marks a departure from his first medium of film and presents a series of carved sculptures and site-specific installations and paintings. Untitled (Uura) explores the artist’s self and how language, knowledge and persistent memories dwell within and re-surface across generations. Taylor’s work asserts narratives of cultural and personal identity, creating immersive spaces occupied by language and ritual that explore the edges of life and death. Image: Curtis Taylor, Nyunyjila – Tongues, 2018. Carved wood sourced from the artist’s Country, iron ore dust, ochre and paint, dimensions variable. Photo: Bewley Shaylor. 4 Education Notes Untitled (Uura) | Curtis Taylor 19 October — 22 December Curriculum links This education resource has been developed for the Western Australian Curriculum subject areas of The Arts, Languages, Humanities and Social Sciences, Technologies, Science, and English subject areas, with a focus on the cross-curriculum priority of Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia, and is intended to build on students’ experience of Untitled (Uura). Teachers can use this resource to establish explicit links with the curriculum and facilitate learning outcomes for students, adapting questions and activities to deliver a unit of work or select relevant stand-alone learning experiences. The activities included in this resource are flexible and should be adapted to the needs and interests of students. The Arts (Visual Arts) Social, cultural and historical contexts Interpretation / Response Humanities and Social Sciences History Civics and citizenship Communicating and Reflecting General Capabilities Critical and creative thinking Ethical understanding Cross-curriculum priorities Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures Sustainability Themes Language, Culture and Identity Storytelling in diverse formats Reclaiming cinema Understanding the past and its impact on the present Martu language, culture and experience 5 Education Notes Untitled (Uura) | Curtis Taylor 19 October — 22 December Key questions These questions can be used as discussion points with your students during and after your visit to Untitled (Uura). Storytelling for understanding: Of his work Nyunjila, Taylor said: ‘With these tongues, the idea came about [out of] wanting to know who my biological Grandfather is. His story. Most of these songs – practiced for entertainment, for coming around and sitting near the fire, telling story – were composed by him, and other people in his family.’ How do we both create and imagine our identity through stories? Technology and culture: How does technology mediate how we see and are seen? How does technology create new opportunities for preservation, celebration and exploration of culture? Identity: Our experiences shape our identity as individuals and communities. Explore this concept on a personal level: what experiences have particularly impacted your idea of yourself? How does this impact your interactions with others? Extend this thinking out to consider your community. How is community similarly shaped by experience? Historical geography: How is history written on the landscape? And is this history universally accessible? What shapes an individual’s capacity to understand the historical geography of a place? 6 Education Notes Untitled (Uura) | Curtis Taylor 19 October — 22 December Activities Focus 1: In the gallery Before you enter the gallery, let students know they will have time to quietly observe the works on their own. Tell them to use multiple viewpoints in relation to each object within the gallery, starting close to the work, and moving away. Ask them to notice how this change in perspective changes what they experience and observe about the work. Activity: Noticing In the gallery, give your students the time to observe Untitled (Uura) on their own then bring them back together as a group to discuss their observations. Begin by asking them to share their observations in pairs to scaffold sharing in the group. Perhaps focus their attention on a particular element of the exhibition for this discussion. Being by asking ‘What do you notice?’ and encourage students to share personal understandings and observations of the work. Working with a partner, ask them to share their observations. What were their first reactions to the work? Why did it make them feel or think like that? How has their own gender, race, class and age as well as attitudes, values and beliefs influenced the way they look at and understand the exhibition? How have cultural contexts of the artists’ life impacted the production of artworks? Back in the classroom, facilitate a discussion to further develop students’ ideas. Ask the group to share their experiences and observations as individual student interpretations may offer interesting viewpoints to promote a deeper inquiry. 7 Education Notes Untitled (Uura) | Curtis Taylor 19 October — 22 December Activities Focus 2: Social, cultural and historical contexts Curtis Taylor is a Martu man, one of the traditional owners of a large part of central Western Australia extending from the Great Sandy Desert in the north to around Wiluna in the south. The Martu were some of last Indigenous people to make contact with European Australians, with many migrating from country into pastoral stations and missions in the 1950s and 1960s. The main settlement in this area was at Jigalong, which was established as a maintenance depot for the rabbit proof fence. In 1947, Martu land at around Jigalong was granted to the Apostolic Church, who established a Christian mission for Aboriginal people. In 1969, this land was returned to the Australian government and in 2002 the Martu were awarded native title rights to over 13.6 million hectares of the Western Desert. The land stretches from the Percival Lakes in the north to south of Lake Disappointment, from near Jigalong and Balfour Downs in the west to the Kiwirrkurra and Ngaanyatjarra native title determinations in the east. Research Activity: The Homelands Movement The homelands movement began in the early 1970s, as groups of Aboriginal people left mission-run communities and returned to their traditional lands. They said: ‘Homelands still belong to the people, we want to build homes on our land and live there. When we come to the homeland we come back to the peace and quiet. … It is a much better environment on the homelands, better things for the children.’ 1 Ask your students to research the homelands movement – how it began and how this movement continues to affect the way Aboriginal people live today. Begin this process by asking your students to share their knowledge of the movement. Is it something they have heard of before? Why or why not? In their research, ask students to consider why the homelands movement occurred and how the government response to the movement has changed over time. Ask students to consider the possible implications (social, emotional and economic) of people living on country. How has this impacted contemporary Australians? 1 P Brown Mt Theo Outstation Co-Founder,
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