AUSTRALIA : CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS ART from the CENTRAL DESERT Kathleen PETYARRE, “My Country - Bush Seeds” Acrylic on Canvas, 137 X 137 Cm, 2010
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AUSTRALIA : CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS ART FROM THE CENTRAL DESERT Kathleen PETYARRE, “My Country - Bush Seeds” acrylic on canvas, 137 x 137 cm, 2010 The paintings of Australian Indigenous artist Kathleen Petyarre have been compared internationally to those of the minimalist modern artists Mark Rothko and Agnes Martin, not so much for their formal structure: but for what underlies beneath, partially hidden from the observers view. In actuality, Kathelen Petyarre’s paintings are mental territorial maps which portray her country and the narrative associated with her inherited Dreaming stories. Her celebrated work, “My Country - Bush Seeds”, presents a seasonal snapshot within: a close-up of a geographical location spiritually important to the artist. The prominent parallel lines represent a group of red sand-hills – a sacred site - that rise majestically from the desert floor. Abie Loy KEMARRE, “Bush Hen Dreaming” acrylic on canvas, 91 x 152 cm, 2009 Australian Indigenous artist Abie Loy Kemarre began painting in 1994 under the formidable guidance of her famous grandmother, Kathleen Petyarre, who imparted the methodology for creating the depth-of-field of tiny shimmering dots in her highly delicate Bush Hen Dreaming painting that represents her Ancestral country. The Bush Hen travels through this country looking for bush seeds which are scattered over the land, represented by the fine dotting. The centre of this painting shows body designs used in traditionel women’s sacred ceremonies. These ceremonies are performed with songs and dance cycles telling stories of the Bush Hen Dreaming. Ngoia Pollard NAPALTJARRI, “Swamp around Nyruppi” acrylic on canvas, 180 x 180 cm, 2006 Western Desert artist Ngoia Pollard frequently paints particular Dreamings, or stories, for which she has personal responsibility or rights. Many of Ngoia’s works relate to the region of Mount Liebig in the Central Desert; this is her father’s country. Her painting is infused with the spiritual power of the narrative of the watersnake. This snake lives in the swamps and lakes near Mount Liebig that are considered to be unoccupied and dangerous territory. The transcendental calm of her painting with its drifts of monochrome clouds of dots, belie the danger of the land and the creatures that it depicts. The use of oval shapes represents swamps and lakes but also the skin of the watersnake. Dorothy NAPANGARDI, “Salt on Mina Mina” acrylic on canvas, 244 x 168 cm, 2007 This painting depicts a major women’s ceremonial site known as Mina Mina, the artist’s custodial country located north of Alice Springs in the Central Desert. The story tells that during the Dreamtime (the time of the creation of the land for Indigenous Australians), ancestral women of the artist’s tribe gathered to collect ceremonial digging sticks that had emerged from the ground. They then proceeded east, performing rituals of song and dance. Topographically, the sacred site of Mina Mina is made up of two enormous soakage areas rarely filled with water. As water soaks into the ground, small areas of earth dry out and lift at the edges, becoming delineated by salt. In this strking design of white dotting Dorothy depicts the crustations of salt stretching infinitely onward, etched with the tracks of the women as their paths stretch on, crossing and merging; telling their stories. Indigenous paintings from the central Desert can be hung vertically or horizontally, each position changing the perspective of the work and creating a new viewing experience. This feature is common in Australian Indigenous art, as many works are created without a specific hanging direction. This allows for flexibility in the way that the work is viewed, and Dorothy Napangardi’s work above, emphasises the dynamic sense of movement that can be shifted and changed according to which way the work is presented. Abie Loy KEMARRE, “Awelye” acrylic on canvas, 182 x 182 cm, 2010 Abie Loy Kemarre’s body painting work reflects a rich tradition of body painting that is specific to women’s only ceremonies in which paint is applied to women’s upper bodies. There were strict rules regarding which specific designs could be applied. This took place within a holistic ceremonial process involving not only painting but also narration, music, song and dance. Abie Loy Kemarre references the performativity of women’s ceremonial life in these kinetic and daringly innovative canvases, capturing the three dimensionality of the human body in movement. Lilly Kelly NAPANGARDI, “Tali” acrylic on canvas, 152 x 182 cm, 2008 Lilly Kelly Napangardi’s works depict the regional sand-dunes that are sacred sites for her community, showing their deep spiritual importance to her people. Though only initiated people of her community know the stories, we know that her paintings depict the movement of the dunes caused by the interaction of the winds and the rain. Due to a fine dotting technique the painting seems to litteraly move before our eyes. Andrea Martin NUNGARRAYI, “Love Story” acrylic on canvas, 152 x 182 cm, 2008 Andrea Martin Nungarrayi is one of the leading artists of Yuendumu, an art center founded in the Central Desert. With this painting she tells the story of a man who fell in love with a woman who was his mother in law. The man managed to seduce her but since their relationship was taboo they were both turned to stone. This stone can still be seen nowadays (central circle). The concentric circles symbolise different sacred sites found around Yuendumu, while the ‘U’ shapes represent the participants of the ceremonies who reenact this story every year. Kuddtji TJUNGURRAYI, “Emu Dreaming” acrylic on canvas, 129 x 128 cm, 1991 During the Dreamtime, Emu Ancestors travelled through the Central Desert, following the path of the natural waterholes (concentric circles). The artist explains that the background segments of colour all have different meanings. The vibrant blue represents dangerous water, the yellow symbolises fat deposits stored under emu knees, the white and green colours depict the emu eggs while the pink colour is the countryside. Kathleen PETYARRE, “Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming” acrylic on canvas, 122 x 122 cm, 2010 The paintings of Australian Indigenous artist Kathleen Petyarre have been compared internationally to those of the minimalist modern artists Mark Rothko and Agnes Martin, not so much for their formal structure but for what underlies beneath, partially hidden from the observers view. In actuality, Kathelen Petyarre’s paintings are mental territorial maps which portray her country and the narrative associated with her inherited Dreaming stories. Her celebrated work, Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming, depicts the whole of her ancestral country (which covers some 200 square kilometers of the eastern desert of central Australia. The centre of this painting represents a sacred women’s site associated with the grean pea, one of the artist’s totems. Depicted throughout the painting are seeds of the pea, which are an important food for the ‘traditional healer’, and the Mountain Devil Dorothy NAPANGARDI, “Salt on Mina Mina” acrylic on canvas, 91 x 91 cm, 2007 This painting depicts a major women’s ceremonial site known as Mina Mina, the artist’s custodial country located north of Alice Springs in the Central Desert. The story tells that during the Dreamtime (the time of the creation of the land for Indigenous Aus- tralians), ancestral women of the artist’s tribe gathered to collect ceremonial digging sticks that had emerged from the ground. They then proceeded east, performing rituals of song and dance. Topographically, the sacred site of Mina Mina is made up of two enormous soakage areas rarely filled with water. As water soaks into the ground, small areas of earth dry out and lift at the edges, becoming delineated by salt. In this strking design of white dotting Dorothy depicts the crustations of salt stretching infinitely onward, etched with the tracks of the women as their paths stretch on, crossing and merging; telling their stories. AUSTRALIA : CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS ART FROM THE CENTRAL DESERT Key International Collections that hold Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art: Museum of Modern Art, New York, U.S.A Tate Modern, London, U.K. Victoria & Albert Museum, London, U.K. British Museum, London, U.K. Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, U.S.A Seattle Art Museum, U.S.A Bridgestone Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan Singapore Art Gallery, Singapore Machida Graphic Arts Museum, Tokyo, Japan Cambridge University Museum, Cambridge, U.K. Linden Museum, Stuttgart, Germany Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany Art Institute of Chicago, U.S.A Musée des Confluences, Lyon, France MEG, Geneva, Switzerland Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, U.K. Museum of Stuttgart, Germany Groninger Museum, Groningen, The Netherlands Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan.