LOOKING AT PAINTING

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ARTISTS: NELL, CARMEN GLYNN-BRAUN, HAYLEY MEGAN FRENCH, JODY GRAHAM, ROCHELLE HALEY, KIRTIKA KAIN, CLAUDIA NICHOLSON, JUDY WATSON AND NYAPANYAPA YUNUPINGU

2021

1 CONTENTS PRELUDE

1 Powerhouse Rd, Prelude 1 nnovative painting is built into the architecture of Casula Powerhouse Arts Casula NSW 2170 Centre. The ‘Koori Floor’ is a public artwork covering 357 square metres of the (enter via Shepherd St, Introduction 2 Centre’s Turbine Hall. It was designed by Judy Watson and launched in 1994 Liverpool) I to coincide with the transformation of this building from a disused 1950s power Nell: Relationships 4 Tel 02 8711 7123 station into the Arts Centre we know it as today. The floor was designed based on reception@ Carmen Glynn-Braun: Intricacies of Identity 6 a watercolour that Watson especially created for this purpose. casulapowerhouse.com Hayley Megan French: The Pipeline 8 The ‘Koori Floor’ artwork is predominantly orange, red and yellow in colour, casulapowerhouse.com it features seven glass light pools, silver swirls, a bronze fishing spear, a Jody Graham: Mark Making Tools & After the Rain 10 witchetty grub and a river, all embedded into the concrete along with the words ‘gandangarra’, ‘tharawal’, and ‘dharuk’. The reason the floor has such a unique Rochelle Haley: Double Veil & Double Column 12 colouring effect is because it translates the inherent nature of the original Kirtika Kain: Idolatry, The Solar Line XXIV 14 watercolour where colour blends and bleeds together. To transform her plan & The Solar Line XXVII into a public artwork, Watson engaged a range of artists and a large team of tradespeople and specialists who brought together their crafts skills to realise © Copyright authors, artists, Claudia Nicholson: Dream Map 16 contributors, and Casula Watson’s original watercolour through processes and materials relevant for Powerhouse Arts Centre. Judy Watson: waterspout & 18 creating a usable and lasting floor. The intention of the floor is to map and No material, whether written or photographic can be water sky spine on ochre nets acknowledge an Aboriginal presence on this site predating European settlement reproduced without the and the construction and operation of the power station. When we stand on permission of the artists, Nyapanyapa Yunupingu 21 authors and Casula Powerhouse this floor, the industrial building acknowledges that you are on what was, is, and Arts Centre. Opinions expressed in the publication are those of Public programs 24 always will be Aboriginal land. the authors and not necessarily those of Casula Powerhouse Acknowledgments 24 While the artists in LOOKING AT PAINTING are not directly responding to the Arts Centre. ‘Koori Floor,’ this artwork is a useful starting point that acknowledges how Casula Published by Casula Powerhouse is a space informed by boundary-pushing art. Powerhouse Arts Centre, June 2021

We would like to acknowledge the Cabrogal Clan of the Darug Nation who are the traditional custodians of the land that now resides within Liverpool City Council’s boundaries. We acknowledge that this land was also accessed by peoples of the Dhurawal and Darug Nations. Cover image: Nyapanyapa Yunupingu, untitled, 2018, 5861-18, paint pen on clear acetate, 86 x 82 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.

2 1 INTRODUCTION

LOOKING AT PAINTING features Glynn-Braun is composed of five large ‘Double Veil’ and ‘Double Column,’ her training as a printmaker. The contemporary artists who push the rectangular hanging paint panels, not featuring a large scale wall mural paintings are often initiated by laying boundaries of the painting form. It supported by any canvas or backing. and sculptural elements responding the un-stretched canvas on the floor features a mix of emerging, mid-career The panels are mixtures of paint to the Hopper Gallery’s unique and letting the initial wash of paint and established artists from different and make-up foundation that recall architecture. She has used shape, reveal marks of what was underneath. geographic and cultural backgrounds. skin tones of First Nations women to light, shadow, movement, lines, rhythm She then builds on this print through While they each have a unique story to acknowledge colonial devastation. and striking colour to expand the mark-making. The paintings remain un- tell, they are unified by an approach to Hayley Megan French, who grew up in physical experience of a painting, and stretched, with frayed edges, and hang innovative mark-making with painterly Western Sydney and has lived locally to encourage the audience to consider in the gallery with a unique physicality. materials. The exhibition presents their in Old Guildford since 2018, walks their own physical movements as a part In the early 2010s Nyapanyapa works together to showcase the range around suburbs where she feels a of how these paintings come into view. Yunupingu pushed her practice to new and potential of painting today. We connection and captures them using a Rope, reed, rocks, hair, tar and gold dimensions through the introduction encourage audiences to consider how polaroid camera. Back in her studio she are materials used by Kirtika Kain of clear acetate and paint markers. the material, process or installation paints layers over the polaroids using in the creation of her paintings. The She had previously built a formidable elements of these painterly artworks a palette reflecting nostalgic colours caste system in India forms the basis reputation for bark painting, but due inform how they are experienced and of the suburb. It is a process that of Kain’s practice, having been born to a shortage of her preferred bark, how this reinforces the themes and acknowledges how the memory of a in Delhi into the Dalit, previously began using these new materials. ideas that the artists are exploring. place is filtered through many stages of known as the ‘untouchables’, class. The As she continued to use markers on The nine artists featured in this the mind. For this exhibition, the artist materials that she uses directly recall acetate, she embraced make-making exhibition present recent works which presents work that subjects Guildford, and draw attention to the lives and in new ways and worked with a range give audiences new perspective on how Kununurra and Toowoomba. experiences shaped by caste. of collaborators working in digital and paintings are made, experienced and Jody Graham takes long walks through Claudia Nicholson presents a series moving image spaces. understood. The artists include Nell, the bush, hiking for up to 15 kilometres. of ink and watercolours paintings, For LOOKING AT PAINTING, we are proud Carmen Glynn-Braun, Hayley Megan ‘After the Rain’ is an ongoing series of which are the outcomes of recent to show new and pre-existing works French, Jody Graham, Rochelle Haley, paintings on paper capturing the look experimentations with airbrushing. by these nine artists who each have Kirtika Kain, Claudia Nicholson, Judy of trees after the rain. To create these Airbrush is a technique often used in strong ties to Sydney. The texts that Watson and Nyapanyapa Yunupingu. paintings, she submerges paper in illustrative works but is less so used for make-up this booklet feature extended Nell presents a multi-panel and multi- water in the bush, but she also goes the kind of detailed watercolour works statements on each of the exhibiting layered work which contemplates the a step further by utilising natural and Claudia often makes. By combining the artists, which unpack their approaches to nature of relationships. ‘Relationships’ discarded materials found on her different techniques of watercolour painting and how material, process and/ uses phrases and iconography across walks. Jody exhibits these ‘Mark Making and airbrush, Claudia has achieved a or installation are used in their work to layers of paint and material to invoke Tools’ alongside her paintings as an unique dimension and dreaminess in communicate their themes and ideas. the feeling of trying to understand acknowledgement of how the process her paintings of figures in an exquisite We thank our lenders for enabling us to something amongst complex layers of of making is just as much a part of the landscape. showcase these innovative artists. words and ideas. artwork as the paintings themselves. Judy Watson is an artist who is inspired ‘Intricacies of Identity’ by Carmen Rochelle Haley presents two works, to use paint in a way influenced by – Ellen Hewitt & Luke Létourneau

2 3 NELL A golden lightning bolt flashes at the There is one more element in upper right corner, and there is a ‘Relationships’. A small painting of a Born in 1975 in Maitland, NSW bubbling of colour dripping upwards ghost, hung above and to the side of from the bottom of the canvas. These the piece of fabric. The ghost hovers anti-gravitational drips are in contrast above the earthly concerns illustrated to the dripping white paint that falls in the world below and stands in like downward from the text above. There’s an angel in a Renaissance painting. For LOOKING AT PAINTING, I am for wallpaper, T-shirts, and tote bags. a tension in that. The painting on Benevolently and empathetically presenting a layered and multi-panel The text on the print is a collage of the the right, ‘I KNOW why i LEFT’, also watching over the unfolding scene artwork titled ‘Relationships.’ books of the Old Testament, a long list has a dark ground, but is fizzing with below. And yet, removed from it. of musical genres painted in related I made ‘Relationships,’ about a year energetic starbursts, a kind of energy ago when most of the world, and fonts, with an interconnected web of that can no longer be contained. I used most of Australia was in some form of words pertaining to relationships and green dots in the painting to symbolise lockdown. I was thinking about all kinds people’s roles in them. the fertility of change and growth. of relationships; personal relationships, Sitting on top of this fabric are two They are cut from my most favourite family relationships, friendships, framed paintings. While the surface of painting pants and affixed to the work. relationships with places and spaces. the framed paintings is quite different The number 5 loosely references the 5 I was thinking about the infinite causes from the printed surface, the paintings wounds of Christ. and conditions that arise to make any don’t stand out from the fabric. This There is a set of golden eyes above the given relationship exist. And yet, how feeling of consistency comes from word ‘KNOW’ in this painting, a play just one thing can change and then the black and white palette and the on ‘I’ and ‘eye’ and also to symbolise everything changes. motifs that occur on both surfaces. As seeing clearly. I was also thinking about my role in I was examining my role in a particular a particular relationship and trying relationship, both of these paintings to understand both its history and its start with ‘I KNOW’. The large ‘I’ is very ending. You can see from the title of affirmative and takes its aesthetic one of my 2010 paintings ‘from mother and conceptual antecedent from to daughter – all relationships are Colin McCahon’s, the New Zealand endless’ that the never-ending nature modernist painter, rendering of of relationships has informed my work the words ‘I AM’. The word ‘KNOW’ Nell is a significant Australian contemporary artist who has been working for over for many years. indicates understanding, the ‘why’ is an examination of the causes and 20 years. Recent projects include Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to ‘Relationships’ is a large piece of fabric conditions that held the relationship in Now, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and NE/LL which toured across regional with a print remixing four of my text place and the events that contributed galleries in Australia, 2018. Recent major public commissions include ‘Made in the paintings from 2010. The print was to its ending. Light - Happy Cloud’, Maitland Regional Art Gallery and ‘Happy Rain’ installed at produced in collaboration with the South Eveleigh, Sydney (Carriageworks in partnership with Mirvac Office & Industrial). Sydney fashion label ‘Romance Was The painting on the left, ‘I KNOW why Nell is represented by STATION, Melbourne and Sydney. Born’, for their 2011 collection titled The I StAYED’ is a dark painting, and yet Oracle. This print has since been used there are hints of energetic movement. HEADSHOT CREDIT: CHERINE FAHD X CARRIAGEWORKS // EYES OPEN EYES CLOSED AND SOMETHING IN-BETWEEN 4 5 CARMEN GLYNN-BRAUN generations. In order to achieve a colonial ideal of ‘white Australia’, Born in 1987 in Alice Springs, Northern Territory. children were stolen from their From the Arrernte, Kaytetye, Anmatyerr and Eastern mothers, some of whom were never to Arrernte Nations, Central Australia. reconnect. Many of the young girls who were stolen from their families were enslaved to indentured servitude, as I am an artist stemming from the appearance, especially for flesh. endured lives as ‘domestic’ slaves to Arrernte, Kaytetye, and Ammatyerre As soon as the mixture is the right settlers. nations across Central Australia, for consistency, I pour and spread this Each sheet of flesh coloured paint LOOKING AT PAINTING I am presenting paint onto acrylic sheets and once skins reflects the various shades of an installation painting titled fully dried, carefully peel the paint skin skin tones belonging to First Nation’s ‘Intricacies of Identity.’ panels away, forming an independent Australia at present day, the visual ‘Intricacies of Identity’ removes the sheet. residue of the devastation of the white backing of the canvas entirely In ‘Intricacies of Identity,’ the paint skin Assimilation Policy and subsequent and instead pushes the paint pigment panels hang in a gradient of lightest Stolen Generations. The skins are to the forefront. Through the creation to darkest. Their exposed backs are hung alongside each other and form of the hanging paint skin panels, I covered in an illustrious gold. Hung a defiant line, in solidarity they stand separate the colour from the white together, the gold pattern painted on as evidential to the continued survival canvas and in doing so, take ownership the skins flows through and onto each and resilience of Aboriginal people. The over the narrative of First Nations connecting piece. The paint skin panels illustrated pattern on each skin paint colonial experience and point to the centre on skin tones of First Nations panel connects one to the next, making lasting contemporary issues. women and are an expansion of my each single panel part of a greater ‘Intricacies of Identity’ is composed practice that explores the colonial whole. The unity acts as a defiant of five large rectangular hanging classification of First Nations people rejection of colonial devastation panels, not supported by any canvas or into ‘half cast’ and ‘quarter cast’. and acknowledges the impenetrable continuation of generational knowledge backing but are in and of themselves First Nations women’s narratives and keeping together. paint works. I invert the materiality of and experiences of colonial brutality painting and employ the medium of have not only been ignored but often paint as the object. distorted by settlers. In response, this Each panel is made up with makeup, artwork sheds light on First Nations facial foundation in particular, to women’s experience with the brutal Carmen Glynn-Braun is an emerging Indigenous Australian artist stemming from the colour the acrylic paint. I’ve chosen Assimilation Policy introduced in 1937, Southern Arrernte, Kaytetye, and Ammatyerre nations across Central Australia. She to use makeup as a pigment, not just which was enforced by the Australian has been included in several exhibitions including Dyarra Murrama Guwing - The because it can be very successful government in order to obliterate Sun Setting Red, Gallery Lane Cove, 2020 and Here to Empower, First Draft, 2020. She both aesthetically and practically as Indigenous bloodlines through the has also won several awards and is the recipient of the Australian Museum Emerging painting medium, but because makeup process of ‘breeding out’ the colour Indigenous Artist Fellowship for 2019. is used to either enhance or alter our and Indigeneity over the span of HEADSHOT CREDIT: ZAN WIMBERLEY 6 7 HAYLEY MEGAN FRENCH Goonoonoorrang/Kununurra, WA, and the land of the Giabal and Jarowair Born in 1987 in Eastwood, NSW people in Toowoomba, QLD. The development of ‘The Pipeline’ project has been supported by residencies with The Border Line and Alexandra Lawson Gallery. ‘The Pipeline’ is an ongoing suburban pipeline and the streets of Guildford. painting project documenting and The Polaroids are then painted-over memorialising three distinct suburbs using acrylic paint from a 4-colour that I live and work in across Australia. palette. The colour palette was chosen Beginning in 2018 when I moved into from the light blues and greens of the Western Sydney suburb of Old post-war fibro housing prominent in Guildford, I have been documenting my the area, the red brick of the Arabic neighbourhood to create and reinforce Gospel church next door and the a sense of home. This documentation yellowing of the grass in the Western began by taking Polaroid photographs Sydney heat. of my home and backyard. Stepping In 2019 this project expanded to out into the neighbourhood I was include two suburbs with which I feel drawn to the water pipeline that runs a strong connection: Kununurra in three houses down, from Prospect Western Australia and Toowoomba Reservoir east to Potts Hill. An in Queensland, each with a distinct engineering feat of the Upper Nepean colour palette. Polaroids from these Scheme, this overland pipeline is suburbs are also included in LOOKING significant to the collective past AT PAINTING. Repeating this process and present of this neighbourhood. has facilitated a deeper learning of Pipelines which once saved Sydney the past and present histories of these from drought were built over unceded suburbs and a growing engagement Darug land fiercely defended by with their futures through a lens of Pemulwuy and his clan. Wild dogs suburbanism and localism. Walking, have been replaced by street cats. photographing, and painting these Hayley Megan French lives and works on Bidjigal land, Guildford, in Sydney’s west. The smell of Arabic food fills the air. suburbs is retraining my senses to She has been exhibiting regularly across Australia for 10 years and has been awarded Stories continue to accumulate along better see, listen and engage poetically many prizes. Most recently in 2020 she was a finalist in the Blacktown City Art Prize, pipeline walking paths with sightlines with how we live. The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre; the Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown Arts Centre and the Mosman Art Prize. to connect us to a vast suburban The photographs for this project landscape. have been taken on Darug land Hayley Megan French is represented by Galerie pompom, Sydney and Alexandra These Polaroids are my neighbourhood in Old Guildford and Guildford, Lawson Gallery, Toowoomba.

notes, taken while walking the overland NSW, Miriwoong country in HEADSHOT CREDIT: JACQUIE MANNING

8 9 JODY GRAHAM I was collecting materials to make In both these bodies of works and mark-making tools. The Australian in my overarching practice I aim to Born in 1968 in Auburn, NSW bush comes alive after the rain, birds eliminate ego, or a sense of self- and insects flutter about, trees glisten consciousness. I try to let go of the with a wet sheen – and I have tried to natural desire to be a ‘good’ drawer capture that in ‘After the Rain.’ I made or painter and instead focus on my my own plant and sap dyes to create authentic connection to nature and I am presenting two bodies of work for where I found it and the life the object these works and used my mark-making my love for making. Doing this has LOOKING AT PAINTING, ‘Mark Making had beforehand. This is especially tools to create the markings. Many of helped me develop approaches to art Tools’ and ‘After the Rain.’ These two interesting to me, just as much as the pieces were even soaked in mud making which are more attainable and works show the connection between transforming it and extending its life. puddles. enjoyable. I believe this way of thinking the process of what I do and the actual Part of the reason I search for and I used paper as the support in ‘After creates organic experiences that create results of that process. make mark-making tools is because I the Rain’ because I like its absorbent better results and produces works that I am constantly seeking new ways to like making my own things and avoiding qualities and the way it feels when I are real and done with the heart and explore how to make marks. To do this, consumerist culture, but also collecting draw on it while it is in mud puddles. body rather than the analytical mind. I often abandon traditional drawing and random bits and pieces brings The ease and pleasure that comes from paint techniques to better connect to me comfort; they are like precious working this way makes me feel linked this fundamental need to make marks. souvenirs to me. I have to carry all sorts to nature and connected to my work. I started creating mark-making tools of weird stuff I collect when walking. at BigCi Bilpin (BilPin International Including dead animals. ground for Creative initiatives, Blue The presentation aspect that comes Mountains, NSW) in 2016 to develop a after the gathering of materials is also creative workshop. I have been making important to me. Sometimes I bind these objects ever since and they my marking tools, and it feels like I have transformed over time, becoming am mending, restoring or constructing sculptural and less ephemeral. together odd matches; like a dolls head Walking is an important aspect of on a pitchfork or a magpie claw on a my practice and I walk several times mop handle, a bit like Frankenstein! I a week (sometimes for distances as have even learnt to make natural string long as 10-15 kilometres) looking for from grasses to make handles for my interesting things to make marks with, tools. I arrange them on the wall or the Jody Graham has had over ten solo exhibitions and exhibits frequently in group especially in nature. I like collecting floor in a pleasing way, reminiscent of exhibitions. She won the open Greenway Art Prize in 2017 (and the local prize again in discarded bones, broken brooms, bits a well organised shed that has tools 2020) and has been a finalist in many major art prizes, including the 66th Blake Prize, of nature, rocks, twisted branches, old which are hanging up in an order the ‘Sculptures at Scenic World’ in Katoomba, and at the Muswellbrook, Paddington, and doll parts, and any other treasures user understands. NSW Parliament’s Plein Air painting prizes. that come into my path. When I find ‘After the Rain’ was inspired by looking Jody Graham is represented by Nanda/Hobbs Gallery, Sydney. unusual or broken and busted items, I at trees after it had been raining, really enjoy thinking about how it got to especially the colour and texture, when HEADSHOT CREDIT: DANIEL KUKEC 10 11 ROCHELLE HALEY are bit more atmospheric. How do they between surface and space, the impact impact the experience of being in that of colour on senses and the way Born in 1981 in Canberra, ACT space? I was really interested to think we experience the atmospheric and about how I could imply that there was sensory nature of colour. natural light inside the Hopper Gallery, While I do move through a lot of even though it doesn’t actually exist. different mediums and disciplines, I Sight lines are important to me too. really see most of my central concerns For LOOKING AT PAINTING you are painting, I have also been thinking Thinking about how you would walk revolving around what painting is and presenting two works, ‘Double about the way that architectural through a space, how different things the interaction between painting and Veil’ and ‘Double Column,’ which features interact with implied light, and can catch your eye and what lines up the body through movement. incorporate wall painting and airy how light can be painted across the in perspective. As the artist, you can fringe suspended sculptures. Can you space. The painted mural in ‘Double What would you like people to take set up little alignments or moments of tell us about these works? Column’ implies a kind of projected away from these artworks? recognition when things come together colour shadow behind the columns. I’d love for people to think about Both the works are responsive to the spatially in a way that you couldn’t The colour shadow explores the way extending their understanding of what architectural context of the Hopper experience if you just looked at the that paint works when applied in layers constitutes painting and expand how Gallery and Casula Powerhouse itself. In work from one still static point of view. ‘Double Column,’ I’m replicating the size of translucency. Doing so gives the they can approach and think about What has led you to think about and scale of the exiting columns in the space a sense of atmosphere and a painting as a medium and a discipline. painting in this way? gallery, which are very idiosyncratic to kind of painterly expression despite There is a conceptual layer, but these that space. They attracted me because the fact I’m not painting on canvas or I’m trained in painting and drawing works also explore how light feels, that architectural features like this in a producing traditional painting objects. - I think that’s important to mention it can in fact feel a certain way and can gallery are quite unusual. Even though Your process incorporating because while at the moment I’m give a sense of warmth and a sense they are part of the infrastructure, architecture is very interesting, working primarily in a larger scale of colour at different times of day. they’re the type of thing that turn especially within the context of Casula involving installation elements and Ultimately, I want to achieve both an invisible inside the white cube space. Powerhouse which as a building still performance, I really see myself as a experiential experience as well as well a painter at heart. This is partly because conceptual one. ‘Double Column’ is made from polyester reveals much of its original industrial most of my concerns have to do with fringing which is inherently quite features. Can you speak to how you This text was written and condensed by the fundamental components of what insubstantial. You can put your hand approached this space? the Casula Powerhouse Curatorial team makes a painting in the first place. I see through these columns or gather them I consider the architecture of the through interviews conducted with the those fundamentals as the relationship up with your fingers; they’re very light installation space to be part of the artist, 2021. and they move with the ambient wind medium of the work itself. I think about in the space. This contrasts with the the scale of the work and relationships In 2020 Rochelle Haley was selected as an Artspace One Year Studio Artist and her original columns which are obviously between the built space and the body major commission EVER SUN was presented by Performance Space in Carriageworks made of strong materials which are as it moves through that space. for Liveworks 2020. Haley has staged 12 solo exhibitions and has participated in over 47 group shows at leading national venues. She also lectures in painting and drawing weight bearing and are structurally I’m also really interested in the way at UNSW Art & Design, where she completed a PhD in 2009 and is involved in several sound. ambient aspects impact the space. international research projects concerned with art. Because I’m so interested in the For example, the sunlight or the wind relationship between architecture and coming through or other elements that HEADSHOT CREDIT: ZAN WIMBERLEY 12 13 KIRTIKA KAIN to you and if you had to put them in a painting or find materials that convey Born in 1990 in New Delhi, India that feeling, what would they be?

For LOOKING AT PAINTING I have and ultimately it is your experience of it included three artworks that are called that truly matters. ‘Idolatry,’ ‘The Solar Line XXIV’ and ‘The The work was inspired by a book titled Solar Line XXVII.’ Jina Amucha, which was translated ‘Idolatry’ is the largest artwork that I from Marathi (the official language and am presenting in this exhibition. As co-official language in the Maharashtra you are standing before it you will see and Goa states of Western India) to traces of rope, reed, rocks, hair and Prison We Broke in 2008. It describes gold. Parts of the earth and the body the conditions of a caste group in are imbedded in beeswax and charcoal. India that was formally called the Although the work is as black as the ‘untouchables’, today recognised as night sky, it reminds me of compressed Dalits. The writer Babytai Kamble layers of rock and this is similar to how describes some of the most harrowing the work was created. Over a few days living conditions in abject poverty that I gathered materials including rope she experienced in her childhood but and plaster soaked in tar and layered without any hint of sentimentality. I them in bands. I then poured wax into found her writing raw and visceral and my mould. When the wax set it formed I wanted to capture the experience of the tablet that you see before you. It these words through materials. reminds me of an excavation of the Caste forms the basis for my practice, earth or a cross section of rock. Based as I myself was born in India into the on the materials, you can imagine how Dalit caste, yet I grew up here in Sydney. fragile this piece is and hence the fault I am interested in conditioned ideas of lines have formed in it. value and the self, and my art is where Kirtika Kain (b. 1990) has been exhibiting since 2016. In 2019, she completed The materials I use are certainly quite I can explore these questions and consecutive studio residencies in New Delhi, supported by Art Incubator and the unconventional for a painting. I choose create an alternative to the stigma and Dyason Bequest, and at the British School at Rome. She was recently a finalist in the them because they capture a texture invisibility of caste. I hope that through 2020 Create NSW Emerging Artist Fellowship at Artspace and is currently a recipient that I have in my mind’s eye. And this work you can consider the stories of the Parramatta Artist Studios program. although I will describe it and tell you that you have inherited, how ancient what inspired it, it is important that they are and how you hold them in Kirtika Kain is represented by Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.

you know that the work is really for you your own body. What do they look like HEADSHOT CREDIT: COURTESY OF CJ PICTURE. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF LIU. 14 15 CLAUDIA NICHOLSON In ‘Dream Map’ I’ve shifted to use my defined, which is similar to the way own Archive. I wanted to piece together dreams are. That’s one of the reasons Born in 1987 in Bogota, Colombia landscapes that are significant to me I wanted to bring the airbrush into it. with the landscapes of my dreams. The introduction of the airbrush also Many of the figures depicted are based meant that formally I was moving at a on myself and my family. I was trying to faster pace. This is something I really turn my focus inwards. wanted to do to move away from a Chicanx academic, Cherríe Moraga, What painterly materials and methods controlled illustrative way of working writes about the role of memory in the have you employed to create this This is one of the first times you’ve into something that was more open construction of diasporic identities work? experimented with airbrushing in and a little more abstract. and proposes that remembering offers ‘Dream Map’ is predominantly made this way, why have you moved in this The use of painterly materials in a radical restructuring of our lives. from ink and watercolour applied direction? ‘Dream Map’ is the beginning of a new Colonisation has produced a separation with airbrush and paintbrush. The way of working which is really exciting from personal and collective memories, Dreams can be so hard to capture and landscape and figures were loosely for me. I’m looking forward to moving and in turn, causes a rupturing of talk about. At the end of last year I based on reference images which have even further away from figurative and denial of inherited knowledges, was inspired by the ideas of Cherríe come from a collection of personal depictions using this method in the embodied knowledges, and language. Moraga, who discusses remembering photographs. I started piecing them future. What Moraga proposes is that diasporic and the right to remember and the sort together based on what felt right and in people have ‘the right to remember’ of slipperiness of dreams. In dreams, a way that reflected certain landscapes This text includes the artist’s ‘Dream – that working to undo this erosion of there is a process of remembering that that are in my dreams. Map’ statement followed by a short text knowledge is a de-colonial process of is going on –places can be familiar but that was written and condensed by the resistance. The liquid and fragmented In my practice, I’m very interested in there is a shifting and changing with Casula Powerhouse Curatorial team nature of my dreams resembles this landscape and the politics of painting time and space. The airbrushing tool through interviews conducted with the ongoing process of remembering. landscapes. I want to think about lends itself to a softness that is hard to the relationship between painting hold onto, it can be light and not really artist, 2021. ‘Dream Map’ blurs the distinctions and colonisation. In this work, by between memories and dreams. the act of making and doing I am The imagery and composition of trying to understand my place within the paintings piece together the landscapes. vivid imagery of my dreams with My previous works reference landscape photographs from my personal archive. Claudia Nicholson lives and works on Gadigal land. In 2017 Claudia was awarded the watercolour paintings from the Working with an airbrush enables me to NSW Emerging Visual Arts Fellowship and in 2019 she was commissioned by Museum National Library of Colombia. Painted create a sense of motion and gesture of Contemporary Art (Sydney) and Vivid Sydney as part of Vivid Sydney Festival. in the 1800’s, these works were that relates to the transitional space She presented new commissioned work, By Your Side, at the Art Gallery of NSW and commissioned by the Colombian of my dreams. My paintings collapse was commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia to develop Art Trail, an art government to map natural resources the distinctions between psychic and education resource for young people. Recent exhibitions include ‘Dream Sequence’, and to create an image for a unified, geographic places. These ‘Dream Maps’ Urban Theatre Projects (online) 2020, ‘Belonging’, Art Gallery of NSW, 2019. Her work is national identity. are enacting my right to remember. held in the collection of the Art Gallery of NSW.

HEADSHOT CREDIT: HANNAH CHAPMAN. 16 17 JUDY WATSON Now could you speak on ‘water sky The spine is a symbol or an iconic form spine on ochre nets’? that I use to talk about that resilience Born in 1959 in Mundubbera, QLD. of family, language and culture of Watson’s matrilineal family is from Waanyi country ‘water sky spine on ochre nets’ has a these women. And of course not just in Northwest Queensland distinct spine form in it. The spine in this case is actually from a bunya leaf Aboriginal women – I am referring to all from the bunya pine, which are part women protecting their families. of Gondwana land. Gondwana pine is Two artworks by Judy Watson other places. And she said, ‘funny ancient, from the dinosaur era. I think You’ve used an interesting mix of are included in this exhibition: you should say that! I was actually the fact that we’ve got these ancient materials and processes in these ‘waterspout,’ 1995 (held in Casula looking at them now.’ She faxed some plant forms still here is really important. works, fabric, pigments, pastels and Powerhouse’s permanent collection) photographs and I have worked ochre for materials for example and and ‘water sky spine on ochre nets,’ with these images ever since. That’s It feeds back to that whole idea of you’ve always spoken about print- 2021. interesting to me, when you’ll dream Waanyi people who are ‘running water making processes as being very something and then you try to act on it people’. The reason is because we have water running through our country, important to you. Why do you choose Can you tell us a bit about as an artist. such as the water basins in the Barkly these and why are they so important ‘waterspout’? Baler shells have had many uses; they Tableland, and some of that water to you? have a beautiful well within them ‘waterspout,’ 1995 was made when comes from ancient places deep within Both of the works have washes of and so they can be used to bail water I was in France completing a the earth. colour in the background. I trained out of canoes, as a receptacle or scholarship. originally as a print-maker and I learnt cup. It was even used to hold ochre, The spine also has to do with my to make prints onto limestone blocks. At the time I had a very strong dream: for painting with. Ochre is a really grandmother, Grace Isaacson, and That’s where I learnt to make the wash we were on a beach and there was a important natural resource. It has her mother, Mabel Daley, and my effect you can see in these works. waterspout coming across the water. It always been seen as a very important grandmother’s siblings, Baby Daisy and I didn’t use the limestone to make was in the shape of a tall, rectangular material for transformation. In fact, an Little Brother Patti. They ran away from these works, but this technique is what column and it came towards us. We archaeologist/anthropologist Ernest Riversleigh Station (Queensland) in inspired me to replicate it in a different scattered, and then it tore up the Chantre talks about ochre being ‘the the middle of the night. They did this way using fabrics and different beach and through a house behind it. red sting of history’. Because at the because of many issues on the Station. materials. It’s a similar way of making. After it had passed, we could see the beginning of every civilisation you’ll My grandmother says it was in the deep trench that it cut into the sand find ochre in burials, in painting, middle of the night that they cleared In terms of the mark-making over and there was a large conch shell and that red thread of history that holds out, and they had to follow rivers and the top, that’s when I’m bringing a a large baler shell there in the trench. together years of human beings or creeks. She remembers her mother, particular form out and in the case At the time, I didn’t have the internet civilisation or occupation. Mabel Daley, catching fish, and she of ‘water sky spine on ochre nets’, it’s would hold them by the tail and sling the shadow of the bunya leaf. It could but I did have a fax machine and The spiral forms within ‘waterspout’ them behind her and they would fall be the internal spine of a person or I contacted a friend working at indicate movement. The blue especially down her back. And my grandmother an animal. Almost like a spirit, living Cambridge Museum and I asked her, represents the movement of water. would say “she giveth us the flesh off in the water, who knows – people can ‘have you come across any conch Elsewhere it’s quite still. It’s very her backbone” – as in, she gave us the interpret it how they want. shells or baler shells?’ she was looking mesmerising. at things from the Torres Straight and best that she had.

18 19 What would you like people to take NYAPANYAPA YUNUPINGU away from these artworks? Born c. 1945 in Yirrkala region/Yolgnu people of I would encourage people to ask Arnhem Land (Gumatj Clan) questions. How does it make them feel? What is the content? As soon as your walk outside of Casula Powerhouse and go along the river, Nyapanyapa Yunupingu is part of (1975)’. The work depicted a near death open your senses, and listen to the the Yirritja Moiety from the Gumatj experience from 1975 when Yunupingu song of birds, the wind in the trees, Clan, located in Biranybirany. She was attacked by a water buffalo. This look at the sparkle of light on the water, works from the remote community of artwork consists of a bark painting and look at the beautiful gardens that have Yirrkala in East Arnhem Land, Northern a film ‘Gatapangawuy dhawu – Buffalo been created there! And think about Territory. She is a multi-award-winning story’ that showed the artist’s narration where you are and be open to it so the artist, who has been recognised as of the event. country can feed your soul. being at the forefront of contemporary In 2009, Yunupingu started something art for well over 10 years. new again. Her mark-making became This text was written and condensed by Yunupingu is known for her striking rhythmic and abstract, they had little the Casula Powerhouse Curatorial team mark-making made with paint across a or no reference to her life, the Yolnu through interviews conducted with the wide range of mediums and supports painting way, or any recognisable artist, 2021. including bark, pole, canvas, paper narrative at all. These became known and board as well as additional as her mayilimiriw paintings, which explorations through sculpture, print translates as ‘meaningless’. Will making, installations and screen- Stubbs, the coordinator of the Buku- based works. In the early part of her Larrangay Mulka Centre who has been career she was known for using mark- working closely with Yunupingu from making in a figurative way to depict the beginning of her career and other personal experiences from her life. Yolngu Elders and artists from 1995 says This was considered highly unusual that, as it did not align with the accepted ‘each stroke of her brush has no methods and subjects that Yolnu (her idea what came before it and no family, community or cultural group concept of what may come next.’ Judy Watson is an important Aboriginal Australian artist who has been working all in Northern Territory) had been using over Australia and internationally for over 20 years. Notably, in 1997, she represented for many years. Yunupingu was using – the moment eternal: Nyapanyapa Australia at the Venice Biennale, along with Emily Kam Ngwarray and Yvonne her painting in a revolutionary way. Yunupingu, Museum and Art Gallery Koolmatrie. Today her artworks are collected and exhibited in national art galleries A well-known example of this was in of Northern Territory, pg. 133 around the globe. 2008 when Yunupingu won the Wandjuk Yunupingu wasn’t afraid to use Judy Watson is represented by Milani Gallery, Brisbane. Marika 3D Memorial Award (sponsored different materials to express herself by Telstra) for ‘Incident at Mutpi either. During the summer, bark around HEADSHOT CREDIT: PHOTOGRAPHY BY RACHEL SEE. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND MILANI GALLERY, BRISBANE. 20 21 the Buku-Larrangay Mulka Centre Yunupingu’s major retrospective becomes too dry to work on. So that exhibition at the Museum and Art Yunupingu could continue working in Gallery of the Northern Territory the interim, Stubbs gave her a bundle the moment eternal: Nyapanyapa of acetate and paint pens. Over the Yunupingu was open for viewing years she has made 100+ artworks last year in 2020, bringing together using these materials. a collection of significant works that Some of Yunupingu’s paint on acetate were part of different projects and works were created into prints, using exhibitions from the last 20 years. Her a photographic exposure method acetate works feature heavily in this in some cases and a lithographic exhibition as one of many innovative limestone in others. Notably she approaches she has explored across worked with her collaborators Mulka her illustrious career. Project at the Buku-Larrangay Mulka Casula Powerhouse is lucky to show Centre to create ‘light paintings’ which several of her original paint pen works were presented at the 18th Biennale on clear acetate. We have chosen these of Sydney in 2012. In this stunning works for LOOKING AT PAINTING to show presentation, the acetates were how experimentation and innovation scanned and input into a specially informs the practice of one of this designed computer program which country’s most celebrated painters. layered the pieces and lit them from behind with varying intensity. Words by Ellen Hewitt

Nyapanyapa Yunupingu, from the Yirrkala region/Yolgnu people of Arnhem Land (Gumatj Clan), has been considered an important Indigenous Australian artist for well over 10 years. A major retrospective exhibition ‘the moment eternal: Nyapanyapa Yunupingu’ was presented at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in 2020. Her painting Garak – night sky was announced as the winner of the AGNSW’s Wynne Prize this year. Nyapanyapa Yunupingu is represented by Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala, Arnhem Land and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, Australia.

HEADSHOT CREDIT: NYAPANYAPA YUNUPINGU, APPROX. 2015. COURTESY ROSLYN OXLEY9 GALLERY, SYDNEY.

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