A STUDY GUIDE by Marguerite o’hara
http://www.metromagazine.com.au
ISBN-13-978-1-74295-005-1 http://www.theeducationshop.com.au Note: this study guide relates to the full-length version of Emily In Japan (81 min) as well as the extras on the DVD available from Ronin Films.
Emily in Japan takes us behind the scenes of the blockbuster exhibition of paintings by the Indigenous artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye which toured Japan in 2008, attracting record crowds. As we follow the preparations for this exhibition we learn about Emily and how she expressed her connection to Country through her paintings. At the same time we follow Indigenous 1: Emily Kame Kngwarreye. Photo art curator Margo Neale as by Mayumi Uchida. 2: Paintings in she negotiates complex sets storage for shipping to Japan for the Respecting cultural protocols of relationships to bring the touring Emily exhibition 1 As this film contains images and Japanese project to fruition. voices of people who have passed away, including Emily Kame Curriculum Guidelines of an extraordinary Australian Aboriginal Kngwarreye, a warning text appears artist. Margo Neale, who co-curated at the start of the program to ensure that people are aware of what and Emily in Japan would be of great inter- this exhibition with Akira Tatehata, and who they may see and hear. You est to students at middle and second- the filmmakers who filmed this complex may already be familiar with these ary school levels working in Visual project, bring this story of Emily Kame warnings which precede programs Arts areas, as well as tertiary students Kngwarreye to life. Their enthusiasm where the images and voices of studying Art History and Indigenous and passion for the painter and this deceased people appear: Studies. Students undertaking post- project is infectious. This film includes images and names of graduate diplomas in Museum and deceased people that may cause sadness Curatorial Studies will also find much Phase 2 of the new Australian National and distress to Aboriginal and Torres to interest and inspire them in this Curriculum guidelines will outline Strait Islander People. documentary. It may also have value in an Arts curriculum which is likely Japanese language and culture studies. to include a strong emphasis At the same time, this is a documentary on the value and importance that incorporates many elements of the of understanding the range filmmakers’ art. It would be an excellent and history of Aboriginal and 2 film to show to students of Media and Torres Strait Islander art. In Film Studies, particularly those studying developing an appreciation of documentary-making. the complexity, strength and beauty of Indigenous artwork
The film is a rare behind-the-scenes such as that of Emily Kngwar- SCREEN EDUCATION exploration of the staging of a major reye, students may well be internationally touring ‘Blockbuster’ art inspired to look at how their exhibition, and provides a fascinating in- own artistic practices can sight into the curator’s role in mounting be enriched and developed. such an exhibition. The film also serves Part of this study should as an introduction to the life and work include developing an 2 2
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1: Unpacking Big Yam Dreaming during the was about 78 years old. In the eight installation of the Emily exhibition in Japan years before her death in 1996, she appreciation and understanding of the (L) John Payne, National Gallery of Victoria. produced a staggering output of some ways in which Indigenous artists’ work 2: BYD, unrolling 3: Paintings in storage for 3,000 canvasses, some of which are is in its heart and soul an expression of shipping to Japan now valued more highly (in monetary country and spirituality, of memory and terms) than the work of any other the honouring of tradition and continu- female Indigenous Australian artist. ity. As curator Margo Neale wrote in her 1998 catalogue essay that accompa- The exhibition of Emily Kame Kng- nied an earlier exhibition of Emily’s work warreye’s paintings which toured to – ‘her own visual theory is firmly rooted Osaka and Tokyo, Japan, in 2008 in total “connectedness”, to her land, is arguably the biggest, most com- her spirituality and her being’. prehensive single artist exhibition to 3 travel internationally from Australia. Every State and Territory Gallery has a dedicated Indigenous art collection, It may also be the last comprehensive often representing the work of local ence, whether this is local, national exhibition of Emily’s work anywhere artists. Indigenous artworks can also be or international in the world, due to the large scale of found in museums and in regional and • Developing an awareness of the key works, their increasing fragility, commercial galleries. Seeing an artist’s cultural, social and historical con- and the high cost of moving them. work in a gallery or other collection is text in which the work was created a convenient way to appreciate the • Developing an ability to recognise Emily in Japan is the story of the mak- artwork, but it is through a documen- and evaluate the particular charac- ing of the exhibition: the work behind tary like this that one is able to get an teristics of an artist’s work the scenes that put it all together understanding of an artist’s work. Emily • Being able to describe the aes- and took it on the road. It’s a story of in Japan offers an extraordinary glimpse thetic and technical qualities of an cross-cultural transactions – from the into the artist’s work, guided by the artwork, i.e. the melding of content red desert of central Australia where people who curate the exhibition. and stylistic elements Emily lived, to Canberra where the • Making informed judgements exhibition was curated, and to Japan. For art students, exploring the work about the qualities of the work, of other artists is an integral part of i.e. do I like it and why? What are The driving force behind the exhibi- developing understandings of their the work’s intrinsic qualities that I tion is Margo Neale, an Indigenous art own practices. At senior secondary respond to? curator and historian, who mounted levels where students are studying • Developing a sense of how other an earlier, smaller retrospective exhibi- visual arts subjects such as Art, Studio artists’ work and practices relate tion of Emily’s work for the Queensland Arts and Art History, this documentary to their own creative processes, Art Gallery in 1998 and which toured offers opportunities for them to de- i.e. ways of seeing, conceptualis- nationally. velop their analytical, interpretive and ing and representing. creative skills. Some of the key tasks This earlier exhibition attracted the SCREEN EDUCATION in undertaking any study and appre- Synopsis attention of a visiting Japanese scholar ciation of art include: and art critic, Professor Akira Tatehata, Emily Kame Kngwarreye was an and it became his personal mission to • Understanding the relationship Aboriginal woman from a community bring such an exhibition to Japan. The between the artist, the artwork, named Utopia in central Australia who working relationship and friendship their world and that of the audi- began to paint on canvas when she between Margo Neale and Professor 3 Tatehata who share a deep passion for Emily’s work, is at the core of the film. Margo is an Indigenous woman from a background of poverty and hardship and Tatehata a ‘Bohemian’ aesthete from a privileged arts background.
The film follows Margo as she visits Emily’s community in the Utopia re- 1 gion, some 270kms north-east of Alice 1: Principal curator of the touring Springs, to consult with Emily’s family Emily exhibition, Margo Neale, from members about the exhibition. It also the National Museum of Australia follows her in equally complex nego- 2: Emily Kame Kngwarreye. Photo by tiations with the Japanese sponsors of Mayumi Uchida. 3: Professor Akira the exhibition (including the media gi- Tatehata, eminent art critic and ant Yomiuri) and with the two galleries curator in Japan, who initiated the which will host the exhibition in Japan idea for the touring Emily exhibition 3 – the space-age National Museum of Art in Osaka, and the magnificent National Arts Centre in Tokyo, one of Gippsland, Victoria. Her professional the world’s major galleries. positions at the time of the Emily exhibition included: Margo, with her small team of con- 2 sultants and staff from the National - the principal advisor (Indigenous) Museum of Australia, selects the to the Director at the National 200 works for the exhibition from the Museum of Australia; 3,000 or more that Emily painted, and Key people in the - a senior curator at the National gathers them from some 60 collec- documentary Museum of Australia; tions around the world, from a myriad - senior research fellow at the of private collections, corporations Emily Kame Kngwarreye c.1910– NMA’s new centre for Historical and galleries. Given the value of the 1996 – the artist Research; and paintings, crating and freighting them - adjunct Professor in the Australian is a complex process of checking and Emily is an Aboriginal woman from Centre for Indigenous History at security – a process to which the film Utopia in central Australia, a region the Australian National University. crew is given privileged access. 270 kms north-east of Alice Springs. She was born at Alhalkere and raised Margo Neale curated the first major The exhibition in Osaka and Tokyo on the land in traditional ways. She national touring retrospective for an turns into a major media event and at- spoke Anmatyerre. Indigenous artist on the art of Emily tracts huge crowds, more so than the Kame Kngwarreye in 1998, the show sponsors and organisers hoped for. It Emily started painting on canvas so admired by Japanese scholar and is visited by then prime minister Kevin when she was around 78 years critic, Professor Akira Tatehata. Rudd and federal ministers from Aus- old while working with the Utopia tralia, as well as the Empress of Japan Women’s Batik Group. In the follow- Professor Akira Tatehata – and other Japanese royalty and ce- ing 8 years she painted some 3000 Japanese scholar, art critic and lebrities. It breaks the record held for canvasses in an astonishing diversity curator the previous ten years by Andy Warhol of styles. Her work was immensely as the most popular contemporary art popular and sought after and in 1992 He initiated the idea to stage the Emily exhibition to show in Japan. she was awarded a Federal Creative exhibition in Japan and co-curated Fellowship. She died in 1996, leaving it with Margo Neale. Tatehata was The success of the exhibition in Japan an enormous body of work, held in born in Kyoto in 1947. He now lives in signifies the achievement of one of public and private collections in Aus- Tokyo but works in Osaka where he Emily’s dreams that Margo undertook tralia and in many other countries. is the Director of the National Mu- to realise: that her work, her stories, seum of Art, Osaka. He specialises SCREEN EDUCATION be seen by people around the world. Margo Neale – principal curator of in modern and contemporary art and It gives to this elderly woman from the touring Emily exhibition was the Japanese commissioner for Utopia her rightful place as one of the the Venice Biennale in 1990 to 1993, world’s leading modernist artists. Margo Neale is an Indigenous and artistic director of the Yokohama woman of Aboriginal and Irish de- Triennale in 2001. He is also a nation- scent who was born and raised in ally awarded poet. 4 The Filmmakers
Director Andrew Pike
Producer Harriet Pike Photography Scott Wombey and Editing Emily in Japan is a Ronin film. It was produced independently, with assistance from the National Museum of Australia and the Australia–Japan Foundation. The film runs for 81 minutes.
unknown in Japan attract enough ABOVE: The opening of the Emily exhibition in Osaka, Japan people to allow Yomiuri to recover its huge financial outlay? Would the way be open for future exhibi- tions from Australia? Student Activities bition there are many areas to be 2. Emily’s paintings are already among worked through. Three of these inter- the most highly priced of any Watching the film related areas include: female Australian artist, let alone an Indigenous artist, and the art world The structure of the film (a) Political: is very aware that a major exhibi- tion of this nature will significantly Like the exhibition, the documen- 1. The directive for the exhibition enhance the value and reputation of tary Emily in Japan traverses several came from ministerial level, posi- Emily’s work. (Even the catalogue worlds. The first part of the film deals tioning the exhibition as a major book of an earlier exhibition which mostly with preparations in Australia boost to Australia–Japan cultural Margo Neale also curated – in 1998 for the exhibition in Osaka and Tokyo, relations. Accordingly, the event at the Queensland Art Gallery – sells while the second part of the film fol- has a keen political component at over $3000 on eBay). Collectors, lows the journey to Japan: the logis- which requires that the complexi- both private and governmental, tics of staging the exhibition, seeing ties of diplomatic protocols had to are very keen to have their paint- the work as it is hung and hearing and be navigated by both the Austral- ings included: inclusion will greatly observing responses to the show. As ian curator and the Japanese escalate value. the film develops we learn more about: venue curators at every stage. 3. Because the paintings are be- 2. For the National Museum of ing lent to the exhibition and are a) Emily and her paintings Australia it was an extraordinary extremely valuable, security is criti- b) Margo Neale, the curator, and her opportunity to present itself as one cal: the complexities of crating and work in bringing it all together and of the world’s leading cultural insti- freighting the paintings are an im- c) The Japanese response to the tutions. The potential to achieve a portant part of the story, as are the work, represented by Akira Tate- high international profile put great maze of demands and restrictions hata, gallery curators and visitors pressure on the attendant media that bedevil the selection of paint- to the exhibition. publicity campaign as well as on ings and the way they are hung. the curator and her support staff. Security teams for many paintings Watching art documentaries can be de- travelled to Japan to oversee the manding as our immediate impulse is to (b) Financial: hanging of specific works. focus on the visuals, but this documen- tary is much more than a slide show of 1. The National Museum of Australia (c) Personal: paintings. Images are accompanied by invested over $1m in the show, descriptions as individuals talk about plus significant sponsorship funds; 1. When Margo mounted the first their work and that of Emily. We see on the other side, Yomiuri Shim- exhibition of Emily’s work in 1998 people at work, in the country and in bun, the major Japanese sponsor for the Queensland Art Gallery, the cities and we learn about the complexi- (who ‘owns’ most blockbuster ex- press and her colleagues in the art SCREEN EDUCATION ties of curating a major international art hibitions that go to Japan, whether world said that this was ‘the exhibi- exhibition. This is a story of diplomacy Monet or Cezanne or … Emily tion that couldn’t be done,’ because and co-operation as much as it is about Kngwarreye) had over $2m at risk. of the politics and protocols of the an astonishing painter. Would an exhibition of paintings by Indigenous art world at that time. an elderly Aboriginal woman from Nevertheless, Margo did it, and did In mounting this international exhi- the central Australian desert who is it so well that she was inundated 5 with requests to repeat the show 1: Media scrum around the hanging of Emily’s biggest painting, Big Yam overseas. This time, however, the Dreaming 2: Japanese curator, Hanako Nishino (L), from the National Art Center, stakes were much higher: the scale Tokyo, with a model of the Emily exhibition. 3: Principal Curator of the touring of this exhibition was vastly greater Emily exhibition, Margo Neale (L) from the National Museum of Australia, with and ten times the cost, and it was Japanese curator, Hanako Nishino (R), from the National Art Center, Tokyo playing in an international arena to an untested audience. 2. The exhibition is the result of passionate enthusiasm for Emily’s paintings from the two senior cura- tors – Professor Tatehata in Osaka, and Margo Neale in Canberra. Would their personal commitment and faith in Emily’s work be ap- preciated by the Japanese public? 3. Margo Neale, herself an Indigenous Australian from south-eastern Aus- tralia, had a responsibility to ensure the co-operation and goodwill of the elders of Emily’s community and her family in central Australia. The pressure on her to honour the fam- ily’s interests and to keep faith with their wishes was constant.
All these areas had to be carefully 1 negotiated with various organisations, communities and individuals for the ex- hibition to be successful. As you watch the planning activities for the shows in • Who proposed the Emily exhibition Japan, choose one of these three areas project? on which to focus your attention – the • What are Akira Tatehata and political, the financial or the personal. Margo Neale’s credentials and pre- vious experience that make them Student Activity 1 the best people to undertake the 2 curating of this exhibition? From conception to show • Whose job is it to gather all this work together? collection of an artist’s work, how 1. Preparing to go to Japan • What would be some of the most would curatorial staff be able to important tasks to be worked track down work that was not held The exhibition included works from through during the initial planning in a public gallery? sixty collections gathered across four stages for an international exhibi- • What is the role of the Japanese continents and valued at over 50 million tion? corporation Yomiuri Shimbun as dollars. • In trying to gather a representative a partner in the Japanese exhibi- tion and how does this differ from Australia? 3 • Why is it important that both the Tokyo and Osaka galleries each have over half a kilometre of wall space to work with in mounting this exhibition?
• How is the use of the scale model SCREEN EDUCATION of the available gallery wall space a clear way to demonstrate to co- workers the scale and context of the paintings within the exhibition spaces? Or what are the advan- tages in using a scale model of the galleries financially, curatorially and 6 politically? 2
sense of Emily’s Country? • How will the recording and play- ing of a song about Alhalkere be an important part of the Emily exhibition? How is chanting and singing the songlines related to the ceremonial aspects of Emily’s 1 paintings? • Akira Tatehata, one of the driving forces behind the exhibition in • Margo Neale curated the major getting the permission of the sen- Japan says, Emily retrospective exhibition ior members of the community to We were visitors from the outside; through the Queensland Art Gal- move these things a crucial aspect it is too much to think one could lery in 1998. What were some of of this trip? understand the culture of these the difficulties she had to work • What is Christopher Hodges able people who were born there and through at that time which were to tell us about the genesis of live there, who belong to that land. valuable experiences for curating Emily’s work as an artist? However, he clearly believes it is this exhibition ten years later? • Why is Emily’s grave some dis- important for the Japanese part- • How can paintings deteriorate if tance from the place where she ners in the exhibition to experience they are not handled, stored and lived and worked? Emily’s Country first-hand. Why displayed with great care and • Who are Emily’s closest blood rela- do you think he feels this to be respect? tives? important? • What does Stephen Pitijara show • In what ways is Janet Holmes à 2. Consulting with Emily’s Margo at Alhalkere, Emily’s coun- Court an important figure in the family and community try? success of Emily’s work as an • What important artefact does artist? All of those people are custodians of Lindsay Bird Mpetyane, Emily’s the story … and of what it means to nephew, allow Margo to take to be Aboriginal … and have roles and Japan as something that will give 1: L–R: Artist Barbara Weir, Margo Neale relationships and responsibilities to what the Japanese people some and director Andrew Pike, on the way to Emily is painting. – Margo Neale Utopia 2: Barbara Weir, an artist from the Utopia region who grew up with Emily • What are some of the main rea- Kame Kngwarreye 3: Margo Neale and sons that Margo Neale travels to 3 Barbara Weir in Utopia the Utopia region, north-east of Alice Springs, where Emily lived and worked? • What is it about Barbara Weir’s background and connection to the land that makes her an ideal
guide and companion for Margo in SCREEN EDUCATION Utopia? • What are some of the objects found in the landscape that Margo is able to take to Japan to con- vey some tangible sense of the importance of Country? Why is 7 2 1: The Emily exhibition being installed in the National Museum of Osaka 1 2: Margo Neale plans with the Japanese co-curators, Yasuyuki Nakai (centre), and Professor Akira Tatehata.
3. Japan • What are some of the ‘extras’, apart from the paintings, that are Margo Neale and the Project Manager, incorporated into the exhibition spaces in the Tokyo gallery? Benita Tunks, along with the crew film- and why does Margo think that • What is the irony Margo Neale ing the documentary, travel to Japan their inclusion is critical to this sees in the promotional posters four months before the Osaka opening exhibition? for the Emily exhibition alongside to negotiate details of the exhibition • What do the close inspection the posters for the exhibition of tour. of the surface of the paintings Modigliani’s work? reveal about how Emily worked? • What does this suggest about the • Why are face-to-face meetings in Describe some of the incidental accuracy and usefulness of labels Japan between all the key mem- ‘inclusions’ in the paintings. such as ‘abstract expressionism’, bers of the curatorial group, the ‘primitivism’ and ‘modernism’? financial partners and government 4. ‘Showing them off to • Were the Japanese exhibitions representatives seen as being great advantage’ successful? How can we measure important to the smooth running the success of art exhibitions? Are of the organisational aspects of • What does Margo Neale see as they about more than attendance mounting the exhibition? the significance of the February, figures and money? What may • Apart from the language differ- 2008 Australian Government Apol- be the ongoing value for cross- ences, what are some of the other ogy to the Stolen Generations of cultural relations? How might this differences shown in how people Indigenous Australians, especially exhibition affect the value of the from different cultures conduct in relation to how white Austral- artist’s work? themselves during business and ians might begin to ‘read’ and cultural transactions? understand artworks of Indigenous Student Activity 2 • What is the role of the Yomiuri Australians? corporation in contributing to the • Margo Neale wants people to have Responding to success of the exhibition? an emotional engagement with Aboriginal art • How vital is good advance public- Emily’s work. How does she see ity to generate interest in the work her role as curator of the work in Emily’s work has been, and continues of an artist who, unlike Monet relation to the artist’s intentions? to be, greatly admired and sought af- or Warhol, would not have been • How do collector Janet Holmes à ter by collectors. Her work is popular known in Japan? Court, Akira Tatehata and Margo in many places throughout the world. • What are some of the differences Neale each respond to the paint- But what is it we are responding to in approaches to hanging the work ings once they are hung on the when we stand before a canvas such that need to be negotiated be- Osaka Gallery walls? as Big Yam Dreaming? What is it that tween the two groups of curatorial • When the exhibition moves to is beautiful, alive and visually arresting staff? Tokyo, why does Margo feel it is in her paintings?
• In what ways has the curator important for her to take charge of SCREEN EDUCATION incorporated her understanding of how the exhibition is hung? The Utopia Art Sydney gallery, which Japanese culture in the way the • What is the major difference has represented Emily’s work from the works are presented? between the exhibition layout in outset , describes her as ‘a landscape • Why does Big Yam Dreaming, Osaka and the layout in Tokyo? painter’. Emily’s 1995 painting, present par- • What are some of the slightly unu- ticular challenges for the curators sual decisions she makes in relation The place she painted, Alhalkere, is and installers? to how the paintings will occupy the an area of land that she referred to as 8 1
1: The hole in the rock at Alhalkere – the place that Emily celebrated in her paintings. 2: Alhalkere, 1996. 3: Emily Kame Kngwarreye. Photo Mayumi Uchida.
‘her Country’. She explained that her pictures incorporate all of the stories and subjects that made her land.
These include Awelye (women’s dreaming); Arlatyeye (pencil yam); Arnkerrthe (mountain devil lizard); 2 Ntange (grass seed); Tingu (a dream time dingo pup); Ankerre (emu); Intekwe (a favourite food of emus, a she would be doing in ceremony, small plant); Atnwerle (green bean) and painting up, doing the body Kame (yam seed) from which Kngwar- stripes, singing the songs, and she reye gets her name. often sings and chants and so on when she is working, and in her This is somewhat different from a head she is affirming her relation- western view of the landscape but for ship with Alhalkere, therefore Kngwarreye this vision included not of her Country, therefore of her only the visual but that which gave her custodial role with nurturing for 3 Country meaning. This landscape was the increase of the yam, and the subject for nearly all of Kngwar- other totemic animals, plants and reye’s paintings.1 animals that she has responsibil- ity for. Director of Utopia Art Sydney Read the three observations below (1, … the prime motivation and 3. Of course, when Aboriginal people 2 and 3) each of which suggests that impetus of her work is to tell the see Emily’s work, and when the the way people understand, appreci- stories of her and her relationship Australians in the white culture see ate and talk about Aboriginal art varies to Country and … in doing that, Emily’s work, the cultural bias is greatly depending on different back- she is also telling the history of her different each time … We see the grounds and different understanding Country, the history of her people’s work differently yet we can share of the term ‘art’. How useful are terms relationship to that Country. our joy. – Akira Tatehata such as ‘symbolic’, ‘non-represen- – Margo Neale tational’ and ‘abstract’ when we are 2. The essence that she [Emily] may • How is your response to art- describing paintings such as those have drawn inspiration from may works mediated through your of Emily Kame Kngwarreye? Why do have been a particular seed or background, culture, history and people paint pictures? What purpose a rock and there’s definitely the education? do they have beyond being decora- influence of a rock, and important • In my view it is better to push this tive and able to delight us? Such places and landscape … however as the work of a great Austral- questions are fundamental to how we the pictures aren’t literal interpreta- ian artist, because the reflection respond to this work. tions of any of these things, they’re back into the community is a
abstractions of those things and much stronger reflection than if SCREEN EDUCATION 1. Prior to contact, there was no word people looking at this work will be we pushed the idea that she is an for art in Indigenous languages. For looking at it as non-representa- Aboriginal artist. It should be great Emily she’s not painting abstract tional painting surfaces … you’ve art … like nobody cares if Picasso art; she’s not even doing art. She got to treat it as an exhibition of was Spanish or French … and is simply performing ceremony abstract painting. Emily’s got to be treated in exactly on canvas. So she is doing what – Christopher Hodges, the same way. – Margo Neale 9 1: Margo Neale at work while in Utopia 2: Margo Neale at Alhalkere
1 2
In what sense does the reception Japanese visitors to Emily of Emily’s work in Japan (as well as exhibitions. • I feel very in- in other countries) suggest that art • She has amazing ways of using spired by her work. As a woman, is ‘an international language’? colour … lines and dots. I felt she was doing such wonderful • How important is it to know about very strong power coming from work up to her death. an artist, their background, their them. culture and their intentions as well • They looked very Japanese … So, is it enough to enjoy the colours, as why they work the way they do, classical Japanese art … the the patterns, the boldness of the in developing an appreciation of same feel … I found them inspir- brushstrokes and that indefinable artworks? ing. sense of harmony and even spiritual- • What influence does the curator’s • That physical process, particu- ity? Is there any other way in which notes (often written on a label larly with the brushstrokes, may non-Indigenous viewers can appreci- placed beside the artwork) have on have something in common with ate these canvasses and the sense of your understanding and apprecia- Eastern calligraphy that is letters Country expressed in the work? How tion of the artist and the artwork drawn with a brush … the way are we able to understand the com- or/and the use of an audio guide she drew lines without hesita- plex visual language that is embodied which provides information? Dis- tion and with determination, is in these works, what Margo Neale cuss your approach to viewing an perhaps not unlike calligraphy. calls ‘the ceremonial’? exhibition of paintings with others – Akira Tatehata in your class. • it’s art that we don’t understand For students interested in further • How important is the role of art in at all … I thought they’re only for investigating this issue of how we the transmission and maintenance those who can understand … we understand and talk about Aboriginal of cultural knowledge and values didn’t. art, there is an interesting essay by in any society, but especially in • The value of the paintings for Rex Butler – The Impossible Painter Aboriginal societies? Aboriginal people and for others – about the 1998 exhibition of Emily • Do the works of great artists ‘stand is fundamentally different when Kame Kngwarreye’s work, published alone’ and have their own distinc- they are exhibited in the West in Australian Art Collector magazine. tive pictorial language, regardless or Japan. When their works are The essay can be accessed at
Viola’s video installations; is our problem for Emily, but for us, the Willem de Kooning reflect distinctly SCREEN EDUCATION liking for the work of painters such audience. Eurocentric notions of artistic expres- as Van Gogh, Vermeer and Brett • To see those patterns that are sion. He suggests that we are forced Whiteley affected by our interest imbued with the soul of the to use the only language we have to in, and knowledge of, their life and people, I found it very moving. describe her work and that this is the times? Because I went there thirty-sev- language of Western art criticism and • Read the following excerpts from en years ago, memories like that traditions. Such language and the some of the ‘vox pop’ interviews of of the red earth are still vivid. critical categories into which her work 10 is sometimes placed are somehow inadequate, even beside the point.
As Margo Neale explains in the docu- mentary, the notion of Aboriginal art is a Western invention. It was the white people who encouraged artists like Emily to paint on canvas. While some understanding of the origins and ideas behind the works may increase our appreciation, for many viewers it is the simplicity and beauty of both colour and line that attracts us to these paint- ings.
• How would you describe the work of Emily Kame Kngwarreye to someone who is not familiar with Aboriginal art? ABOVE: Margo Neale (L) with Barbara Weir (R) and female • Where did Emily work? What was relatives of Emily Kame Kngwarreye in Utopia, central Australia her studio, her materials and her method? • How might the places in which she series/emily-kame-kngwarreye about their creative process; we are worked relate to colour and light in -series/> and Setting aside cost considerations, about his approach to making Emily exhibitions/utopia_the_genius_of_ SCREEN EDUCATION why do you think a small crew in Japan. This interview would be of emily_kame_kngwarreye/behind_ is more likely to gain more open particular interest to students of Media the_scenes/ and intimate access to this kind of and Film Studies for the insights Pike Peter Coster, ‘Watching the Price project than might be possible with offers into the challenges of making of Spirituality’, Herald Sun, 18 a larger film crew? Were there any a film about such a complex process September 2009, 13 For sales, please contact RONIN FILMS. PO Box 680 Mitchell A.C.T. 2911 AUSTRALIA http://www.roninfilms.com.au ph: (02) 6248 0851 fax: (02) 6249 1640 This study guide was produced by ATOM. (© ATOM 2011) ISBN-13-978-1-74295-005-1 [email protected] For more information on Screen Education magazine, or to download other study guides for assessment, visit 14