REVIEWS OF KAPI UNGKUPAYI, TARNANTHI FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS & TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER ART ADELAIDE 2015:
Roma Butler, Ivy Laidlaw, Tjawina Roberts and Jennifer Mitchell, The Toyota, 2015.
OTHER MEDIA:
Ngaanyatjarra Media works with the Minyma Kutjara Art Centre in Irrunytju creating projects together. During 2012-2013 we worked together on The Ng Lands Festival, Art Radio, The National Ear Health Campaign and the Ng Media Website Launch Party.
Roma Butler, Ivy Laidlaw, Tjawina Roberts and Jennifer Mitchell, The Toyota, 2015.
Among the exhibitions I would single out are Kapi
Ungkupayi / He gave us Water at the SASA gallery, an exhibition with
special magic. It tells a new dreaming story (tjukurpa) of a recent journey
made by a group of women and shows their resourcefulness and reliance on the
old stories and knowledge, as well as on God, in a frank and disarming manner.
Even before you enter the gallery, you see small tjanpi (spinifex) birds in the
window announcing the intense animation and energy inside. Then there are
tjanpi goannas, the painted side of a car, small portraits of the desert
finches who showed where the “holy water” was, and something new – tjanpi
frames on the acrylic paintings flanking the storytelling installation. Curiously,
the cloud made of strung-together gumnuts painted blue resonated as a positive
echo of Yhonnie Scarce’s cloud Thunder Raining Poison of blown
glass yams memorialising nuclear testing at Maralinga in the survey show at the
Art Gallery of South Australia. - Stephanie Raddock, Artlink Magazine
Two stories stood out for me in the long weekend of Tarnanthi's opening – 23 venues potentially to visit, more than 350 artists represented. One was intentionally featured; one was shared by an artist who just couldn't leave the meaning of his artwork to be guessed at. Both encompassed contemporary dramas that linked to mythological stories, both ended with a political message, and both required art to achieve their sharing.
At the SASA Gallery of UniSA, 'Kapi Ungkupayi/He Gave Us Water' filled the room. An installation and film encompassed car-body parts, kids painting birdlife, Tjanpi woven animals and paintings by five women elders from Irrunytju (and its new Minyma Kutjara arts centre) who were 'lost' out in the desert for five days with temperatures soaring into the 50s when their Toyota ran out of both water and fuel. The SASA Gallery is run by Mary Knights, a former facilitator at Irrunytju and a reliable retailer of their story – which they have insisted in the catalogue is “an important story, a new tjukurpa (dreaming story) about our culture, our faith and our relationship with our land”.
As the old women sat beneath a tree, they knew their Country and its water sources – but the only one they could reach on foot was dry. Native tobacco was chewed, a ngintaka (perentie) caught and cooked – but they needed water. One old lady (Mrs Woods) was frail and, after receiving warnings of its imminence from encroaching dingoes, has subsequently died. So they simply couldn't walk any distance. Sometimes they sung tjukurpa, and on Sunday they sang hymns.
As the old women sat beneath a tree, they knew their Country and its water sources – but the only one they could reach on foot was dry. Native tobacco was chewed, a ngintaka (perentie) caught and cooked – but they needed water. One old lady (Mrs Woods) was frail and, after receiving warnings of its imminence from encroaching dingoes, has subsequently died. So they simply couldn't walk any distance. Sometimes they sung tjukurpa, and on Sunday they sang hymns.
Did that cause a cloud to appear – for the 'He' of the title is, in fact, their Christian god? Or did the tjukurpa encourage a cloud of desert finches to appear, heralding an unseen water source. The women dug feverishly where they'd settled, and a metre down they reached brackish – holy – water. It was such an epic story, they were actually reluctant to leave when rescued. It certainly was a story to be told when Tarnanthi invited their contribution.
So the women painted and wove, Mrs Woods and Roma Butler contributing significant canvases; local kids added a flight of painted finches to show they'd learnt survival lessons from the story; unusual portraits of the now-legendary participants were created; a film recorded the Country and the new tjukurpa that was created and sung to tell this tale; and Adelaide, at least, has an understanding of “the close and interconnected relationships between our culture and our Country”. For Irrunytju/Wingellina is one of the 192 remote communities in Western Australia deemed 'unsustainable' by its government, and living there on Country a 'lifestyle choice' by our former PM.
The rest of Australia may gain a lesser understanding via the delightful YouTube film of last April's 'Wingellina Protest' against closure of their community. - Jeremy Eccles, Aboriginal Art Directory
OTHER MEDIA:
Ngaanyatjarra Media works with the Minyma Kutjara Art Centre in Irrunytju creating projects together. During 2012-2013 we worked together on The Ng Lands Festival, Art Radio, The National Ear Health Campaign and the Ng Media Website Launch Party.
NG Media recently produced a documentary called "The Language of Art" for the NITV REGIONAL, REMOTE & EMERGING
INITIATIVE.
Language of Art from Ngaanyatjarra Media on Vimeo.
on Vimeo.
NG Media supports the centre in kind through donations of a laptop (on loan), digital camera, scanner and installing a radio and PA system so we can listen to our favourite radio station - Radio NGM.
Language of Art from Ngaanyatjarra Media on Vimeo.
on Vimeo.
NG Media supports the centre in kind through donations of a laptop (on loan), digital camera, scanner and installing a radio and PA system so we can listen to our favourite radio station - Radio NGM.
They are always helping us out with additional media equipment including video cameras, audio equipment and printing supplies. They also regulary make their vehicles and drivers available for the Art Centre to use in particular transporting our artists to their exhibition at Talapi Gallery, Alice Springs in December 2012 and to the Media Website Launch Party in 2013.
