Rarrk!
Flowing on from Crossing Country
One of the challenges of representing Aboriginal art and showing it to the world is to individualize what is often a collective effort. Aboriginal artists do not work in closed studios in the western sense but rather outside or, if indoors, surrounded by family. Previously shown work in major overseas exhibitions in the past is a case in point. The number of artists and different styles of art is so vast that, for the new viewer, the exhibitions have the potential to become generic. Visitors both like it or they don?t, and have a tendency to lump everything they see under the banner of ?Aboriginal Art?. It is difficult to even remember the names of the artists who may have impressed them.
Arnhem Land bark and sculpture vs. western desert acrylic painting is the most easily noticeable factor for the neophyte. The Papunya Tula ?movement? is well documented, even romanticized in much literature as it had a fixed starting point in 1971 out of which a legend has grown. In Arnhem Land, by contrast, they have been painting on bark for nearly one hundred years, beginning with the laying down of ceremonial and body paint designs for interested anthropological expeditions.
Maningrida, in central Arnhem Land is home to over 100 different clans and language groups. The Kuninjku is only one of these groups. However, while there are outstanding artists from other areas, the Kuninjku language artists are particularly exceptional as a group. This fact was illuminated when Hette Perkins, the curator of the landmark exhibition ?Crossing Country? at the Art Gallery of NSW last year, decided to focus on the work of this clan for the show, covering art works originally collected by anthropological expeditions as far back as 1913 ? to the contemporary art of today. This exhibition ?Rarrk!? is in some ways an extension of that show, but this time focusing on a much smaller group of contemporary artists. In 2002, Annandale Galleries had already presented the exhibition ?East + West? and that the ?West? component was entirely Kuninjku, and centered around the great John Mawurndjul who may be considered the leading innovator of the group. In his 1995 review of ?Sugar Bag & Moon?, featuring the work of Lofty Bardayal and Mick Kubarku, John McDonald wrote in the SMH that ? if there is a golden age of bark painting it is either now or was just recently?. At the time the reasons for this were that the artists were becoming or had become virtually full time artists due to increasing market conditions, and therefore were becoming naturally more adept at their craft. It is now ten years later and much has passed in the interim. McDonald?s reasoning still holds but he could not have foreseen the surge in activity and corresponding increase in quality. The market has grown in leaps and bounds. We began to exhibit bark and sculpture from Arnhem Land in 1995 at Annandale. While revered by the aficionado, at the time the work was less well known than the Western desert movements both internationally and in Australia. Perhaps the use of natural ochre and traditional supports rather than the acrylic and canvas of the desert made the work appear to many as more ethnographic or tribal and less contemporary - a fact perhaps reinforced by auction houses offering works decades old, some in less than good condition (made at a time before the artists began using PVC fixatives). In the last five years with more and more interest on the part of mainstream galleries in this work and the proliferation of solo exhibitions, much has changed as collectors and the public began to recognize this work as both crucial to an understanding of Aboriginal Art in general as well as seeing that it is a living, breathing contemporary art. There is something special about the work of Arnhem Land. The fact that the support of a painting is the bark of a tree has a particular resonance. The bark is not an artificial support but rather an actual part of the country and is indivisible from the land from which the stories and law derive.
In addition, a few key events occurred. John Mawurndjul became the first Aboriginal artist to win the prestigious Clemenger prize for contemporary art and a retrospective of his work was planned for the Jean Tinguely Museum in Basel, marking the first overseas retrospective exhibition in a major museum by an Aboriginal artist since the mid 1980?s when the late Clifford Possum exhibited at the Serpentine gallery in London. Apart from a large survey of the work of Sydney Nolan at the Whitechapel, it may be the first retrospective of any Australian artist in such a venue. The John Mawurndjul retrospective and accompanying forum opened to great acclaim on September 20 of this year. He was also one of the Aboriginal artists chosen to paint the ceiling of the new museum in Paris designed by Jean Nouvel and spent three weeks in September painting a spectacular ceremonial pole - the largest ever - for the site.
The fact is that something extraordinary is happening in Arnhem Land, not just in Maningrida, but also right across the top end. Interest of both Australian and overseas collectors have soared as they realize not only the quality and importance of this work, but it?s contemporary nature. There are more artists working full or nearly full time, and the solo shows are providing individual artists with the vehicles to showcase the distinctive styles they have developed. At a dinner in Maningrida mid last year at the house of Apolline Kohen, the director of Maningrida Arts & Culture and attended by Ian Munro, Josh Lilley and myself, we were discussing future projects and what we could do that would be creative in terms of presenting these artists - something different. The major Maningrida artists now had solo exhibitions in commercial galleries under their belts and while critical to the public?s understanding an artist?s work, the solo format has limitations. Instead, in light of recent events including the progress of Mawurndjul, and at that time the upcoming ?Crossing Country? show, a consensus was reached that a group show building on these recent events would be more effective at this moment in time to advance the case for Aboriginal art, beginning at Annandale and then hopefully organizing a similar exhibition overseas.
As I stated earlier, the group of artists who stand out as individuals with their own forms of expression, and as a collective, are the Kuninjku clan artists grouped loosely around John Mawurndjul. It is Mawurndjul who has most innovatively made the transition from the x-ray style of the rock art to a fine crosshatching or ?rarrking?, in particular to depict the Mardayin designs. To quote Mawurndjul; ?I am the person who instigated this style and the others are copying it; they follow what I?m doing. I am leading this movement and they are following. I?m going first.? (Interview with Apolline Kohen 2001). This style of work, while retaining the drawing necessary for the? bones? or outlines, is fleshed out via the ?body? of the rarrk and allows these talented artists to bring the work alive by contrasting the speed and tone of the infill, creating fabulous abstract design, and yet remain firmly rooted in the stories of the country. Through this clarity of expression we are allowed to see the stories for which this art is a guardian, and are also projected a remarkable aesthetic beauty. These artists are creating a renaissance in bark painting and sculpture; a contemporary response that is so striking as to be characterized as a movement. While all serious Aboriginal artists paint only stories that they are entitled to paint by virtue of being guardians of those stories or related to them through birthright (and this group is no different) these artists are painting in a way not seen before. They were the contemporary stars of the ?Crossing Country? exhibition and all are developing distinctive but related styles. However, it is not the impressive credentials of the past that I look to with this group but rather the future. They are planting the seed of a new wave of work coming out of Maningrida.
The significance of this group lies not only in the influence it has already demonstrated, but their undoubted future influence on the art and artists around them and on other forms of art from other places. Ultimately, artists or movements are judged by their influence on other artists and culture, not just on their own culture, but on the creative continuum in general. The increasing abstraction brings the work closer to our western trained eyes and, without compromising their own stories or beliefs; they are poised now to offer something unique not only to Australia but to International contemporary art.
- Bill Gregory Sydney September 2005
Arnhem Land bark and sculpture vs. western desert acrylic painting is the most easily noticeable factor for the neophyte. The Papunya Tula ?movement? is well documented, even romanticized in much literature as it had a fixed starting point in 1971 out of which a legend has grown. In Arnhem Land, by contrast, they have been painting on bark for nearly one hundred years, beginning with the laying down of ceremonial and body paint designs for interested anthropological expeditions.
Maningrida, in central Arnhem Land is home to over 100 different clans and language groups. The Kuninjku is only one of these groups. However, while there are outstanding artists from other areas, the Kuninjku language artists are particularly exceptional as a group. This fact was illuminated when Hette Perkins, the curator of the landmark exhibition ?Crossing Country? at the Art Gallery of NSW last year, decided to focus on the work of this clan for the show, covering art works originally collected by anthropological expeditions as far back as 1913 ? to the contemporary art of today. This exhibition ?Rarrk!? is in some ways an extension of that show, but this time focusing on a much smaller group of contemporary artists. In 2002, Annandale Galleries had already presented the exhibition ?East + West? and that the ?West? component was entirely Kuninjku, and centered around the great John Mawurndjul who may be considered the leading innovator of the group. In his 1995 review of ?Sugar Bag & Moon?, featuring the work of Lofty Bardayal and Mick Kubarku, John McDonald wrote in the SMH that ? if there is a golden age of bark painting it is either now or was just recently?. At the time the reasons for this were that the artists were becoming or had become virtually full time artists due to increasing market conditions, and therefore were becoming naturally more adept at their craft. It is now ten years later and much has passed in the interim. McDonald?s reasoning still holds but he could not have foreseen the surge in activity and corresponding increase in quality. The market has grown in leaps and bounds. We began to exhibit bark and sculpture from Arnhem Land in 1995 at Annandale. While revered by the aficionado, at the time the work was less well known than the Western desert movements both internationally and in Australia. Perhaps the use of natural ochre and traditional supports rather than the acrylic and canvas of the desert made the work appear to many as more ethnographic or tribal and less contemporary - a fact perhaps reinforced by auction houses offering works decades old, some in less than good condition (made at a time before the artists began using PVC fixatives). In the last five years with more and more interest on the part of mainstream galleries in this work and the proliferation of solo exhibitions, much has changed as collectors and the public began to recognize this work as both crucial to an understanding of Aboriginal Art in general as well as seeing that it is a living, breathing contemporary art. There is something special about the work of Arnhem Land. The fact that the support of a painting is the bark of a tree has a particular resonance. The bark is not an artificial support but rather an actual part of the country and is indivisible from the land from which the stories and law derive.
In addition, a few key events occurred. John Mawurndjul became the first Aboriginal artist to win the prestigious Clemenger prize for contemporary art and a retrospective of his work was planned for the Jean Tinguely Museum in Basel, marking the first overseas retrospective exhibition in a major museum by an Aboriginal artist since the mid 1980?s when the late Clifford Possum exhibited at the Serpentine gallery in London. Apart from a large survey of the work of Sydney Nolan at the Whitechapel, it may be the first retrospective of any Australian artist in such a venue. The John Mawurndjul retrospective and accompanying forum opened to great acclaim on September 20 of this year. He was also one of the Aboriginal artists chosen to paint the ceiling of the new museum in Paris designed by Jean Nouvel and spent three weeks in September painting a spectacular ceremonial pole - the largest ever - for the site.
The fact is that something extraordinary is happening in Arnhem Land, not just in Maningrida, but also right across the top end. Interest of both Australian and overseas collectors have soared as they realize not only the quality and importance of this work, but it?s contemporary nature. There are more artists working full or nearly full time, and the solo shows are providing individual artists with the vehicles to showcase the distinctive styles they have developed. At a dinner in Maningrida mid last year at the house of Apolline Kohen, the director of Maningrida Arts & Culture and attended by Ian Munro, Josh Lilley and myself, we were discussing future projects and what we could do that would be creative in terms of presenting these artists - something different. The major Maningrida artists now had solo exhibitions in commercial galleries under their belts and while critical to the public?s understanding an artist?s work, the solo format has limitations. Instead, in light of recent events including the progress of Mawurndjul, and at that time the upcoming ?Crossing Country? show, a consensus was reached that a group show building on these recent events would be more effective at this moment in time to advance the case for Aboriginal art, beginning at Annandale and then hopefully organizing a similar exhibition overseas.
As I stated earlier, the group of artists who stand out as individuals with their own forms of expression, and as a collective, are the Kuninjku clan artists grouped loosely around John Mawurndjul. It is Mawurndjul who has most innovatively made the transition from the x-ray style of the rock art to a fine crosshatching or ?rarrking?, in particular to depict the Mardayin designs. To quote Mawurndjul; ?I am the person who instigated this style and the others are copying it; they follow what I?m doing. I am leading this movement and they are following. I?m going first.? (Interview with Apolline Kohen 2001). This style of work, while retaining the drawing necessary for the? bones? or outlines, is fleshed out via the ?body? of the rarrk and allows these talented artists to bring the work alive by contrasting the speed and tone of the infill, creating fabulous abstract design, and yet remain firmly rooted in the stories of the country. Through this clarity of expression we are allowed to see the stories for which this art is a guardian, and are also projected a remarkable aesthetic beauty. These artists are creating a renaissance in bark painting and sculpture; a contemporary response that is so striking as to be characterized as a movement. While all serious Aboriginal artists paint only stories that they are entitled to paint by virtue of being guardians of those stories or related to them through birthright (and this group is no different) these artists are painting in a way not seen before. They were the contemporary stars of the ?Crossing Country? exhibition and all are developing distinctive but related styles. However, it is not the impressive credentials of the past that I look to with this group but rather the future. They are planting the seed of a new wave of work coming out of Maningrida.
The significance of this group lies not only in the influence it has already demonstrated, but their undoubted future influence on the art and artists around them and on other forms of art from other places. Ultimately, artists or movements are judged by their influence on other artists and culture, not just on their own culture, but on the creative continuum in general. The increasing abstraction brings the work closer to our western trained eyes and, without compromising their own stories or beliefs; they are poised now to offer something unique not only to Australia but to International contemporary art.
- Bill Gregory Sydney September 2005