ABORIGINAL artists from a remote South Australian community are keeping their culture alive with a landmark book of vibrant art depicting their stories and country.
Painting the Song: Kaltjiti artists of the sand dune country is the first book on art from the Pitjantjatjara lands of northwest South Australia.
It was launched in Adelaide this week with a celebratory inma performed by artists from Kaltjiti (Fregon), in the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara (PY) lands.
Eleven artists made the 16-hour road journey to present the traditional dance and song ceremony at Flinders University City Gallery.
It is hosting a major exhibition featuring works from the book.
Diana James, the book's author and exhibition curator, said Kaltjiti Arts was "a centre of hope".
"Media reports on the APY (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara) lands are very often negative," Ms James said. "This arts centre has been operating for 34 years. It's owned and run by the artists and is one of the most constant sources of employment and enjoyment."
Ms James said Kaltjiti artists sold their work around the world. The arts centre catered for tourists and people in the trade.
"It started out as a tin shed," she said. "Now it's two big tin sheds."
Kaltjiti's first arts adviser from 1975 to '76, Ms James has worked in the region for 30 years.
The artists asked the Pitjantjatjara speaker to record their history and culture for future generations.
"I think it will significantly put Kaltjiti Arts on the map and begin to explain to the public the regions behind the art," she said.
The exhibition of 37 paintings and 18 objects and prints by 25 artists runs until May 3.
Painting the Song: Kaltjiti artists of the sand dune country is published by McCulloch & McCulloch/Kaltjiti Arts. RRP $59.95.
The Weekend Australian Art Melbourne:
Affordable & Collectable
16 – 19 April 2009, Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton
Opens tomorrow- Vip Opening Night Preview Party 6pm- 9pm
The Weekend Australian Art Melbourne will return to the Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton from 16 – 19 April 2009. Bringing together Melbourne's vibrant art scene and showcasing an extensive range of art to buy, The Weekend Australian Art Melbourne includes hundreds of artworks by artists ranging from contemporary to traditional and emerging to investment.
The fair invites both first-time buyers and seasoned collectors to seek out exciting new artists and to browse the thousands of paintings, sculpture, ceramics, photography, indigenous works, new media art and works on paper, including limited edition prints, many accessibly priced.
No matter what your objective - be it investment or enjoyment, The Weekend Australian Art Melbourne 09 is the perfect place to keep up to date with the dynamic world of art and seek the advice of experts.
The Weekend Australian Art Melbourne: an affordable & collectable art-buying opportunity not to be missed!
VIP First Night- Complimentary drinks & live entertainment
The exclusive preview of the fair, Thursday 16 April from 6pm – 9pm.
The VIP first night gives art lovers the opportunity to see and buy the art before anybody else, whilist enjoying complimentary drinks and entertainment!
Tickets are strictly limited and only available in advance – don’t miss out!
Friday Night Live- Come along to Art Melbourne on Friday evening for your Friday night drinks with live entertainment from 6pm -9pm. A great way to spend the evening!
The Hastings Independent has reported on the success of our exhibition held at Flinders over summer.
Fran Henke quotes Susan McCulloch in the article, who says:
'We would have had at least 500 people through in four days, sold more than three-quarters of the works, and raised $1350 for the bushfire relief fund.'
More than $1500 of the proceeds went to World Without Books, the indigenous literacy project.
'We will continue to have Aboriginal paintings on show at the Flinders cafe and have plans for other special exhibitions, both indigenous and non-indigenous.' Susan said.
We are already planning our next shows both with Flinders and with another gallery, please continue to visit our website for information on upcoming exhibitions.
The first issue is out now, it features two articles by McCullochs: Susan McCulloch writes on Peppimenarti's Durrmu Arts centre, and Emily McCulloch Childs interviews Apolline Kohen, director of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.
Andrew Bock has written a great review of New Beginnings in the latest issue of Australian Art Review magazine. He calls the book a 'beautiful folio that consecrates a radically contemporary collection of Aboriginal art' and says that Emily McCulloch's Childs's text is 'elegantly layered with social and historical information but also intimate'.
Art gathered by art writers Emily and Susan McCulloch on their research trips over almost two decades to Australia's remote art producing regions including the Western Desert, Arnhem Land & the Top End, Queensland, the Kimberley, NPY and PY lands.
Paintings, prints, beads, cushions, scarves, baskets, sculptures, books, ceramics and other indigenous objets d'art from the quirky to the collectible.
Artists include Ningura Napurrula, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, Kitty Kantilla, Rosella Namok, Lily Karedada, Marcia Purdie, Angalyia Mitchell, Tatali Napurrula, Nyarrapyi Giles, Patrick Freddy Puruntatameri, Katjarra Butler, Yuyuya Nampitjinpa, Raymond Bush, Yananymul Mununggurr and Rover Thomas.
Free talk: Exploring the outback– an introduction to Aboriginal art
Saturday, February 21 7.30 pm
All welcome
RSVP opening and talk by February 14
M.0419896 473
E.rsvp@mccullochandmcculloch.com.au
All works for sale
Note: 5% of all sales donated to the national indigenous literacy programme World Without Books
www.worldwithoutbooks.org and proceeds from Sammy Clarmont print raffle will go to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal.
We are donating the Sammy Clarmont work from our upcoming exhibition to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal, so come along to our exhibition next week in Flinders (Thursday night until Monday) to purchase raffle tickets to win this stunning print from Lockhart River worth $800 and support the bushfire appeal.
Sammy Clarmont, Untitled (Red Earth), 1998, screenprint, edition 15/20, 56 x 76 cm. Purchased Old Parliament House, Canberra, 1997. $800 (framed).
Sammy Clarmont was born on the 25th of September 1972. He belongs to the Lama Lama language group, and is based at Lockhart River, Queensland. A painter and printmaker, his works reflects his connection to country, as he says: ‘my works are about my country and the animals and stories. My art works are contemporary but reflect the traditional culture and isolation of my Community.’ (Lockhart River Art Centre website).
About the work:
This print appears on page 19 of the book Our Way: Contemporary Aboriginal Art from Lockhart River, University of Queensland Press, 2007 by Sally Butler. Of it, Butler writes:
‘One of the more innovative landscapes created during the early printmaking years of contemporary Lockhart River art is Sammy Clarmont’s screenprint Untitled (Red Earth). This work has an aerial perspective of country similar to Central Desert acrylic painting, showing bird tracks and mapping lines across the earth. However, Clarmont’s screenprint approach creates an effect of space not achieved in desert paintings, particles of earth seeming to lift and float across the surface. This floating aspect diminishes the mapping effect of the images and translates more into a sense of experiencing the red earth – touching and smelling it as well as seeing it. In Clarmont’s landscape the very substance of country translates as a substance of life. Reference to red earth in Clarmont’s artwork recalls the geological diversity of the region...the inland areas are rich with mineral deposits that give the earth spectacular colouring.’
Susan McCulloch first met the Lockhart River Art Gang founding member Rosella Namok as a shy teenager on her first big trip outside of Lockhart River in FNQ around 1997 in Canberra. She and her fellow teenagers had come down to the National Heritage Awards in Canberra with their wonderful arts advisors Geoff and Fran Barker. They’d only just started printmaking and decided that they’d make a trip to an important award to show their work to some prominent art people to get some feedback. And feedback they got! They found a spot in the foyer of the building of Old Parliament House where the awards where held and spread their work out. Visitors such as the then NGA gallery director Betty Churcher, National Museum curator Margo Neale, me and others crowded around, knocked out by the freshness of their work and impressed with this shy young group who’d made such a big trip to show it.
Rosie was about 17 and hardly said a word! She sat there shyly as we all praised her and other’s work. Margo bought some instantly for the Queensland Art Gallery, of which she was indigenous curator at the time. I missed out that time but bought this Sammy Clarmont work Untitled (Red Earth), also in this exhibition, and bought a Namok some years later when visiting Lockhart staying with the Barkers to experience the environment of Lockhart and spend more time with Rose (by that time a very hot young art star) and the others in their country. An unforgettable experience.
Tjungara George
