Aurukun odyssey

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Tags: centenary, Indigenous, summer-2010, UQ Art Museum

Indigenous art from far north Queensland entranced thousands of visitors when they visited the St Lucia campus for a special Centenary exhibition recently.

On show from August 11 until November 28, Before Time Today was the first comprehensive survey of art from the remote Aurukun region, and included almost 100 different works brought together from collections around the country.

UQ Art Museum Acting Director Michele Helmrich said the exhibition was inspired by links between Aurukun objects collected by the UQ Anthropology Museum from the 1950s, and contemporary works recently acquired by the University.

“The main experience we tried to create was the relationship between past and present,” curator and Senior Lecturer in Art History Dr Sally Butler said.

“There’s something exciting about looking at the historical precedents for the contemporary art and the new works that have come after. It also helps to focus on the innovation of the contemporary artists as they’re not just copying the past, they’re doing all sorts of new things.

“Even the artists hadn’t seen a lot of these old works for a long time, if ever, so just putting them back into dialogue with the present was significant.”

The artworks included large sculptures of animals and spirit figures, eye-catching canvas paintings, and fields of iconic red-and-white “law poles”.

“Because they’re 3D objects, they have a real presence and one of the main aesthetic features is the art of characterisation,” Dr Butler said.

“You get a sense of them almost having a personality, even if they’re a fish or a dog or a ceremonial figure. It’s a really lively presence of culture.”

The entire first floor of the museum was dedicated to the show, with visitors able to explore works from different clans and across mediums as they navigated the space.

A busy schedule of public events saw participating artists lead tours of the exhibition, and local school children take part in weaving workshops.

Dr Butler said the regeneration and reinvention of Aurukun artistic traditions – particularly carving – made it one of the most dynamic Indigenous art movements today.

She used the example of senior artist Arthur Pambegan Jnr – now in his 70s – who had recently started configuring ceremonial paintings in new ways.

“Arthur Pambegan has taken his body paintings and turned them into these canvas paintings that are unlike anything else in Indigenous art. It’s pure Aurukun,” she said.

Traditional sculptures were now being created not only out of wood, but also aluminium and bronze.

Another innovation is the use of “ghost nets” – remains of fishing nets which have been washed on to the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and are used to weave new, colourful creations using traditional techniques.

“The ghost nets are very typical of the way Aurukun artists are prepared to innovate to keep their culture alive,” Dr Butler said.

“The weaving tradition is on the brink of extinction all around Australia but they have used fishing nets as the start of an environmental initiative and as an imperative for reinvention.”

Traditional woven items were also on display, along with a documentary film depicting ceremonial dances and the history of the Aurukun peoples, who experienced first contact with Europeans in the 1600s.

A new UQP publication, produced to accompany the exhibition, includes chapters from leading scholars on Aurukun art and culture and the curator of the Aboriginal Art Museum in the Netherlands.

Before Time Today was one of the major events of UQ’s Centenary celebrations. It followed the successful Our Way exhibition, also curated by Dr Butler, which was featured on the cover of the Winter 2007 edition of Graduate Contact and toured internationally.

The Aurukun survey capped off a remarkable year for the museum, which also hosted a touring exhibition of Sidney Nolan’s ANZAC paintings, showcased the radical video art of Russian collective AES+F, and pitched a giant inflatable artwork outside the James and Mary Emelia Mayne Centre.

By Cameron Pegg

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