ART FROM MILINGIMBI: Taking Memories Back

Aboriginal art from the 1950s, the collection showcases much of an impressive holding of around 230 works collected by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia. On the small island of Yurriwi, more commonly known as Milingimbi off the coast of Arnhem Land, gathered in groups in the deep shade of the tamarind trees along the beach, artists of varying ages and experiences worked alongside one another to create exquisite bark with jewel-like surfaces that capture the complexities of land, seas, sky and cultural inheritance in one seemingly abstracted image. Beautifully painted in brilliant local pigments, the generally diminutive scale of these works belies the complexities they capture. There are also paper bark figures bound in handmade string and boldly painted for example of a sea canoe, a decorative string made with human hair, feathers and inner-bark fibre, woven baskets made of pandanus leaf, sculptures, pipes, spearheads, spear-throwers, and paintings depicting an emu nest and eggs, long-necked tortoises, snakes, crayfish, dogs and other animals, waterlilies and spirits, fish and stingrays. Finely carved wooden objects are adorned with intricate designs and delicate feather forms, the origin of which lay in ceremony, the creative endeavours of these men have many functions and represented their cultural identity. There are particular moments in the history of art when exceptional things happen, and thankfully developed in close collaboration with the community, this rare exhibition catalogue reproduces archive photographs in black and white from the 40s to the 1960s of the community at work plus full page colour images of a great number of the museum's collection. 146 page large softback.
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