Wagga Art Gallery’s Mary Egan and Dr Lee-Anne Hall are looking forward to launching the winter program this weekend. Photo: Chris Roe.
The Wagga Wagga Art Gallery is getting set to launch its winter program with a spectacular exhibition straight from Australia’s desert heart.
Nganampa Ngura Inmatjara: Our Country, Our Song is a collection of large-scale paintings from artists from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands in the northern corner country of South Australia.
Artists from five community-owned and operated art centres are represented and the wall-sized works present a sea of vividly coloured desert stories throughout the main gallery space.
Gallery director, Dr Lee-Anne Hall said they were excited to bring this unique experience of Country to Wagga.
“What we wanted to achieve in working collaboratively with the APY Art Center Collective is to show the immense diversity of the actual form and you’ll see the symbols within the paintings that are ways of telling the stories,” she said.
“All of these paintings are deep within the culture of the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people, and it’s an important way of maintaining culture.”
Nganampa Ngura Inmatjara: Our Country, Our Song features works from Indigenous artists from the APY Lands. Photo: Wagga Art Gallery.
Contemporary Aboriginal art has its roots in the central desert where traditional sand paintings and ochre designs were first reinterpreted by senior lore keepers using modern mediums in the early 1970s.
The APY artists continue to capture cultural knowledge and Dreamtime stories (Tjukurpa) through their work and Dr Hall said the works communicate something deeper than form and colour.
“Some of these are by very senior people … and a number of these paintings will have been what’s called ‘sung over’,” she explained.
“As they are painting – and they’re doing this communally with a lead person there – the story, the Tjukurpa, the Dreaming associated with each particular painting will be recounted through song.
“So in that way, the paintings are actually invested in the story and with a kind of power as well.”
As visitors enter the gallery, the voices of central desert women speaking Pitjantjatjara language can be heard echoing across the exhibition.
“We’ve created a little cinema in our media project space, and you’ll be able to come in and see gorgeous films and animations from the APY lands with stories of Tjukurpa,” Dr Hall said.
“It’s a wonderful little space, warm for winter and really gives you a greater understanding of the paintings.”
Gallery officer Mary Egan said she enjoyed preparing the exhibition that will officially launch on Saturday night (July 6).
“Everyone’s welcome to come along to the launch; we’ll be having a celebration with a smoking ceremony led by Luke Wighton, a Welcome to Country by Aunty Cheryl Penrith and we’ll be hearing from some of the artists from the APY and the director of the APY Art Center Collective,” she said, adding that it was hard to pick a favourite from among the collection.
“The good thing about getting to work at the gallery is that you get to sit here with the artworks for several weeks.”
Inga Hanover’s exhibition sen mēs tev jau gaidījām – we have been waiting for you long ago. Photo: Wagga Art Gallery.
There are a total of three exhibitions kicking off this weekend, broadly reflecting “the diversity of contemporary Australian art”, according to Dr Hall.
Alongside the APY exhibition, artist Inga Hanover’ sen mēs tev jau gaidījām – we have been waiting for you long ago – reflects on the migrant and refugee experience and celebrates the artist’s Indigenous Latvian heritage.
Gallery officer Astrid Reed also has a Latvian background and said it demonstrates the enduring cultural connections that echo down the generations.
“In exile around the world in the diaspora, Latvians have continued to practise those traditional crafts and speak language to hold on to their traditions after either fleeing the Nazis or the Soviets,” she said.
“Inga’s textile art is beautiful and, while the work we’re showing here is not traditional Latvian costuming, it’s about using what you have, and she incorporates interesting materials such as old tea bags and there are two pieces of jewellery that are made of her father’s old cooking aprons.”
Local artist Paul Williams is exhibiting alongside fellow Art Factory painter Kellie Hulm. Photo: Chris Roe.
The final exhibition located upstairs is a collaboration with Wagga’s Art Factory and celebrates the work of locals Kellie Hulm and Paul Williams.
Both are experienced and gifted painters working in bold colours and strong themes and the collection includes several of Paul’s ceramic works.
The Winter Exhibitions Launch will be held on Saturday 6 July, 4 – 6 pm and is free to attend.