In writing about my enculturation into Kunwinjku culture I employ as many words from Bininj Kunwok as I can.
One of my first references was the Etherington’s book below:
Kunwinjku Kunwok: A Short Introduction to Kunwinjku Language and Society by
http://www.scribd.com/embeds/113994707/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll
Birds have featured throughout the shroud project creating ghostly images.
The exhibition is at Maitland Regional Gallery
http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=122138
Sewing or adding ochres changes the representation.
This is a delicate negotiation, adding one element may detract from the indexical power of the bodily stain.
Laden with materia prima in the form of sacred ochres from Around Australia and a funerary cloth holding the bodily pigments of a chough and starling, I bring them into dialogue through painting process.
I have recently worked into three spring shrouds from 2011. Collecting wattle flowers and pounding them into soaked wattle gum I smear the ground of the magpie stain. Mixing wattle gum with charcoal pieces and delek (the white ochre I collected in Arnhem Land) I work into the stain recreating the post decomposition feathers long since blown away. Lastly I add yellow garlba to the areas once littered by leaves. The lamb shrouds only have the addition of delek. In Resurrection I add the pre-decomposition wool and a little silk stich on the hooves. To Sacred field I add the post decomposition wool to the stain which spreads out into the ground merging with and responding to stains left by other debris at the site.
Today Michal Glikson, a fellow postgraduate painter at the ANU, accompanied Adam, Tepi and I on our return to Steven and Tony’s farm to instal a spring shroud set. Michal has generously offered to film the shroud process which in this case features a cockatoo found in Dickson by Nigel my theory supervisor, a bandicoot found by my brother in Vincentia, a lizard found by Tepi and her friends in Hackett, a possum I found in Ainslie and a hare I found in Watson. Upon arriving we caught up with Tony, who had sad news about their dog blondie, she had died, they think due to eating rat poison. Tepi was upset as she loved visiting her, but it had been a long time since we had been to the farm. During the setting up under the same eucalyptus tree, which now has finches living in it, we even had a picnic. There was a lot of sheep and cow dung around and the grass appeared full of sheep wool. The spring lambs were big rather than newborn by this time and we found a few dried out casualties, but it had been a better season than last spring when I had produced all the lamb shrouds.
I am very excited about becoming a finalist in the Blake Prize for religious art.
I entered this lamb shroud I had worked into with sacred delek from Arnhem Land and silk stitching.
I called the work lamb of God (Monaro Country)
My 50 word statement to explain the religious significance of Lamb of God 2012:
In the bible the Lamb of God is sacrificed to remove the sins of the world.
This work is a decomposition print made by a lamb that died in spring 2011 amidst new life in the Monaro sheep-farming district. Sacred white ochre indicates the lamb’s role as spiritual testament. A positive audience response.
A colleague in the School of Art, Ursula is a trained archaeologist and her papers linking graffiti and rock art are published here.
Fellow ANU animal studies colleague Rhiannon Galla is about to interview animal artists working in New York, one of whom is Kate Clark
She sent me a link to an interview with the artist in her studio.
Bringing the first stage of my painting process into contact with Canberra’s human animals has caused a little controversy.
Here is the link.
I am presenting today AT 11:15 in the National Portrait Gallery at the Framing Lives IABA Conference which is the 8th Biennial Conference of the International Auto/Biography Association. I am celebrating the life and work of the renowned Western Arnhem Land painter and ceremonial leader, the late Bardayal ‘Lofty’ Nadjamerrek AO, respectfully known by his skin name Wamud of the Mok clan since his death on the 16th of October 2009. Yesturday I attended an emotive film screening and talk by a historian I got to know in Arnhem Land Dr Martin Thomas. Seeing people I know in the film and learning that two more important senior men in the community, Wamud Nayinggul and Kodjok both outgoing informants for researchers just like Wamud Namok, have passed away marks a sad year for Western Arnhem land and the generation that grew up in the rock shelters encountering Balanda or Europeans for the first time with their families in their lifetime.
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