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NATIONAL WORKS ON PAPER

2024

Mornington Peninsula Shire acknowledges and pays respect to the Bunurong people, the Traditional Custodians of these lands and waters. Warning: This publication contains names and images of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Contents

National Works on Paper 2024

Welcome John Baker, CEO, Mornington Peninsula Shire

Director’s Foreword Dunja Rmandić, Acting Director, MPRG

NWOP 2024 Judge’s Reflection Erica Green, Director, Samstag Museum of Art

A Message, a Point of Connection, a Gesture to Where We Are. Kelly Fliedner, Writer and curator, Boorloo Perth

The Works

Welcome John Baker, CEO, Mornington Peninsula Shire

For more than fifty years the National Works on Paper (NWOP) exhibition has presented a survey of contemporary art and celebrated the medium of paper in all its forms. Evolving from the Gallery’s Spring Festival of Drawing and Prints Acquisitive — which began in 1973 and 1974 respectively — NWOP is one of the leading art awards and exhibitions in the country, attracting Australia’s foremost contemporary artists working with paper. There were 1,049 artists from across Australia who submitted entries for NWOP 2024, with 70 works shortlisted. We are grateful to the judging panel — Lisa Waup, artist and NWOP 2022 finalist; Erica Green, Director of Samstag Museum of Art, University of South Australia; Trent Walter, Director of Negative Press; and Dunja Rmandić, Curator — Exhibitions at MPRG, now Acting Director — for this exciting selection of finalists. From painting, printmaking, drawing, video, sculpture and weaving the finalists’ works explore the possibilities of paper and the personal and political power of paper as a medium. Mornington Peninsula Shire provided funding for NWOP, including for the main acquisitive award of $20,000. We thank the Friends of Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery for their continued support with acquisitions. Congratulations to all the finalists for their outstanding works and to the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery team for delivering this wonderful exhibition. 5

Director’s Foreword Dunja Rmandić Acting Director, MPRG

National Works on Paper is a survey capturing a moment in contemporary art in Australia today. Focused on the medium of paper, it considers how this medium can be thought of as an expanded field for creative practice. From the very first exhibition and the subsequent fifty years, the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery (MPRG) has been acquiring works for our collection through the Spring Festival of Drawing and Prints Acquisitive awards, which subsequently became the National Works on Paper award. In this way, we have both built on the legacy that was instrumental in establishing the Gallery and have built up our holdings of contemporary Australian art in the Collection. As has been the case with every exhibition since the inception, NWOP 2024 is a true national survey of contemporary artists working with paper. Every state and territory is represented and we are delighted to have, for the first time, four Mornington Peninsula-based artists as finalists. 6

The show celebrates the versatility of paper and the willingness of artists to experiment and expand upon our idea of what a work on paper can be. Showcasing First Nations artists from communities across the country, political perspectives, concerns around climate change and very personal stories, what brings these works together is the love of paper as a medium through which to tell our stories and express ourselves creatively. Thank you to our judges this year: Lisa Waup, Erica Green and Trent Walter who joined me in selecting the finalists and in choosing the winners. The quality of the submissions was incredible and provided fertile ground for thought-provoking discussions to narrow the selection down to seventy works. I would like to thank our incredible MPRG team for their hard work and professionalism in delivering this key project. In particular, I would like to thank our Registrar — Exhibitions Coordinator Angie Taylor who coordinated the administration and logistics of the entire project and NWOP assistant Hannah Searing who provided support throughout the project from submissions to catalogue production. My thanks also go to NWOP Curator Leah Ferguson; Marketing and Publications Coordinator Rowena Wiseman, who produced this publication; Public Programs Coordinators Jane German and Lachie Petrie; Education Officer Jill Anderson; as well as our Visitor Experience and Retail Coordinator Lori Hakim and our dedicated Front of House staff. Thanks to our amazing installation team Marni Howard, Sunny Scott, Paul Nuttney and Neil Williams. We hope you enjoy the essays from Erica Green, Director of Samstag Museum of Art, and Kelly Fliedner, writer and curator. Design agency Alter and printers IVE have delivered another fabulous publication, and our thanks also to Vanessa Pellatt for editing and proofreading. We are grateful for the ongoing support of the Mornington Peninsula Shire and the Friends of MPRG, ensuring that the legacy of the National Works on Paper continues to grow. We especially want to thank the finalists in this year’s award for their courage and imagination, their skill and ingenuity.

NWOP 2024 Erica Green Judge’s Reflection Director, Samstag Museum of Art

The National Works on Paper is a valuable acquisitive award and exhibition that attracts an outstanding diversity and quality of works of art from practicing artists across Australia working with paper. It is a testament not only to the deserved reputation of this prestigious award, and the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery itself, but also to the timeless and enduring material it honours. As a national event of significance, it is something to celebrate. Paper was developed by the Chinese during the Han Dynasty, over 2,000 years ago. Along with its indispensable contribution to human civilisation, it has also bequeathed us a particularly rich artistic legacy. Used by artists across cultures and centuries in all forms of artmaking as a vital companion to their practice, paper has not simply aided art’s evolution, but has increasingly become indistinguishable from its actual finished form — the masterful prints of Hokusai, or Australia’s own Cressida Campbell, or the iconic, though somewhat forgotten, paper sculptures of Lyndon Dadswell are just some of the examples. 8

It’s in the genes of artists to experiment and play with materials — like scientists — inventing and discovering new possibilities. So it has been, over time, with artists’ creative explorations of paper’s materiality, their innovations expanding its potential as vehicle for works of art that inspire our imagination. This is as true today as before, and is certainly evident in the ideas and themes explored in the NWOP 2024 exhibition, where we see paper as a platform for printing and drawing, but also ingeniously cut, torn, moulded, woven and shaped, and fashioned remarkably into three-dimensional forms. The selection of works for an award exhibition such as this is always a challenge, especially with such a huge number of worthy submissions that must be considerately assessed, and yet rationalised to obtain an effective shortlist for exhibition. Nevertheless, for all the rigorous debate between judges and their differences in passion for particular works, the consensus — when it comes — can be deeply satisfying. It has been a delight for me to share that robust experience with my other judges on the NWOP 2024 selection committee — Lisa Waup, Trent Walter and Dunja Rmandić. Working with them has been a privilege and pleasure. Of course, for some artists the opportunity presented by awards of this kind can be vexed. Not everyone gets to experience the reward of exhibition, let alone the ultimate distinction of the acquisition prize. And there are even some, including artists, who say there are too many art prizes these days, as if prizes were an impure motivation for making art. In fact, by incentivising artists to open their imaginations and create something original — even innovative — by engaging with paper’s elemental possibilities, the NWOP has performed great service to Australian contemporary art. Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery’s sustained vision for the possibilities of paper has cumulatively generated a substantial body of distinctive works of art, of which the 2024 iteration is exemplary. To the cohort of artists featured in the National Works on Paper 2024 exhibition, our congratulations. This is a truly distinguished event, and your achievement is not only significant but memorable for us all. 9

Essay Kelly Fliedner Writer and curator, Boorloo Perth

A Message, a Point of Connection, a Gesture to Where We Are.

Paper, like its precursors papyrus and animal hide, is a foundational medium of arts practice. We find it 2,000 years ago in China, 1,300 years ago in the Middle East, 800 years ago in the West. It is a technology that is global, that has circulated for as long as there have been records, travelling the world round with ships and silk routes, trade and warfare, and art. What might it mean to recognise an ancient medium, a classical medium, in the contemporary age? And to do so in this place — Bunurong Country? The medium is itself a message, a point of connection to our past, but also to our contemporary moment, an arts practice that lends itself to a resolutely local way of understanding, not as anachronism, but as depth and community. Paper itself stands in contrast to how we experience most information right now, how we experience the image, which is, by and large, through screens. We touch those screens, perhaps like we touch the pages of novels, the drawing paper in our work rooms, the photocopy prints in our office. But there is a lack of depth, a certain coldness to these devices — no matter how hard the algorithm works it cannot replace that point of human connection, which has always been there in the form of paper itself regardless of what it depicts. The alienation of a technofuedalist stands in contrast to the art presented here. This is an expression of the personal and the intimate, the light treading, the realisation and appreciation of the body, the domestic, the local. We can do all that through a connection to paper while complementing its warmth with our very witnessing. Paper allows us to see differently, to communicate with an awareness of traditions that stretch back millennia. That matters for this prize in particular, especially when we see individual works that express their own connections to country, to family, to journeys. One theme to emerge is that of traditional practices relocated to contemporary contexts where cultural heritage and its present reflection are expressed — to be with elders, to learn, to sit and listen. It is there in Nici Cumpston’s Old Mutawintji Gorge I, which captures the essence of a significant site through hand-coloured photography. In reflecting on the ancestral presence and cultural practices here, she expresses a meditative process through the physicality of colour over a kind of inscription and layering like the geography itself — a place nurtured by hands over a long moment 11

in time. Similarly, Cyril Whyoulter’s work is deeply rooted in the transmission of knowledge through painting. By collaborating with his family, Whyoulter learns painting techniques and absorbs stories, histories and traditions. His involvement in major collaborative projects highlights the importance of visual arts in preserving and sharing cultural heritage, especially through exhibitions like Pujiman and Wantili. Both of these works, and others like Māori-Australian artist Kirsten Lyttle, present Indigenous perspectives in photography through the integration of traditional practice. At the level of surface, and indeed in depth, they redefine cultural representation speaking to ongoing sovereignties. We see this too in the work of Darrell Sibosado, where this relationship is explored in traditional riji designs alongside, next to and within contemporary Aboriginal art. This piece highlights the evolving nature of cultural knowledge and its relevance to modern artistic expressions, through a paper medium that itself also adapts. Betty Muffler’s Ngangkari Ngura (Healing Country) explores healing practices to represent the invisible spiritual and energetic connections within landscapes and people. The thick black lines on white paper draw upon knowledge of ancestors to highlight the intrinsic connection between environmental elements and the health of both the land and its people. Here, everything is connected, including across nations that share the same continent. Interwoven with this are works that use the natural environment as a recurring motif, ones where landscape rather than country come to the fore. Artists here present the bush, coastlines, rocks and birds, and our relationship with nature as a whole. This is done through various media and metaphors, such as tides and waves symbolising human experience and forces of change greater than our own that are beyond history, as it were. This is nature as dynamic, transformational, powerful, with artists sharing in that. Working in this way we have Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison’s Restoring Corridors that emphasises biodiversity restoration, encouraging viewers to actively participate in repairing habitats. Akin to that work is Cameron Robbins’s Solar Structure 6hrs Before the Storm — the pictorial remains of a kinetic sculpture that responds to wind and solar energy, translating the transient nature of weather systems into intricate drawings that are political and nurturing all at once. The bird’s eye view is there too in 12

Djakaŋu Yunupiŋu’s Gurmilili —Tears of the Djulpan, where the appearance of the Djulpan astronomical constellation marks important cultural practices and stories related to food harvesting and traditional activities. These three works are a few among many that express how we might live better lives when aware of our natural environment. If ongoing sovereignty and the natural environment offer two readings of these collective works, another thread woven through the whole are those of embodiment and identity. It is there in the work of Olga Cironis who documents her breathing during cancer treatment. Each day, Cironis breathed into a small bubble of gold ink, photographed it and then printed it at larger scale. This quotidian, even banal, act finds a greater purpose in a desire to survive, to turn habit into ritual, and reflect on that most basic task for simply living. Another work that uses the resilience and fragility of the paper is D Harding’s (Potentially) enough bodypaint for three dancers, which consists of bodypaint. When re-wet, it might be able to be taken from the paper and used on the body. This is paper as message stick, as breath-in and breath-out, as a mode of exchange that is itself corporeal. It creates a point of connection in the portability of one aspect of traditional ceremony while also keeping secret what is sacred, only visible to the aware. Also connected to Country and embodiment is Naomi Hobson’s work, which is rooted in her Southern Kaantju/Umpila heritage. Her series empowering the youth in her community understands that identity is fluid, that it shifts and changes and grows, has a politics of place to it while avowing a certainty of lineage all along. This youth focus has historical resonance, places the body first, and reflection extend to collaborative queer practices. This is where the dynamic and fluid nature of gay icons and the performative act of drawing are explored, creating a textured background that supports themes of bodies, souls and desire. If the body and identity relocate us from tradition and the landscape, the tension between personal and collective realities comes to the fore in other works. In Jennifer Mills’s work the front yard of a house suggests how to live with a severely autistic adult while also engaging in routine activities. It underscores the connection between familiar routines and emotional comfort, all while pointing towards ableism, exclusion and what our neighbours might think across suburbs and cities. This idea of what is just beyond the 13

frame, of the synecdoche between individual and community is there in the work of Tom Blake, who engages with the concept of time, memory and the mundane aspects of life, creating works that evoke visceral reactions and reflect on the complexities of globalism. The notion of the world at large, of how algorithmically determined our present realities are, is investigated by Tricky Walsh. Globalism’s impact on people and the environment is critically examined, with works addressing the hidden transactions of cultural objects and an excessive hoarding of wealth, all gesturing towards feelings beyond the frame from hollowness to burnout to what comes later. This element becomes more overtly political in two works. Harriette Bryant’s According to Harriette is an exploration of significant historical events and places, such as Captain Cook in Port Augusta and Maralinga, all of which reminds us that multiple browsers are open and scrolled, that just outside of view there might be something else to attend to. The second work here, also enmeshed with ideology and the important role of art in speaking truth to power, is Locust Jones’s 7.5-metre-long work October that confronts the Israel-Palestine conflict through a complex composition that layers news reports and headlines, challenging viewers to engage critically with media representations and geopolitical narratives. This piece fosters dialogue and empathy, urging a deeper understanding of the conflict’s human realities and historical intricacies, of seeing what we are connected to a world away and at home. The invitation that these works on paper offer is one of intimacy and depth. For all their difference in content and form, the medium itself is one that seems connected to a richness and tradition beyond our present. In that space, at once humble and direct and caring, we see a counterpoint to the flashy, isolated, momentary quality of a digitised life. It is a good thing that paper reminds us of our very humanity, that it knits together the diversity of where we are, that it travels to us with stories of where it is from and what it has done. This is, of course, grounded in our local reading of Country, of indigeneities that span the continent, all of which are expressions that run alongside and with paper as well. That this year’s award demonstrates so clearly what we have always known — that art matters beyond itself — is a reminder that there is still hope and justice in a world as cruel and unjust as ours. For that alone, we can only be grateful as witnesses to an art as resolute as time itself. 14

NATIONAL WORKS ON PAPER The WORKS 2024

BORI BENKŐ b. 1977 Bucharest, Romania. Lives and works in Walyalup Fremantle, Western Australia

42 folds to the moon 2024 watercolour, ink pens, acrylic paint markers on 300gsm Arches® watercolour paper 240 x 120cm

42 folds to the moon is a constellation of geometric shapes and their patterns that have been in the background of my mind since childhood. The work explores structures that look rigid but are, in fact, flexible: they can continuously vary their shape without changing their inner metric. It forms part of a tribute to my father, who was a mathematician. The folding and unfolding of shapes and legacies, can come with the lens of exponential growth, one that starts small but gets big very quickly, like the mathematical theory that a piece of paper, folded 42 times, would amount to a length of thickness that can reach the moon.

EMMA BINGHAM b. 1970 Sutton Coldfield, England. Lives and works in Nipaluna Hobart

Mantle 2023 Awagami kozo paper, wax, ink, tarlatan, thread 155 x 110cm Represented by Penny Contemporary

Skin is the membrane between the internal body and the external world: a threshold within the continuum of embodied experience. Mantle is the surface area of my body. It hangs like aged skin, a discarded cloak, or a waiting shroud. I bound each piece to make the whole, stitching together the conscious memories and forgotten connections that, melded together, make a human life. It is my folding and unfolding: a composite of touch, sense, pain and the gestures of care. Each piece of kozo paper, the scale of a hand’s touch, is dipped in wax, ink-stained and rinsed with water. It is wrung out like a cloth used to cleanse a body, wash a newborn, or console the dying. Mantle holds the ritual and repetition of my body’s actions in paper and cloth, each touch retained in stain and residue, crease and stitch.

TOM BLAKE b. 1985 Boorloo Perth. Lives and works in Walyalup Fremantle, Western Australia

arranging time 2023 screenprint and prints of repeated drawing and rolled-up sheet of museum paper 138 x 178cm

Represented by N.Smith Gallery 20

The work arranging time comprises two main elements. The background contains repeated hand-drawings, duplicated across long sheets of paper via an architectural plan plotter. In front of this hangs a screenprint of a painting — masking a section of the repeated drawing while introducing a scene of two people seated around a table below a large window. arranging time is part of the ongoing body of work holding leaves (index) that draws on ideas of opacity, repetition, disintegration, architectural space and the perpetual arrangement and rearrangement of objects within the continuous stream of time.

YVONNE BOAG b. 1954 Glasgow, Scotland. Lives and works on Gadigal Country, New South Wales

This sequence of drawings depicts a recurring dream that I have where I am walking in my neighbourhood with my dog. I am anxious that she will get lost or get run over by a car. Regardless, I let her run free to play with her ball but then she runs away and I am full of fear, imagining the worst outcome.

Four dreams 2022 oil pastel, charcoal on paper 134 x 200cm Represented by Stella Downer Fine Art

ANTHEA BOESENBERG b. 1943 Kanny-goopna Shepparton, Victoria. Lives and works on Kuring-gai Country, Greenwich, New South Wales

50 years 2023 stamping on tengucho paper 1100 x 96cm

My work is a visual representation of fifty years of time. There is one stamp for every day of a fifty-year period, coming to 18,250 stamps. Fifty years seems a long time when I think about it, and yet when I look at my work, it seems to be so brief. I ask myself how I spent all those days. I imagined that a lifetime of days would fill the whole gallery or more. Like a life, the work is messy at the edges, and some days are missing, as if they have disappeared from memory. The use of the fragile tengucho paper as the support for the work mirrors the inherent fragility of life. Tengucho, being only 9gsm, is translucent yet quite strong. Appropriately, 50 years took a long time to make, inking the stamp and pressing it to the paper, counting the iterations, and shaping the progress of the print. The process was very simple, and the paper was integral to the piece.

SOLOMON BOOTH b. 1981 Darumbal Country, Rockhampton, Queensland. Lives and works in Muralag Country, Kubin Community, Moa Island, Queensland Language group: Kala Lagaw Ya

AWARENESS (XV) 2023

Modern times have shown plastic bags to be detrimental to the environment and may often be mistaken for jellyfish, which are a food source for marine predators such as the Waru (green sea turtle). The Waru can be found throughout the waters of Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait Islands) and has been a part of our peoples’ diet for thousands of years. That’s why it is important that we should look after our environment, for the sustainability of our people and our future generations. This artwork also serves as an analogy for us to be mindful of what we consume, both physically and mentally, but importantly in a spiritual state if we are to live a fruitful and productive life.

monotype 120 x 80cm Represented by Moa Art Centre 23

ASHLEIGH BRIGGS b. 1988 Naarm Melbourne. Lives and works in Naarm Melbourne

The Bay 2024 ink on knitted paper 87 x 96cm

The Bay encapsulates the essence of nostalgia and memory through a unique blend of media. Combining knitted paper canvas with ink painting, the work portrays the bay of my childhood. The scene emerges from fading memories, intricately knitted together, symbolising the enduring imprint of our past on the places we cherish. It explores the transformative power of memory, where familiar landscapes take on dreamlike qualities, blurring the lines between reality and imagination. In this piece I investigate how memories become intertwined with physical spaces, shaping our perception and understanding of the world around us. As an artist who explores sculpture, textiles and mark-making, the canvas is formed from intricate paper manipulation, creating a metaphorical tapestry, mirroring the complexities of memory and nostalgia. This evokes the depth and textures of our own memories and the emotional resonance they hold.

HARRIETTE BRYANT

These are some ideas I’ve had:

b. 1969 Amata, South Australia. Lives and works in Mimili, South Australia

Captain Cook in Port Augusta

Language group: Pitjantjatjara

Cruisin’ round on top

According to Harriette 2023

Daisy’s house

assemblage of paper, canvas, board and found materials with acrylic paint alterations 190 x 190cm

Nana Daisy in Ooldea

Represented by Mimili Maku Arts

Maralinga

Watching Maralinga

Tin sugar train coming to Ooldea Royal family

ROLAND BURRUNALI b. 1973 Gunbalanya, Northern Territory. Lives and works in Gunbalanya, Northern Territory Language group: Kunwinjku

Mimih Spirits 2024 ochres on Arches® paper 51 x 38cm Represented by Injalak Arts and Crafts

According to the Kunwinjku people of West Arnhem Land, Mimih spirits were the original spirit beings who taught Aboriginal people many of the skills they needed to survive in the bush. They also taught aspects of ceremony. Mimih spirits are believed to inhabit the rocky escarpments around Gunbalanya, but because they are extremely timid they are rarely seen by humans. They are frequently depicted in the rock art of Arnhem Land as small, dynamic figures, often shown with a range of hunting tools such as mankole (spears), borndok (spear throwers), djerrh (dilly bags), karramalk (hafted stone axes) and kundjakkorl (fire sticks).

JANE BURTON b. 1966 Meanjin Brisbane. Lives and works in Naarm Melbourne

Inside the mountain 2022 pigment print on archival paper 110 x 110cm

My work across various media engages with themes of memory and longing, mortality and desire, with darkly ambiguous and somewhat enigmatic overtones. I photograph landscape in order to immerse myself within the elemental grandeur of nature, and experience a kind of exaltation of mind, body and spirit. Through symbolic, personal renderings I seek to transcribe the experience and sensations of being embedded within nature’s transfiguring effect. Encountering this great mountain edifice, I felt the contradiction of being at once daunted and overwhelmed by it, yet also embraced by and drawn into it. The mountain is powerful in its silence, while at the same time emanating a palpable latent energy. There is a savage beauty here, but cutting through a deep crevice in the mountain carapace is a delicate waterfall. The cascade, partially occluded by vapour, speaks of fertility and renewal and suggests a profound feminine presence. 27

JACKY CHENG b. 1977 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Lives and works in Rubibi Broome, Western Australia

…that awaits at the end of life 2022 kozo papers, joss papers, organic fibres, natural and synthetic paper fibres 356 x 37cm, 650 x 37cm, 480 x 37cm, 780 x 37cm

While making this piece, important rites and repetitive rituals were cemented through and through. They all mark a spot, invite and create a bridge or doorway for taboo dialogues about preparation for and commemorating the afterlife. I opened conversations about celebrating end-of-life with loved ones and embracing the unknown timeframe. There was a sense of urgency in caring for lost confabulations, skills and upholding traditions. This work is a rumination on the relationship between paper and spirit — a personal journey of the quintessence of materiality, carried out, about and with traditional methodology in our fast-paced society. My practice is fundamentally about identity and awareness through cultural activities and memories of home, country and relationships. My awareness is amplified through my diasporic identity as a Chinese descendant in foreign borders as I continue to question notions of ‘home’ and ‘belonging’, ‘here and there’, and the ‘in between’. Personal cultural histories of the most significant experiences are reflected, documented and expressed with fibres as the predominant medium in my practice.

OLGA CIRONIS b. 1963 Zlyn, Czech Republic. Lives and works in Walyalup Fremantle, Western Australia

Breath 2 2022 archival paper 150 x 100cm Represented by Art Collective WA

As life affirming as breathing is, it can also awaken us to the fragility of life. Each morning during my cancer treatment I documented my breathing. With one breath I breathed into a bubble of gold ink and watched the ink flood the surface of archival paper, marking each day. This ritual gave me a sense of purpose and desire to survive. Later, I photographed some of the small golden breaths on paper and printed them large. Breath 2 represents human connectedness to Earth’s living ecosystem. In my art practice I am concerned with personal and collective identity and what identity can mean in the context of globalisation. Coming from a context of migrant feminism, I scrutinise ideas around belonging and place by exploring counter histories against social, political and cultural issues. By inviting public participation and story sharing, the public can further explore, reflect and question our place in the world. 29

MAREE CLARKE b. 1961 Matakupaat Swan Hill, Victoria. Lives and works in Naarm Melbourne Language group: Mutti Mutti, Wamba Wamba, Yorta Yorta, Boonwurrung

Long Journey Home #4 2024 digital print on photographic paper 69 x 102.5cm Represented by Vivien Anderson Gallery 30

Long Journey Home is an ongoing series about the lands and waterways of Naarm that have always been cared for by Aboriginal people. Members of my family were involved in making the canoe, a process of sharing knowledge with them. These practices, although located in the present and drawing on contemporary methods of making, are steeped in traditional knowledges handed down through generations. The canoe, based on traditional canoes, embodies our connections to Country. Long Journey Home powerfully asserts our family and extended community’s ongoing presence and Ancestral connections to Country in southeast Australia. This is history in the making, guided by Aboriginal people for future generations to come.

MATTHEW CLARKE b. 1986 Warrnambool, Victoria. Lives and works in Warrnambool, Victoria

These set of three woodcut prints are titled Wallaby City. Wallabies and cityscapes have been a long-running theme of mine and they come together in this series. It is a little bit about wallabies escaping from the Melbourne Zoo into a city environment, which has parallels for me going to Melbourne and getting lost.

Wallaby City 2024 woodcut print 65 x 135cm Represented by Mossenson Galleries

CAROLYN CRAIG b. 1968 Gadigal Country, New South Wales. Lives and works on Gadigal Country, New South Wales

Conversations of lament part 2 2023 charcoal dust screenprint, photogravure and dust video projected onto paper then scanned on video on loop 190 x 260cm Represented by Syrup Contemporary 32

Conversations of lament part 2 builds on a series that speaks to the memory of my mother and brings me closer to understanding her place in the world as a woman who decided to commit suicide rather than become ill and age. I focus on her ritual labour of sweeping and her classed position as an indentured woman on working class wages. I work through the rituals of lament with her broom in an act of honour and abjection. I work with the fragility of paper and dust as it reflects the tenuous relations of my mother’s life and the way she dispersed herself towards a dissolution of self.

ZOË CROGGON b. 1989 Naarm Melbourne. Lives and works in Naarm Melbourne

Magazine #2 2022 collage of found images and glue on paper, perspex frame 33 x 28cm Represented by Daine Singer

My practice has centred on a photographic practice working with sculpture, video, drawing and primarily collage. Created from found photographs, my work negates representational photography and instead looks at photography’s ability not just to reproduce reality, but to produce new, abstracted images. For me, observing the body draws physical and psychological equivalent to landscapes. The longstanding interests in dance and literature underscore much of my work, examining the fractures of translation between the body, the written word and the image. Magazine series extends my collage practice to the visual and sculptural qualities of the fashion magazine. Imitating the textural pliancy of fabric, the pages of magazines are folded and tucked, revealing formal symmetries while heightening the surgically polished and disembodied female form. The work asks for a softer eye while quietly playing with commercial representations of the female form.

NICI CUMPSTON b. 1963 Kaurna Country, Hindmarsh, Adelaide. Lives and works in Tarndanya Adelaide Language group: Barkandji

Old Mutawintji Gorge I 2023 pigment inkjet print hand-coloured with PanPastel, crayons and pencils 44 x 120cm Represented by Michael Reid Sydney 34

Old Mutawintji Gorge I is a hand-coloured black and white photograph from the series titled Mirrimpilyi — Happy and Contented, created on a day trip with fellow Barkandji artists. Mutawintji is a place of great cultural significance to all Barkandji peoples and neighbouring groups. For millennia we have gathered here, at this permanent place of water, for cultural activities such as marriages, initiations, ceremony and trade. Walking slowly along the creek bed, I let the others forge ahead. The presence of our Ancestors was evident in the ancient rock art, and time alone with my camera enabled me to watch the light and capture the beauty of this ancient land. Through hand colouring, I shape the colour that fills my prints, revisiting memories of this time and place. It is a meditative process and offers an opportunity to reflect on time spent learning from each other and our precious Country.

MEL DEERSON and BRIONY GILLIGAN b. 1983 Naarm Melbourne and Nipaluna Hobart respectively. Live and work in Naarm Melbourne

Angel theatre 2024 coloured pencil and graphite on paper 136 x 176cm

Our collaborative practice includes drawing, performance, publications, lectures, workshops and installation. We are interested in the slippery, alluring, ungraspable nature of gay icons like rainbows and, more recently, angels, as ciphers for questions about bodies, souls and desire. This diptych drawing includes loose copies of various fairies and angels from Pasolini’s film Theorem and paintings by the gay Greek modernist artist Yannis Tsarouchis, set in a dense, writhing atmosphere. In this swirling background, the practice of drawing itself becomes a subject: a thick, energetic ambience in which the small figures unselfconsciously perform. We make all our drawings collaboratively, drawing on the paper at the same time, and often can’t remember who did what. In this way, the intimate, erotic energy of collaboration becomes a gestural, textural mood; a literal and figurative background that fuels and supports the ‘theatre’ of the work.

STANLEY EBATARINJA b. 1971 Papunya, Northern Territory. Lives and works in Mparntwe Alice Springs, Northern Territory Language group: Western Aranda

Palm Valley entrance 2022 watercolour on paper 59 x 96cm Represented by Many Hands Art Centre

My name is Stanley Ebatarinja and I was born in 1971 in Papunya. I moved to Ntaria (Hermannsburg), the homeland of my parents, when I was thirteen years old. Desmond, the brother of my father, was the one who introduced me to watercolour. I used to live with him and his wife. I still paint my Country both ways — watercolour and dot painting. I consider Ellery Creek and Hermannsburg as my homeland. This painting is of the entrance of Alyape (Palm Valley) looking at Mount Hermannsburg. The area has a strong connection to Dreaming stories passed down through families. Only men are allowed to talk about this area as it is a sacred men’s area in Western Aranda culture. The paintings and stories of West Aranda artists is a way of talking about Country and Dreaming without going into detail about the sacred sites that belong to the families.

MATTHEW FEDER b. 1983 Darug Country, Blacktown, New South Wales. Lives and works on Woiworung Country, Coburg, Victoria

Horsemen of the Apocalypse 2024 screenprint 70 x 50cm

Printing on paper to effect change in the world feels like throwing paper aeroplanes at armed drones in a conflict. I think even this poster method of propaganda is outmoded, and I’m not sure if it can effect any change at all. I do know that screenprinting posters is catharsis for me; printing and disseminating the ideas is the thing that matters to me. Sometimes I feel like a doomsayer with a sandwich board proclaiming ‘The end is nigh’, but then I look around and all I see are wars, greed and climate change. I feel I am a part of this world and have a right to voice my opinion. These screenprints have been editioned on printmaking paper, with a small edition on poster paper pasted in the streets.

EMILY FERRETTI b. 1982 Naarm Melbourne. Lives and works in Naarm Melbourne

Three bow saws 2024 oil on paper 61 x 86cm Represented by Sophie Gannon Gallery

My painting Three Bow Saws shows an intimate workshop scene that focuses in on jagged saw blades and scattered wood chip fragments. I painted this work with the intention of creating a visual representation of agitation, vibration and power, which is shown through playful mark making and colour. The painting uses red and orange hues to intensify the feeling of heat and energetic movement. Using a distinct visual language, such as rhythm and recurring shapes, I want the audience to be pulled into the scene through many entry points. Different tools such as bent nails, saws and hammers have been a recurring motif in my work and are used as visual metaphors.

ROBERT FIELDING

Our land is sacred.

b. 1969 Kurdnatta Country, Port Augusta, South Australia. Lives and works in Mimili, South Australia

This work is from a selection of works on paper from a much larger series I have been working on. These works are reflections on my connection to Country and the ongoing fight to protect it. They are coded with much cultural knowledge and for the trained eye stand as both a promise and a warning.

Language group: Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara, Arrernte

Sacred 2024

These moments are held together with my custom packing tape: TJUKURPA HANDLE IT. This is a delicate work, but it is also an undeniable statement and challenge: This is our land and it is sacred. Handle with care.

acrylic, pearlescent ink and packing tape on paper 200 x 152cm Represented by Mimili Maku Arts 39

DAVID FRAZER b. 1966 Boonwurrung Country, Foster, Victoria. Lives and works on Dja Dja Wurrung Country, Castlemaine, Victoria

Walking for solace (composition III) 2023 linocut 122 x 141cm Represented by Australian Galleries

A person walks through the bush for comfort and solace.

KIRSTEN GARNER LYTTLE b. 1972 Gadigal Country, New South Wales. Lives and works in Naarm Melbourne

Black sand kete 2024 handwoven photographic print on Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl 310gsm 59 x 84cm

I am a Māori-Australian academic, artist and practice-led researcher. I specialise in photography, where I encountered inherent tensions in being both Māori and a photographer. This tension is evident in the camera’s imposition of Eurocentric perspectives, framing Māori culture within preconceived notions of primitivism or exoticism or reducing it to a subject for salvage ethnography to record a so-called dying race. In my PhD research, I developed an alternative, non-extractive way of working with photography, named whakaahua (to photograph, to transform). Rather than merely documenting customary art, my research utilises the photograph’s surface as a site for making customary Māori art. This artwork is a handwoven kete kupenga, or a fishing net basket, depicting a black sand beach in Aotearoa (New Zealand), which I visited with my husband earlier this year. This open weave is used to collect kai (food) and allows sand and dirt to sift out on the journey home.

DEANNE GILSON b. 1967 Naarm Melbourne. Lives and works in Ballaarat Ballarat, Victoria Language group: Wadawurrung

Ngubitj, Wiyn, Binhak Murrup (Water and Fire Feed The Grass Trees Spirit) 2023 acrylic on BFK Rives 300gsm 70 x 210cm

My work draws upon the traditional knowledge of my Wadawurrung Ancestors, in particular matriarchal women’s business that entailed ceremonial practices and the making of woven baskets, adornments and gathering of bush foods. My multi-disciplinary practice aims to not only strengthen my identity as a proud Wadawurrung woman, it also reclaims knowledge of my Ancestors. Using the symbols that form our history and culture, the wave patterns in this work represent the water spirit within us — being made up of water ourselves — and Country, coupled with a smoking ceremony used for healing and cleansing, along with a woven basket of a grass tree bag. The grass tree is a sacred plant. Known as the fire plant, it is used to start fires and stops fires as they travel, only flowering after it has been through fire. Fire and water are both intrinsic for the health and well-being of not just Country but of ourselves.

JULIA GORMAN b. 1968 Naarm Melbourne. Lives and works in Naarm Melbourne

Chchchchchanges 2024 acrylic ink and Liquitex® spray paint on Stonehenge paper 284 x 290cm

Like many other contemporary artists, I consider how we experience time and memory. I like to surprise myself with what I discover. Sprayed lines are infinitely expressive in their blurred edges, splutterings from a clogged nozzle, dribbles from a can held too close. Then there is the brush dipped in ink. So many artists before me have done this. I try to paint a fresh line, but the ink seeps into the soft surface of the unsized paper. Colour bleeds and pools. Materials evoke visceral reactions, reminding one of other things felt and seen. When I put the individual pieces next to each other, I try for maximum dynamism and movement across the whole work, still maintaining a loose structure and balance. I hope to multiply the experiential possibilities inherent in the final composite object.

EDWINA GREEN b. 1999 Naarm Melbourne. Lives and works in Naarm Melbourne

Untitled (Mother) 2023 screenprint on paper 93 x 70cm

This work was developed through research on the First Nations women of lutruwita who were stolen by sealers and rarely returned to Country. In 2019, my Aunty Gail gave me seven folders with familial documents and years of her research. In one of them was an incomprehensible number of pages with the names of these women, many of whom had children. Throughout this archival material, similar to many First Peoples internationally, are often caricaturised depictions of Ancestors, commonly without names, and only sometimes with the location, or a homogenised location, of where the image was drawn or painted. In reclaiming these images, we are able to humanise the ‘other’. These images are not just distant memories, they are our family. They had names, just as this woman did, and her child. I often wonder what her name was, and what are the names of all these people who were not listened to or given the opportunity to speak their name from their native tongue. This is the first of an on-going series that I will create over the coming years, to work with colour composition and creating an individual identity for each work through these colours.

BLAKE GRIFFITHS b. 1993 Ngadjuri Country, Riverton, South Australia. Lives and works in Tharawal Country, La Perouse, New South Wales

Study for revival 2024 woven paper 37 x 32cm

In Study for Revival images of textiles published through the peak of the 1970s craft revival have been meticulously woven into each other. Sourced from a collection of instructional weaving books destined for disposal, the work ‘revives’ these images to critique the ways textile histories, knowledges and traditions have been recorded, documented and passed on. The work exposes the remaining pattern once their intended value has been eroded, stripped of the written word. This dissection of books draws a parallel to our willingness to render this documentation redundant and erase it through disposal, but also critiques the very publication of fragmentary and reductive textile histories that exclusively promote the technical aspect. The central block is constructed from the centrefold coloured plates of the publications, and, in a poetic interpretation akin to reading a prayer carpet, offers compositional space to reflect on the concept of revival.

AMALA GROOM b. 1979 Djanangmum Casino, New South Wales. Lives and works on Wiradyuri Country, Kelso, New South Wales Language group: Wiradyuri

15th October 2023 2023 synthetic polymer paint on Australian road map and AIATSIS reproduction prints 85 x 120cm

In the attempt to understand complex situations, I sometimes reduce them to their simplest form. In art this is the aesthetic of minimalism, and in philosophy, reductionism. In politics, we know this as decision matrix thinking based on emotional interpretation, or emotional logic, either informed or otherwise. These terms have been popularised by psychology and science journals and have lost their root meanings. When we look at the rules of English, the very term ‘emotional logic’ is oxymoronic because the words in themselves are polarities, which makes the co-opted academic definition void. There is no logic in emotion and humans are, in fact, emotional beings. When I woke up on the 15th of October, I zoomed out as far as I could from the bleak reality that in my Wiradyuri community of ‘Calare’, where my peoples have existed since the beginning of time, 71.9% of registered voters chose ‘NO’. And then it made sense: we are, in fact, one ‘Australia’, a country of countries with the world’s oldest cultures, which are based on LOVE, co-existing with the Colonial Project whose very nature is based on FEAR. These are two worlds, and today they live in the same place.

MANDY GUNN b. 1943 Leeds, England. Lives and works in Tarwin Lower, Victoria

The encyclopedia of lost words 2024 woven book pages 27 x 190 x 144cm

Now mostly discarded, sets of Encyclopaedia Britannica once sat on the shelves of most families. Pre-internet, they were considered the source of wisdom and knowledge, were referred to for school projects and on many other occasions. Now they sit languishing in op shops and in dark corners of storerooms. Part of my larger continuing body of works using paper, this piece explores and makes use of the castoff waste of our daily lives, which carries its own innate history and references. I have removed the pages of Brittannica ‘Volume 3’ and hand cut them all into 1cm vertical strips, ready to weave on a loom where the warp — the finest cotton warp used at the Tapestry Workshop — is set up to the exact width of each page. Then begins the very long process, about six months in this case, of weaving each strip into the warp, overlapping the edge of the next one and so on while taking great care not to rip the paper as I turn into the next row. Then a very firm beat down to consolidate the weaving and continue the process. A TEXT turns into a TEXTile with lost words. 47

JOE GUYMALA b. 1969 Manmoyi, Northern Territory. Lives and works in Gunbalanya, Northern Territory Language group: Kunwinjku

Huntin’ scene 2024 ochre on Arches® paper 51 x 38cm Represented by Injalak Arts and Crafts

The artist has painted a hunting scene where a bininj (man) and daluk (woman) have caught and dismembered a kunj (kangaroo). He has also painted kalawan (goanna) and karrbarda (long yam). The couple are surrounded by their hunting tools: spears, spear throwers, stone axes, dilly bags and digging sticks can be seen.

GRACIA HABY and LOUISE JENNISON b. 1975 and 1976 Naarm Melbourne. Lives and work in Naarm Melbourne

Restoring corridors 2024 12 double-sided image panels; 5 singlesided text panels, artists book, inkjet print on 310gsm Arches® paper housed in a box with original watercolour colour on Saunders Waterford Aquarelle 300gsm white hot-press paper box: 52 x 52 x 5cm, work: 100 x 300cm

Restoring corridors is a multi-panelled, double-sided artists’ book that, when hung on the gallery wall, makes an interchangeable, reversable 100 x 300cm slice of biodiversity in flux. An edition of four, housed in an original watercolour-painted box bound by the artists, it can be viewed as individual, abstract leaves within the box, or as 50 x 50cm panels that can be turned to reveal a rich, biodiverse habitat on one side or a fractured habitat on the other side. The reader is invited to choose: do they actively participate and contribute to biodiversity restoration, or do they allow for habitat to be isolated, further dissected by human pressures? Because all things are connected, the reader can ‘piece by leaf’ connect and strengthen green corridors of habitat, ensuring biodiversity can flourish. This act of regeneration can be read in multiple states of growing as wild animals return and pollinators thrive.

Printed by Arten 49

D HARDING b. 1982 Moranbah, Queensland. Lives and works in Meanjin Brisbane Language group: Bidjara, Garingbal, Ghungalu

(Potentially) enough bodypaint for three dancers 2023 titanium dioxide, lithopane white and gum acacia on Fabriano 200gsm 145 x 120cm Represented by Milani Gallery 50

This sheet of paper, when folded, is small enough to be carried in a backpack, or be mailed to someone in the post. The paper is coated with my approximation of enough bodypaint that three dancers could re-wet and use to paint their bodies. The natural, water-soluble white bodypaint on this sheet of paper may be shared, carried, or stored in potentia.

GAIL HASTINGS b. 1965 Booloo Perth. Lives and works in Naarm Melbourne

A page from the encyclopaedia of stares that are stairs 2024 watercolour and lead pencil on paper, varnish with UVLS on watercolour, acrylic on wood, actual space 35 x 120cm

From a physical background outside, red stairs on the left take us into the red watercolour background of an encyclopaedic page. The stairs enact a liminal shift between opposing states of space we perform daily whenever we stare into a page to read. Unlike any vertigo we feel balancing on the upper edge of a tall building, peering into the vacant space alongside beckoning our fall, we instead step into this liminal difference with no consequence. Yet the frightful velocity of real space is as present and equally majestic. Our vertigo, though, became a friend a long time ago. In making sculptural situations not unlike this one since leaving art college, I endeavour to reignite a bit of vertigo in which we fail but then find our footing, once more, in the engulfing enchantment of real space.

SIRI HAYES b. 1977 Bunurong Country, Mornington. Lives and works in Nillumbik Eltham, Victoria

Chromogenic toxic haze after Wright 2023 photogram 76 x 160cm

The toxic haze hanging over Praiseworthy in Alexis Wright’s latest book informs this work and is used as the beginning point for composition: establishing a sensation of human suspension among virulent natural cycles that grows through and covers up humangenerated toxic effluvium. In both Wright’s and this work, untold colonial damage to place and culture are expressed as the result of racist and exploitive systems of domination. Collected rubbish (thoroughly cleaned), floral and faunal debris found walking along the Birrarung and Diamond Creek in northeast Naarm were scattered over light sensitive colour paper to create this photogram. The work engages with the notion of artist as active caretaker of place, who navigates ways that creative practice can nurture natural spaces to derive art materials. Previously, I have framed landscapes from a distance using European compositional devices. In this work I ‘touch’ place and look out from among it.

HIRATANAO b. 1980 Fukuoka, Japan. Lives and works in Naarm Melbourne

Thank you for sending the sum of ZERO DOLLARS AND TWO CENTS. I will miss you. 2024 paper, acrylic, watercolour, coloured marker, modelling paste, coffee grounds, emerald, utensil, steel wire, aluminium tube, magnets, rope 130 x 80 x 30cm

Approaching self as a mutable and elusive facet of the broader environment, my practice involves jewellery, object making, videos and photography. Portraying individual, cultural and social identities, I have been working predominantly with paper for the last several years. My process begins by soaking my past works, research documents, and other paper materials found in everyday settings. Through the process of dismantling past works and integrating them with various materials into new creations, I am able to examine the materials, surroundings and self, recognising their constantly evolving and changing status, and the relationships among them. In this charm sculpture, I used inane notes, letters, things found on the floor and in my home and studio. Each charm takes forms and textures of my body parts, face and the ubiquitous domestic objects, considering the significance of the mundane.

NAOMI HOBSON b. 1979 Lockhart River, Queensland. Lives and works in Coen, Queensland

Girlfriends 2022 photographic print on paper 70 x 104cm Represented by Arthouse Gallery

‘I’m using the medium to tell real stories that I feel don’t get told ... I want people to see who our youth really are: fun, playful, smart, savvy, proud, adventurous and witty.’ Naomi Hobson is a Southern Kaantju/Umpila painter, ceramicist and photographer who lives in Coen, a small town of 360 people in the centre of Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland. Inspired by her direct environment, Hobson’s works express her ongoing connection to Country and her Ancestors’ ties and relationships with their traditional lands. Through her work, she references her family’s political and social engagements as well as her own personal engagement with her Country and community. Hobson’s recent photographic series Adolescent Wonderland — featured in the Art Gallery of South Australia’s Open Hands (2020) exhibition — was created to empower young people in her community, to encourage them to be themselves and to celebrate their uniqueness.

ELEESA HOWARD b. 1973 Darug Country, Bankstown, New South Wales. Lives and works on Bunurong Country, Mornington

21 bowls, 21 years 2024 papier mâché 290 x 144cm

Twenty-one empty bowls represent the deep emptiness caused by the twenty-one years of being separated from my mother, who fights against mental illness. These bowls hold the weight of all the missed family gatherings, serving as a tangible reminder of how mental health struggles can impact the entire family. When I look at them, nostalgia envelops me, reminding me of the cherished moments my mother would prepare Judra, a dish that connected me to my Lebanese heritage but now symbolises the void I feel in my cultural identity. The colour pallet chosen pays homage to Lebanese food and, inadvertently, the flag. Papier mâché is used to resemble the fragility of the human condition. This work serves as a visual reminder, weaving together personal and collective narratives of loss, resilience and the enduring bond between mothers and their children.

ALANA HUNT b. 1984 Gadigal Country, New South Wales. Lives and works on Gadigal Country, New South Wales

In plain sight 2023 A4 paper pinned, piled and bound, video with sound 21 x 29.7cm

Since the Western Australian Aboriginal Heritage Act came into effect in 1972, over 3,300 Section 18 applications for exemption have been processed, seeking legal permission to ‘destroy, damage or alter an Aboriginal site’. Only around three have been declined. Under the guise of protection, this legislation provides a pathway for destruction. An examination of the language and bureaucratic processes used by non-Indigenous Australia to orchestrate colonial violence is the focus of this work. It has taken shape with the guidance of the Kimberley Land Council and their legal team during a multi-year residency with them from 2020– 2023 and was made possible by SPACED’s Rural Utopias residency program for socially engaged art. Central to this work are sixty-seven pieces of A4 paper that show every word from a completed Section 18 application seeking to ‘build a residence and access to residence’ accessed via the Freedom of Information process. Debossed by hand without ink, pinned, piled, copied, bound and arranged in alphabetical order, A4 paper is the central repetitive motif of this work, illustrating how a language that appears clean on paper actually wreaks havoc in the world.

LOCUST JONES b. 1963 Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand. Lives and works in Katoomba, New South Wales

October 2024 (detail) acrylic ink on paper 127 x 750cm

The work October confronts the Israel-Palestine conflict through a dynamic 7.5-metre composition in ink and pencil on paper, infused with black, gold, silver, graphite and white pigments. Depicting the tumultuous events of October 2023, the artwork challenges viewers to confront the complex narratives perpetuated by media representations. By layering news reports and headlines, it provokes critical engagement with the constructed biases and power dynamics inherent in geopolitical discourse. This piece challenges viewers to question conventional narratives, fostering dialogue and empathy towards a deeper comprehension of the conflict’s human realities and historical intricacies.

Represented by Dominik Mersch Gallery

KIEREN KARRITPUL b. 1994 Gulumoerrgin Darwin. Lives and works in Nauiyu Daly River, Northern Territory Language group: Ngen’giwumirri

Woven fish basket 2023 collagraph print with drawing 117 x 53cm Represented by Merrepen Arts, Daly River

In my practice I endeavour to educate people about our traditional First Nation’s culture, using objects and transposing them. I live on the Daly River and each day we hunt for food: collecting, gathering and fishing. It is a daily ritual that I have followed all my life. When I was young, I went with my elders, learning our ways, and now I take others. Fishnets were traditionally placed in the flow of the water and as the water flowed fish were forced into the fishnet and trapped. We would then collect them, take them home to cook on coals. The trap was woven by the women in the community, as men are not permitted to weave. The weaving process is symbolic of our relationship to the land. We recognise ourselves as woven into the land. We are part of the land, and it is part of us. Our land is a part of everything we do and feel. We can never break free even if we move away. The land nurtures and protects us. We look after the land for ourselves, our families and future generations so we can maintain our traditional culture.

MARTIN KING b. 1957 Naarm Melbourne. Lives and works in Naarm Melbourne

Diary of Lost Souls, Pages 21, 22 2023 graphite and watercolour on drafting film and paper 130 x 220cm Represented by Australian Galleries

In Diary of Lost Souls, Pages 21, 22 a white-faced owl stares out from the open book’s pages. The owl rests upon a sickle moon surrounded by skulls, silhouetted bird forms and other art historical references, such as details from Albrecht Dürer’s engravings Saint Jerome in His Study (1514) and Saint Eustace (ca. 1501), weaving history and landscape into an image that is reminiscent of an illuminated manuscript, with its use of pattern, mystical motifs and aura of the sacred. Human mortality, the transience of life and the meaninglessness of earthly possessions are notions alluded to in the recurrent vanitas image of the skull and bound up in the reference to Saint Jerome. Perhaps I am holding out hope that humanity’s capacity for brilliance and wisdom, as symbolised by the book and the owl, will be our salvation in the face of environmental malaise.

BARBIE KJAR b. 1957 pataway Burnie, Tasmania. Lives and works in Naarm Melbourne

Submerge 2024 drypoint, relief print and mokulito 168 x 304cm Represented by Australian Galleries, Victoria, and Bett Gallery, Tasmania

I am investigating the idea of variation and repetition of image in a large-scale work that can emulate some of the sensations of musical rhythm. This idea is based on works by the composer Erik Satie, in particular the works Variations, Vexations (1893) and Gymnopédies (1888), which rely on creating melodic musical scores through repetition and change of tempo. The work Submerge is comprised of multiple repeated drypoint and mokulito prints with variations and investigates the rhythm of the underworld of the sea. There are deep bass notes of the ocean floor and lighter sounds and tones relating to light. The variations of images are limited to three key images: the shadows of the partially submerged submarine Cerberus, the play of light on the sea floor, and marine life, including types of stingrays and eels. These have been observed and imagined while long-distance swimming in Port Phillip Bay over the last twelve months. The work Submerge is also drawing attention to climate change and the necessity to monitor rising sea temperatures and waste to ensure sea creatures can continue to survive.

JENNA LEE b. 1992 Ngambri and Ngunnawal Country Canberra. Lives and works in Naarm Melbourne

Tokens of Protection (Poinciana Woman) 2024

Tokens of Protection (Poinciana Woman) explores the multifaceted narrative of the Poinciana Woman, a ghostly legend rooted in Larrakia culture with influences from Southeast Asian myths. These delicate paper objects made of pages from Aboriginal Words and Place Names serve as tokens of protection: a necklace, shield, small bag, bowl of petals and pinned Poinciana flowers in entomology boxes. Embracing the transformation of one woman’s pain into a haunting eternity of protections for others, this artwork delves into the powerful narrative of the Poinciana Woman as a guardian of sacred sites and a symbol of women’s pain, loss and resilience.

pages from Aboriginal Words and Place Names book, assorted threads, beads, display case 90 x 60cm Represented by MARS Gallery

NILOUFAR LOVEGROVE b. 1974 Tehran, Iran. Lives and works on Darumbal Country, The Caves, Queensland

Seals of liberation 2024 embossed printing 75 x 3cm each

I engage in current conversations through Persian mythology and motifs in my work. As a printmaker, I enjoy using handmade papers in various forms so reading through NWOP criteria, which stipulate that ‘the paper must act as the main support of the work’, I felt challenged to connect the historical use of clay tablets as the primary record-keeping material in Persian history with paper as a modern medium. One of the most historically significant found items is the cylinder seal. Often featuring a hole, they were worn alongside decorative beads as necklaces for accessibility and were used to press on soft clay tablets for record-keeping purposes. This trio set offers another life to the seals, carved with the marks of women riding horses, battling lions and the tree of life. They serve as an acknowledgement of women worldwide, particularly those from my country, during this sensitive period in Iranian history.

KYRA MANCKTELOW b. 1997 Yugambeh Country, Logan, Queensland. Lives and works in Yugambeh Country, Logan, and Meanjin Brisbane

Mrs (Unconstitutional Love) 2024

Mrs (Unconstitutional Love) is a wedding dress that honours my Ancestors and continues the exploration of the history of garments in Australia as a means by which to address the ongoing impact of colonisation in this nation. Until the 1960s, Indigenous Australians could only marry with government permission. These garments and prints investigate long-lasting legacies of colonialism, asking questions such as how we remember and acknowledge these histories. My hope is to draw upon the strength of resistance by adapting and retaining cultural ways and identity.

unique ink impression 202 x 125cm Represented by N.Smith Gallery

MATTI MATTI b. 1965 Gisborne, Victoria. Lives and works on Gadigal Country, New South Wales

One million marks of anxiety 2024 uni® Emott pen, uniTM Power Tank pen, KitKat chocolate on Fabiano Academia 200gsm cartridge paper 150 x 400cm Represented by N.Smith Gallery

I used tally marks to count and record one million moments of anxiety. Doing this over five months allowed me to shift into the creative zone that eases my emotional state; my brain is so preoccupied by the making that it doesn’t have the capacity to generate feelings of anxiety or ruminate on the causes. When anxiety attacks, disordered sensations come at me from all sides, in ways I couldn’t have imagined before the initiating event. Hence, four layers of coloured ink (green, red, blue and black) align with the sides of the paper to represent the incessant ruminations and spikes of terror that underpin the generalised anxiety I have been living with for over five years and a more recent diagnosis of PTSD. This work both externalises the harmful emotions and acts as a therapeutic device to smooth my emotional landscape.

DAN McCABE b. 1990 Meanjin Brisbane. Lives and works in Boorloo Perth

Storming of Geneva 2023 inkjet print on archival museum cardboard (mounted on aluminium) 175.4 x 100.3cm Represented by Moore Contemporary

Through experimental methods and materials, my practice considers the complexities of globalism and its impact on people and the natural environment. The Geneva Freeport storage facility boasts the largest cache of art in the world. It is a black box of untraceable, tax-free transactions of culture, arts and antiquity for the super-rich. Storming of Geneva is a digital collage printed on archival museum cardboard, a distinct blue-grey material used in art storage. Among the composition of lost and seized cultural objects is a drawing reminiscent of a 17th century revolution. An unruly crowd of art handlers, activists and renegade removalists storm the Geneva Freeport, reclaiming crates of artworks, war loot and antiquities. In this utopian fantasy (or future pressure point) the excessive hoarding of wealth and assets by the world’s super elite erupts into global unrest. Liberated, these cultural objects are finally reunited with the communities and people that created them. 65

JENNIFER MILLS b. 1966 Dja Dja Wurrung Country, Bendigo, Victoria. Lives and works in Naarm Melbourne

In the echo chamber (pink slushie, pink donut with Mike Wazowski by Darcy Luker) 2023 watercolour, gouache, ink, pastel and wax pencil on paper 62 x 100cm Represented by Darren Knight Gallery 66

As I draw, there’s a cacophony of thoughts and Darcy’s echolalic utterances in my head. Darcy, twenty, has severe autism. I see this house on the drive to the 7-Eleven to buy Darcy a slushie and donut. Its front garden is full of introduced fauna and flora: plastic flowers and animals, particularly meerkats. They have faded and look worse for wear. The song playing in my head is Jonathan Richman’s Chewing Gum Wrapper. Jonathan sings about finding a discarded wrapper. He loves its ‘…faded colours that would end up at the dump’, so much that his heart too goes ‘thumpity, thumpity, thumpity, thump’. It’s a simple and catchy song, and it’s impossible not to sing along. As we drive past the house Darcy asks worryingly, ‘Pink slushie and pink donut?’ ‘Yes, pink slushie and pink donut,’ I assure him. He relaxes back into his seat, and we continue our journey.

BETTY MUFFLER b. 1944 Watarru, South Australia. Lives and works in Indulkana, South Australia Language group: Pitjantjatjara, Yankunyjatjara

Ngangkari ngura (healing country) 2024 ink on paper 76 x 112cm Represented by Jan Murphy Gallery

Uwa ngangkarilta ngayulu. Uwa ngangkariku painta kutjuna palyalpai. Yes, I am a ngangkari healer, and it is as a ngangkari that I paint. My artworks are about ngangkari, what it feels like and what it means to be ngangkari, so they’re really important to me. I love making paintings — thinking, feeling and moving around, following my thoughts and ideas. I’ve painted rockholes and the water flowing through the landscape, from one rockhole to another. I paint the water flowing, creating movement across the canvas, just like the energy that flows through people and places — it’s invisible to most people but ngangkari like me can see spirits and feel a lot of different energy. Ngangkari means traditional healer or traditional healing practices.

BALWALDJA WANAPA MUNUŊGURR b. 1968 Waṉḏawuy, Northern Territory. Lives and works in Garrthalala, Northern Territory Language group: Yolŋu Matha

Welcome to my homeland 2024 fibre-tipped pen on paper 178 x 183cm Represented by Buku-Larrnggay Mulka 68

Since the mid-1990s Balwaldja Wanapa Munuŋgurr has been the backbone of the Buku Art Crew. They are the team of men who work hard every day to keep the Yirrkala Art Centre running. They drive out bush to cut ṉuwuyak (bark) in the wet season and larrakitj (memorial poles) in the dry and collect earth pigments from known sites. They prepare the barks for painting and make custom aluminium frames to hang them. A big part of this job involves driving out to remote homelands to deliver supplies and collect artworks. Over the years Wanapa has helped countless artists and their artwork to travel safely to the Art Centre. Now retired, he captures the remote homelands and outstations of the Miwatj region in his drawings.

DOROTA MYTYCH b. 1970 Elblag, Poland. Lives and works in Naarm Melbourne and Krakow, Poland

16 portraits 2022 monoprint on paper 25 x 35cm (each)

In my series 16 portraits, I have extended my practice of challenging accepted grand narratives and probing the structures that underlie our political, social and personal identities. Illuminating the frailty and ephemerality of these systems, I hope to invite contemplation on their capacity for transformation. In the landscape of identity politics, this monoprint on paper series takes a stance by capturing the backs of women, omitting their faces to confront identity beyond the scrutinised visage. Steering the discourse toward essence rather than expectation, I hope for the viewer to consider the individual’s narrative expressed in the subtleties of their stance, and minute movements like universal yet personal markers of identity, such as a strand of hair, an earring or a slight neck bend. 16 portraits is a contemplative rebellion against the commodification of female appearance, a powerful affirmation of personhood that resonates with my interest in the fluid nature of societal roles and individual identity.

GAVIN NAMARNYILK b. 1987 Gunbalanya, Northern Territory. Lives and works in Gunbalanya, Northern Territory Language group: Kunwinjku

Marlwa the pandanus spirit 2024 ochres on Arches® paper 51 x 38cm Represented by Injalak Arts and Crafts

Marlwa is the pandanus spirit who lives in the palms and forested areas of western Arnhem Land. There are many, particularly around the Coopers Creek area, and they are said to feast on the raw fish they hunt in the river. It is dangerous to go to his place. If he sees you, he uses a fine needle attached to a line of string that he can shoot at you and then pull you into his grasp. He will make you go mad and your body will become covered in hair and you are left forever wandering around the bush, lost. Sometimes, Marlwa will appear in the form of a white horse or an emu, rolling his eyes and chasing people, or stalking bush camps, circling round and round the bark huts people traditionally lived in.

LORRAINE NAMARNYILK b. 1979 Gunbalanya, Northern Territory. Lives and works in Gunbalanya, Northern Territory Language group: Kunwinjku

Yirrkku (the Australian water rat, Hydromys Chrysogaster) lives in the water and finds its prey there. It eats wakih (freshwater shrimp), small fish like dilebang (rainbowfish) and any other animals that die and rot in the water. We see yirrkku in lots of different areas, hunting at night or even in rivers and billabongs at daytime. We don’t hunt yirrku these days; it’s not very good eating. Perhaps the Old People used to eat it sometimes.

Yirrkku (water rat) 2023 acrylic on Arches® paper 76 x 51cm Represented by Injalak Arts and Crafts

GLEN NAMUNDJA b. 1963 Gunbalanya, Northern Territory. Lives and works in Gunbalanya, Northern Territory Language group: Kunwinjku

Manimunak (magpie goose) 2024 ochres on Arches® paper 51 x 38cm Represented by Injalak Arts and Crafts 72

Here in Gunbalanya there is a big billabong. In the wet season it overflows and fills the floodplain. Then we see the grasses growing tall, and manimunak (magpie geese, Anseranas semipalmata) come and make nests from modjdje (spike rushes) and mankurladj (water chestnuts). This is where they lay their eggs. These are also the plants that manimunak eat. We collect the eggs and eat them in the wet season, and also hunt magpie geese for their meat. Magpie geese are important animals for us Bininj (Aboriginal people) and can be found on floodplains in many clan countries. In Gunbalanya there is a magpie goose Dreaming site on the top of Arrkuluk Hill. Manimunak nest on the ground during Kudjewk, the monsoon season. They are distinctive looking birds, with the males having a large bump on the top of their heads. Flocks can be seen overhead flying in V-configurations and honking as they search for sites to nest. The eggs are sought after as food, as are the geese. Traditionally the geese were hunted with sticks. Hunters would approach the flock from different sides and then scare the birds. The stick would be thrown as the disturbed birds flew into the air.

JOEY NGANJMIRRA b. 1980 Gunbalanya, Northern Territory. Lives and works in Gunbalanya, Northern Territory Language group: Kunwinjku

Namarnkol (barramundi) 2023

This work depicts Namarnkol, the barramundi, which is a very important fish for us Bininj (Aboriginal people). Namarnkol are found in the ocean, in floodwaters and in freshwater billabongs, rivers and creeks. In the old days, people used to spear them with djalakirradj (three-pronged fish spears) and walabi (traditional triangular nets). Nowadays, we catch them with fishing lines and modern nets. Namarnkol are most easily caught from the end of the monsoon (March to April) until the humid build-up season (October to November). There are sites in lots of clan countries where the ancestral Barramundi placed itself as a Dreaming. Men and women will say, ‘My Dreaming is Barramundi, it placed itself in my country’.

ochres on Arches® paper 61 x 20.5cm Represented by Injalak Arts and Crafts

CAMERON ROBBINS b. 1963 Naarm Melbourne. Lives and works on Dja Dja Wurrung Country, Castlemaine, Victoria

Solar structure 6hrs before the storm 2023 titanium oxide ink on hand-inked 360gsm watercolour paper 80 x 80cm Represented by MARS Gallery

I produce site-specific, mechanical sculptures that are also drawing instruments, tapping into and revealing the Earth’s natural forces such as solar power and wind energy. My instruments work kinetically, involving mechanical systems attuned to turbulent weather systems and other environmental energy sources, sensing and visualising their invisible energies through a vortex of lines. Solar structure 6hrs before the storm was made in my studio at Castlemaine. Over 6hrs, sunlight — punctuated by gathering cloud cover and finally a storm front — motivated a solar powered drawing instrument to help create this work. The Helio Ephemera drawing instrument channels the sporadic oscillations of atmospheric solar energy and cloud cover. Dynamic, rhythmic and stochastic marks accumulate upon the slowly revolving drawing board, the specially formed drawing wires and mechanical systems giving the instrument a certain freedom of expression. It gives rise to an endless variety of forms as the drawing motor stops and starts depending upon the air quality, clouds and shade conditions.

ANNIKA ROMEYN b. 1986 Ngambri and Ngunnawal Country Canberra. Lives and works on Ngambri and Ngunnawal Country Canberra

Wana Karnu 2024 ink and rust on paper 240 x 360cm Represented by Flinders Lane Gallery

The large-scale, multi-panel work Wana Karnu continues my engagement with Mutawintji National Park, Barkindji and Malyangapa Country (NSW), where I spent time in 2022 and 2023, gaining greater appreciation for the place through walks with Wiimpatja. The landscape of Mutawintji is rich with shades of iron oxide and ‘rock rust’. In response, I created a burnt orange ‘ground’ by transferring rust from steel to damp paper with time and contact. I reused a single sheet of mild steel, capturing unpredictable marks and traces of transformation at different moments in an ongoing chemical weathering process. Working into the rust transfers with brush and ink, I inscribed a tangle of Cypress pine atop a section of Wana Karnu ridgeline. Wana Karnu (Boomerang Rock) is both a place name and a geological group characterised by pebbly sandstone and conglomerate rock, deposited by a vast braided river system some 419 million years ago. 75

JOSHUA SEARLE b. 1998 Kananook Frankston, Victoria. Lives and works on Bunurong Country, Tootgarook

Wall of gold 2024 aerosol on paper paste-up 300 x 420cm

Wall of Gold is a protest to what I refer to as ‘stolen gold’ — both the literal and metaphoric gold taken by the process of colonisation. The gold mask depicted in this work was made around 1000–1500 CE by the Quimbaya, one of the many Indigenous peoples of South America. Now held in the British Museum, it is illustrated in Michael Grey’s canonical text Pre-Columbian Art (1978). The repeated image of the mask painted by me is replicated in the contemporary paste-up practice historically used in political activism to draw attention to the practices of institutional collecting and impact of colonisation. The colours red, yellow and blue combine to create the Colombian flag and are also a part of my own protest and an ongoing process of reclamation of my own identity as part of the colonial diaspora.

DARRELL SIBOSADO b. 1966 Marapikurrinya Port Hedland, Western Australia. Lives and works in Marapikurrinya Port Hedland, Western Australia Language group: Bardi

Barrinvbarr, Galalan, Gumiri 2024 etching 70 x 50cm Represented by N.Smith Gallery

Darrell Sibosado is a Goolarrgon Bard man from Lombadina situated on the Dampier Peninsula of the Kimberley coast, Western Australia. His practice explores the innovative potential of the riji (pearl shell) designs within a contemporary context. The designs represent the detached scales of Aalingoon, the Rainbow Snake, as he rests on the ocean surface, shedding his scales containing traditional knowledge and beliefs. ‘ These symbols are passed down through the men’s line… we all use them and make our own versions of them. As we go further down the line with our sons and grandsons, you can see whose grandchild it is from the designs.’ Using ochre ink to magnify the natural luminescence of riji designs, Darrell’s work relates to his monumental installation commissioned by Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain for the Biennale of Sydney.

CYRUS TANG b. 1969 Hong Kong, China. Lives and works in Naarm Melbourne

Embrace-mother 2024 cyanotype on rice paper, HD video 80 x 120cm Represented by Arc One Gallery

In this project, I explore the expression of affection in specific cultural context, looking at social customs and etiquette in Confucianism across different generations and under the Western cultural influence. I explore my awareness of the personal and social space I encounter in my life in Australia and its openness to interaction, brought into contrast with my Chinese sensibility and familial habits of impassive, remote encounters. This project occurred in Hong Kong where I previously lived. I wore a handmade rice paper costume that was coated with cyan solution. I invited each of my family members to leave their body marks on the costume that I wore. Each family member made their physical contact with me by hugging or touching my body for a period of time, allowing the body marks to be left on the rice paper.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia.

AUGUSTA VINALL RICHARDSON b. 1991 Naarm Melbourne. Lives and works in Naarm Melbourne

Crushing rectangles 2023 paper, steel, paper tape 180 x 188 x 30cm Represented by The Commercial

To me, paper is the procurer of ideas. Lines and thoughts moving across a plane. This work is a sketch, a thought in motion. Crammed one on top of the other, the brown kraft paper boxes create an expectation (of order and capacity) through their shape. They could be a tool for organisation or a unit of measure but defy that through their materiality. They are made from a porous, easily crumpled and marked material that begins decaying as soon as it is produced. Like a newborn, a sheet of paper seems perfect, pure — not part of a finite life cycle, but through this inevitability its uses and function prove more stunning and worthwhile. I was interested in capturing the instability and sense of collapse of the paper boxes, after originally attempting stiff crisp shapes. This nonprecious material permits much experimentation within its usage, allowing process, form and material to be interwoven.

IMAGE TO COME

GIDJA WALKER OAM b. 1957 Bunurong Country, St Andrews Beach. Lives and works on Bunurong Country, St Andrews Beach

Warringine at low tide 2024 grass paper, grass tree sap, sand, acrylic collage 30 x 60cm

I enjoy making paper from Indigenous plants from my garden. Every piece is different, its patterns and textures can’t be contrived, and the form takes on a life of its own as it dries. This piece spoke of Warringine, a place on the edge, nestled between the coastal woodlands and the waters of Warn Marin with aspects of both. A place threatened with climate-induced sea level rises. The ochres and grass tree sap enhance the mudflats in the work; mixed with acrylic paint and collage, the mangroves lie exposed at low tide. The saltmarsh is a meadow of red saltiness after the dry summer, the edges of the stranded ponds green with young annuals and succulents. The reeds have started to flower while the grassland is dry. Sedgelands and swamp paperbark are golden in the afternoon light. The waders have migrated but the residents remain.

TRICKY WALSH b. 1974 Brayakaulung Country, Moe, Victoria. Lives and works in wulawali New Norfolk, Tasmania

The weight of things 2022 acrylic gouache and acrylic on 640gsm paper 300 x 780cm Represented by MARS Gallery

The weight of things is a science fiction story about a world like ours that kept producing and hoarding too much information, about how that affected the information that existed first, including the parts that make up DNA. In this world, information is the next new state of matter, after liquids, solids, gases and plasma. But it’s also a ravenous and invasive thing that tries to take over any space it can find. And it’s heavy. It changes the way that gravity behaves, and it coats everything that stands still long enough with a thick invisible snow. It’s something about the way that it accumulates, about how its bits and bytes grow and replicate themselves under enthusiastic care. Like one copy of a cat video turning into a hundred thousand copies in the blink of an eye, or the swipe of a finger on a screen. The weight of things is hidden behind a wall of bright colours. It moves like a virus, touching one and then ten and then a hundred and then more. It might be a metaphor. It’s almost certainly a cautionary tale, but it’s definitely a little bit more than a painting; scan the app and you’ll see it come to life. 81

ROSIE WEISS b. 1958 Naarm Melbourne. Lives and works on Bunurong Country, Capel Sound

Be tender 2024 pencil, Chinese and pigmented ink 38 x 28.5cm each

I find plant fragments on the edges of human activity and use them as starting points to make work about our relationship to the natural world. Trying to make sense of what is happening in Palestine and with other political and environmental crises, I started to make small works that were more immediate than usual, and this triptych was born. I wanted to find a few words to act as a kind of antidote, something to calm the heart. Be tender does that: its very gentleness gives me hope. When I arranged the works into groups, I found I’d made a series of shrouds. I’ve placed one of these next to a skeletal fern remnant I found in my garden, and finally one of the structure works: where I wrote ‘tender’ months ago, waiting for the right ‘be’.

CYRIL WHYOULTER b. 1985 Marapikurrinya Port Hedland, Western Australia. Lives and works in Parnngurr, Western Australia Language group: Kartujarra

Untitled 2023 gouache on watercolour on paper 57 x 75.5cm

‘ I like painting. It’s a good way to learn from the old people and keep the stories going.’ Cyril Whyoulter is one of the most dynamic and exciting practitioners to emerge from the youngest generation of Martumili Artists. He, like his contemporaries, began to paint with his parents, grandparents and extended family, thus fostering an organic process of learning not only about painting techniques but also specific locations, family histories, traditional ways of life, and Jukurrpa (Dreaming). He has been a key driving force behind a number of major collaborative projects that have promoted the transfer of cultural knowledge through visual arts, including exhibitions Pujiman (desert dwelling) 2020 and Wantili (clay pan, Canning Stock Route, Well 25) 2018.

Represented by Martumilli Artists 83

LAURA WILLS b. 1981 Tarndanya Adelaide. Lives and works in Tarndanya Adelaide

Community tree portrait 2022 (detail) pastel and pigment ink on rag paper and book pages 600 x 250cm

Community tree portrait celebrates trees and community. It began as a commission to create a participatory art project for the 2021 Nature Festival. People were invited to share a photo of themselves and their favourite tree. These photographs were drawn digitally and tiled together during the festival then shared via social media to @communitytreeportrait. The online and digital drawing then grew, then was printed in real life to create a six-metre-high tree made from over 150 individual tiles and submitted photographs. The remaining 850 ‘tiles’ are drawn into pages from Australian nature and environment books. The work is a large-scale drawing over multiple pieces that speaks of interconnectedness and relationships.

JOEL WOLTER b. 1978 Djilang Geelong, Victoria. Lives and works on Wadawurrung Country, Barwon Downs, Victoria

Silent tides (pull me home) 2023

Silent tides continues the exploration of the natural environment, the sea and the coastline where I live and work. Tides and waves move through the work and the sea is met with echoes of humanity traversing the forces of nature and time. The viewer is met with swelling questions, such as what might happen beyond the moment that is suggested, when the stormy seas and the peak of the tide has passed, for now anyway. Additionally, what forces led the voyager depicted in the foreground to this point in time, and what type of climate will the traveller face beyond the crest of the wave?

etching 56 x 76cm

DHOPIYA YUNUPIŊU b. 1950 Miwatj region, Northern Territory. Lives and works in Yirrkala, Northern Territory Language group: Yolŋu Matha

Djärritjarri 2024 earth pigments on paper 121.5 x 81.5cm Represented by Buku-Larrnggay Mulka

Galiku is material used for dancing. Yirritja people — men, women, children — wear it during Garma and other times for funerals, or the kids dancing at school. It’s special. We Gumatj identify ourselves with yellow fabric. Inside the Galiku is cotton and if you tear it off you see the threads. This reminds us of our Gurrutu (kinship matrix). Galiku is the material that makes the flags and the sails of the praus. Our dance and song celebrate the north wind, which brings those boats carrying our family back to us. It sings the wind, which snatches at the flags, makes them climb and fly and then frays them and finally whips them away as it becomes the cyclone. The material relates to the seafaring Makassan family members whose centuries-old visits and settlements defined the economy and society of Yolŋu.

DJAKAŊU YUNUPIŊU b. 1949 Miwatj region, Northern Territory. Lives and works in Yirrkala, Northern Territory Language group: Yolŋu Matha

Gurmilili — tears of the Djulpan 2024 earth pigments on paper 179 x 184cm

Every April as the wet season recedes, the constellation Djulpan appears in the west as the sun sets. Otherwise known as the Big Dipper, this constellation shows a man in a canoe with a spear raised to strike. Three Dhuwa brothers are pursuing the Djulpan sisters of the marriageable opposite moiety. They are seen as the Plaeides, which sits in front of the prow of that canoe. The appearance of these stars marks the start of Miḏawarr season. This is the time to harvest all the food ripened and enriched by the monsoon. As the sisters disappear over the northern horizon, their cooking fire is visible as particular cloud shapes. If fires are lit before this the Djulpan will become sad and jealous and cry. Their tears in the form of unseasonal rain will extinguish the presumptuous fires. Tears of the rain are known from the songs as Nyalala Gurmilili.

Represented by Buku-Larrnggay Mulka

National Works on Paper

A Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery exhibition 31 August — 24 November 2024

2024 Judges

Lisa Waup, Artist, NWOP 2022 Finalist Erica Green, Director, Samstag Museum of Art, University of South Australia Trent Walter, Director, Negative Press Dunja Rmandić, Curator—Exhibitions, MPRG

Acting Director, Curator—Exhibitions, MPRG:

Dunja Rmandić

NWOP Co-ordinating Registrar:

Angie Taylor

NWOP Assistant:

Hannah Searing

NWOP Curator and Gallery Support:

Leah Ferguson

Marketing and Publications Coordinator:

Rowena Wiseman

Public Programs Coordinators:

Jane German, Lachie Petrie

Education Officer:

Jill Anderson

Visitor Experience and Retail Coordinator:

Lori Hakim

MPRG Registrar — Collections & Research:

Ainsley Gowing

Exhibition Installers:

Marni Howard, Sunny Scott, Paul Nuttney and Neil Williams

Design:

Alter

Editor:

Vanessa Pellatt

Printing:

IVE

2024 Edition of 500

ISBN: 978-0-6455509-1-7

© The authors and Mornington Peninsula Shire All artwork titles are printed as submitted by the artists. All photos have been provided by the artists unless otherwise stated. Authorised by Manager, Arts, Culture and Community, Mornington Peninsula Shire.

BORI BENKŐ EMMA BINGHAM TOM BLAKE YVONNE BOAG ANTHEA BOESENBERG SOLOMON BOOTH ASHLEIGH BRIGGS HARRIETTE BRYANT ROLAND BURRUNALI JANE BURTON JACKY CHENG OLGA CIRONIS MAREE CLARKE MATTHEW CLARKE CAROLYN CRAIG ZOË CROGGON NICI CUMPSTON MEL DEERSON and BRIONY GILLIGAN STANLEY EBATARINJA MATTHEW FEDER EMILY FERRETTI ROBERT FIELDING DAVID FRAZER KIRSTEN GARNER LYTTLE DEANNE GILSON JULIA GORMAN EDWINA GREEN BLAKE GRIFFITHS AMALA GROOM MANDY GUNN JOE GUYMALA GRACIA HABY and LOUISE JENNISON D HARDING GAIL HASTINGS SIRI HAYES

HIRATANAO NAOMI HOBSON ELEESA HOWARD ALANA HUNT LOCUST JONES KIEREN KARRITPUL MARTIN KING BARBIE KJAR JENNA LEE NILOUFAR LOVEGROVE KYRA MANCKTELOW MATTI MATTI DAN MCCABE JENNIFER MILLS BETTY MUFFLER BALWALDJA WANAPA MUNUŊGURR DOROTA MYTYCH GAVIN NAMARNYILK LORRAINE NAMARNYILK GLEN NAMUNDJA JOEY NGANJMIRRA CAMERON ROBBINS ANNIKA ROMEYN JOSHUA SEARLE DARRELL SIBOSADO CYRUS TANG AUGUSTA VINALL RICHARDSON GIDJA WALKER OAM TRICKY WALSH ROSIE WEISS CYRIL WHYOULTER LAURA WILLS JOEL WOLTER DHOPIYA YUNUPIŊU DJAKAŊU YUNUPIŊU