North by North-West: Journey across the Northern Territory

Mon 9 Oct 2023

Through generations of artistic tradition from the Tiwi Islands, north of Darwin, journeying south to Ntaria (Hermannsburg) and sweeping across the southern Gibson desert, the exhibition ‘North by North-West’ at the Queensland Art Gallery traces the distinctive regional flavours that speak to both ancestral narratives and current social concerns.

The recognisable customary Tiwi style, Jilamara, which roughly translates to ‘good design’, is derived from body painting, decorative ceremonial bark baskets and parmajini (armbands). Its intricate patterning has been translated onto textiles and paper, and refined by each artist to reflect their aesthetic sensibilities, including the introduction of vibrant colour palettes (Jean Baptiste Apuatimi Tangini 2010 illustrated).

Jean Baptiste Apuatimi ‘Tangini’

Jean Baptiste Apuatimi lived on Malawu (Bathurst Island), off the coast of Darwin, where she was taught to paint traditional Tiwi designs by her husband, Declan. By the early 1980s, she had become a significant artist in her own right. In Tangini 2010, Baptiste Apuatimi represented the sticks that Tiwi artists either make into paintbrushes by chewing on their ends or are used as clapping sticks during ceremonies. The motifs in Tiwi paintings and prints are derived from ceremonial body painting and the elaborate designs applied to ritual objects the Tiwi make for Pukumani (mortuary ceremony), including tutini (mortuary poles) and yimawilini (bark baskets). Parmajini, which translates as ‘ceremonial armbands’, are worn for both Pukumani and Kulama (initiation/yam ceremony).

The Hermannsburg School artists, and the following generations who continue to paint though Iltja Ntjarra Many Hands Art Centre, create artworks in the tradition of acclaimed Arrernte watercolourist Albert Namatjira (1902–59). In ‘North by North-West’, the watercolour landscapes of the Hermannsburg School (Elton Wirri Palm Valley 2013 illustrated) are joined by the provocative series ‘Homeless on my Homeland’. This group of plastic bags (Noreen Hudson I live at YIPIRINYA HOSTEL 2018‑19 illustrated), often used for storing bedding and linen, are emblazoned with slogans that bring attention to the fraught social and economic conditions that many Indigenous people face in remote areas.

Elton Wirri ‘Palm Valley’

Elton Wirri is the son of artists Doris Abbott and Kevin Wirri (Tjapaltjarri), inheritors of the painting tradition founded by renowned watercolourist Albert Namatjira at Hermannsburg (Ntaria) in Central Australia. Wirri grew up in Kaltukatjara (Docker River), located some 200 kilometres west of Uluru, and today works from the Aboriginal-owned and directed Iltja Ntjarra Many Hands Art Centre.

In this painting, Wirri has depicted Palm Valley that is situated within the Finke Gorge National Park and is home to the red cabbage palm, from which the area takes its name. Palm Valley is a meandering landscape of sandstone amphitheatres, peaks and gorges, located some 140 kilometres west of Alice Springs.

Noreen Hudson ‘I live at YIPIRINYA HOSTEL’

In this artwork, Noreen Hudson foregrounds the Aboriginal Hostel, Ayiparinya, which was established in Alice Springs to support transient Indigenous peoples experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, homelessness.

Hudson has used an inexpensive nylon storage bag often associated with migrant and homeless populations, a symbol of displacement and hardship, as the canvas for her painting. On one side of the bag, she has included words of urgent protest in placard-style text, delivering an overt political statement about Aboriginal people’s struggles to find and retain suitable housing. On the other side, she has depicted a vibrant landscape featuring the distinctive contours of Rutjimpa (Mount Sonder), a significant landmark in her homeland in the West MacDonnell Ranges. Together, Hudson’s text and images coalesce to proudly ground her work and its messages in Country.

Bold and abstract paintings from the Western Desert create a visual impact through their large scale and strong symbology. Lightning 1998 and Wild Yam 1998 (illustrated) by senior desert artist Mr Jagamara feature motifs that were revisited throughout his celebrated career, offering an electric and vivid depictions of culturally significant narratives. The delicate, repeated lines in George Tjungurrayi’s Untitled (Mamultjulkulnga) 2007 (illustrated) have the effect of an optical illusion. This linework can be traced to a pivotal period in Pintupi and Western Desert painting, when hard concentric shapes were replaced with a repetition of straight lines, whether solid or dotted as seen here.

Kumantje Jagamara ‘Wild yam’

Despite the abstract form of Wild yam 1998, the painting is rich with content that references the foodstuff that is one of Kumantje Jagamara’s most important Dreaming stories. While the painting’s central circles and meandering lines represent the appearance and growth of the yam, the patterns refer simultaneously to related ceremonial activities. Concentric circles are a generic symbol for sites of significance, particularly in Desert Art.

George Tjungarrayi ‘Untitled (Mamultjulkulnga)’

In this expansive painting, George Tjungurrayi has depicted the claypan site known as Mamultjulkulnga, on the western side of Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay). Mamultjulkulnga is of great importance to the artist as his father passed away at the site. After the rain, this claypan becomes a large shallow freshwater lake, which provides ideal conditions for the prolific growth of the small fleshy sub-shrub Tecticornia verrucosa, known in Pintupi as ‘mungilypa’.

The delicate lines made by Tjungurrayi flow through the artwork, with each stroke of the artist’s brush subtly disrupting the solid lines to create a shimmering optical effect. These fine lines can be traced to a pivotal period in Pintupi and Western Desert painting, when hard concentric shapes were replaced with a repetition of straight lines, both solid and dotted.

Katina Davidson is Curator, Indigenous Australian Art, QAGOMA

North by North-West’ celebrates the diversity of styles, variety of forms and mediums, and the overarching desire to share and preserve culture demonstrated in the Gallery’s Collection by contemporary and historical artists alike, from these vast and remote regions of Australia.

‘North by North-West’ / Galleries 1 and 2, Queensland Art Gallery / 11 February 2023 – 2 March 2025