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Indigenous roots with a touch of the blues

By Lenny Ann Low

Aboriginal art at the Musee du Quai Branley

3 December 2004 - In sharp suits, mirrored shades and inky black hats, they might have been a couple of old blues artists. But touring the Art Gallery of NSW yesterday, Paddy Nyunkuny Bedford and his friend and relative Rammy Ramsey were in town to see the future of Australian contemporary indigenous art in Paris.

Bedford, a Gija elder from the Warmun region in the East Kimberley, is one of eight indigenous Australian artists - four women and four men - selected to exhibit work at a major new museum in Paris, the Musee du quai Branly. Described as the largest international commission of contemporary indigenous art, the work will be incorporated into the facade, interior walls and ceilings of one of the museum's four buildings.

Bedford, 83, travelled thousands of kilometres from his home, in Kununurra in Western Australia, to the meeting of artists, organisers and curators involved in the landmark project.

His work will be transferred to glass panels via a sandblasting technique.

"I paint my country, my grandfather's country" he said, waving his silver-tipped walking cane.

The Musee du quai Branly, a museum of ancient arts and civilisations, under construction on the banks of the Seine near the Australian embassy and the Eiffel Tower, is due to open in 2006.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

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