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key indigenous australian issues
| home | news lView on the Seine is Aboriginalby Emma-Kate Symons 9 September 2005 - IT seems to be an era of reverse imperialism on the banks of the River Seine. At the bustling construction site of the Musee du Quai Branly, Jacques Chirac's expansive dream of a museum in the heart of Paris dedicated to non-Western art from Oceania, Africa, Asia and the Americas, Australian Aborigines are conquering the Europeans. Taking centre stage on the concrete floor of an unfinished wing of the museum this week was an artist in temporary residence, former Clemenger Contemporary Art Award winner John Mawurndjul. Feted by the French press (a special program was devoted to his work at the museum on France2 television yesterday), visited frequently by museum management, curators and architects, and guest of honour at a function at Australian ambassador Penny Wensley's residence behind the nearby Eiffel Tower, the acclaimed bark painter and sculptor is oblivious to the hum of distractions when The Australian interrupts his work. Sitting bent over his work, Mawurndjul is laboriously cross-etching with delicate strokes of ochre a striking pillar that will be visible from the facing rue de l'Universite, where the works of eight leading Aboriginal artists will be displayed next June, when the museum is scheduled to open. Above him are the swirling outlines of the vast ceiling painting he will supervise in coming weeks. "But I don't want [to] talk about that now," he says with a somewhat ferocious smile, before lighting up a contemplative cigarette and quickly resuming his work. The Quai Branly's 1000sqm of painted ceilings will be a central feature of this vast and ambitious cultural project, in keeping with the vision of French architect Jean Nouvel, who first proposed they be created by Aboriginal artists. Mawurndjul, who was born in Arnhem Land among the Kuninjku people, only has eyes for his half-painted column, suspended across the concrete floor of what will be the museum bookshop. "I feel my heart is in a lot of it," he says quietly. So where did the inspiration for this work come from and what did it represent? "One place," he says proudly of his country. "Dilebang." The Australian project at the Quai Branly is the fruit of a complex collaboration between Nouvel, the French and Australian governments, the National Gallery of Australia, the Australia Council and Australian architecture firm Cracknell & Lonergan. Australia put in more than $300,000 in funding and the project has grown so large, it may be considered worthy of a separate opening when the museum is finished next year. Prime Minister John Howard, who has responded positively to Chirac's personal letter seeking support for the project, is expected to fly to Paris to attend the event, museum officials said this week. According to the latest promotional material, the museum will be "an embassy for Australian indigenous art, a showcase for Aboriginal civilisation in the heart of Paris, demonstrating that Aboriginal culture is vibrant and dynamic, ageless and contemporary." Museum president Stephane Martin says the concept fits well with the French President's misgivings about the teaching of art and history in Europe. "Chirac, since he was pretty young, had always been concerned by the fact that in Europe [we] teach the history of the world from a Western or European point of view," he says. The museum of "contemplation, discovery and research", incorporating four buildings and about 5000 permanent works, is running six months behind schedule. The museum has yet to raise E350,000 ($565,000) to complete the Australian section, which has a E1.05 million budget. "The building should be finished by Christmas and the opening is scheduled now for June 2006," Martin says. "It has been doing quite well. We are a little bit late on the schedule but it is not so much. The project remains very close to what the architect designed in the first place, which is always good news, including from the financial part of the adventure. Very often there is a strong change between what was initially decided and what is realised, but his ideas were very clear." There is a sense of urgency in the building, where the painted ceilings, columns and street facades of printed photography on glass by Australian indigenous artists will be on startling view from the facing street. The vision of the Australian curators, the NGA's Brenda Croft and Hetti Perkins of the Art Gallery of NSW, in conjunction with French curator Philippe Peltier, is an indigenous art component that will remain forever at the Quai Branly. "Brenda and Hetti jokingly say that we're colonising this building," Australian architect Peter Lonergan says. "We call it the Australian building. The way we thought best to protect the total curatorial concept was to make the works inseparable from the building. If you want to take them away you have to demolish the building." The Australian painters involved are Lena Nyadbi (Western Australia), Paddy Nyunkuny Bedford (WA), Judy Watson (Queensland), Gulumbu Yunupingu (Northern Territory), John Mawurndjul (NT), Tommy Watson (WA), Ningura Napurrula (NT) and Michael Riley (NSW), who died in 2003. Mawurndjul relishes his growing reputation in Europe as an exciting contemporary artist who is better known for the abstraction of his work than for depictions of his traditional knowledge. As he prepares for his first retrospective, in Basel in a few weeks, he is playing a more hands-on role than most of the other Aboriginal artists who will be represented at Quai Branly. "His level of involvement is quite different from [that of] the other artists," says Apolline Kohen, the French-born, Arnhem Land-based director of Maningrida Arts and Culture, which represents Mawurndjul. "He said, 'I really want to see the building before I make any decision about it.' [He is] one artist who was basically doing something that was not just a reproduction, so everybody was happy about this idea. He wanted to fully participate." Martin says the local art world is impressed by Mawurndjul's extraordinary output and dedication. "His reputation is as an artist who is not interested in releasing too many of his pieces," he says. "At first when we saw his name on the list [proposed by the Australian curators], everyone said: 'Well, John will never produce such a huge amount of painting.' "Not only is he doing that, but he worksin conditions that are not the best hecan dream of, and he seems to accept it very well." Source: The Australian Taking Arnhem Land to the world by James Button European Correspondent 11 September 2005 - A BUNCH of smartly dressed French journalists are chatting among themselves outside the Australian embassy in Paris. The man they've come to see, John Mawurndjul, stands shyly to one side in white T-shirt and black jeans, sunglasses pushed back into his wild hair, dust on his boots. The dust is from a building site two blocks away, where Mawurndjul, one of Australia's leading bark painters, is producing two works for what will be the largest and most remarkable permanent collection of Aboriginal art on display outside Australia. Next June, France will open its long-awaited museum of world indigenous art. Some specialists believe the Musee du Quai Branly, a pet project of French President Jacques Chirac, will change the way the world looks at Aboriginal art. The museum will feature more than 300,000 artworks and artefacts from Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Americas. But what makes Australia's contribution unique is that, at the request of architect Jean Nouvel, eight specially made Aboriginal works will be embedded in its walls, ceilings and windows. It is a mix of ancient and modern forms that will show, according to the museum's managing director Stephane Martin, that Aboriginal art is alive, both "ageless and contemporary". Spearheads and Cicatrices, a work by Kimberley artist Lena Nyadbi, will be engraved into the four-storey concrete facade. Inside the museum, an expected 5 million visitors a year will pass photos by the late Michael Riley etched onto a glass wall. A painting by 70-year-old Pitjantjatjara man Tommy Watson will be set into a stainless steel ceiling. The works will even be lit at night so they are visible from the street. Artist Judy Watson has said it is as if the artists are "swallowing" the building. "What is very important," says art historian and Parisian Aboriginal art dealer Stephane Jacob "is that the Aboriginal painters will probably be the only living contemporary artists displayed in the museum. That is because, of all indigenous cultures, only Aboriginal art — and perhaps the Inuit of Canada — has such a mix of tradition and modernity." "People tend to put Aboriginal art in a box," says Australia's ambassador to France, Penelope Wensley. "When they think of it, they think of a crocodile or a fish on a bark painting — very beautiful but connected to anthropology. These works (in the new museum) should be seen in aesthetic terms, as beautiful works of mainstream international art." In 2001, President Chirac asked the Australian Government to support the inclusion of Aboriginal art in the museum. In 2003, curators Hetti Perkins of the NSW Art Gallery and Brenda Croft of the National Gallery in Canberra began commissioning the works. Mawurndjul, 53, is in Paris this week to paint a wooden column for the museum bookshop and to prepare for his first major retrospective next week in Basle, Switzerland. In a brief speech in his Kuningkju language at the embassy, he said his paintings were about the power of ceremony and water. Then he returned to the museum and his column. Working silently and with a steady hand, Mawurndjul painted each line a millimetre from the last. Frenchwoman Apolline Kohen, who manages Arnhem Land's Maningrida Arts Centre, says there are about 700 artists in the Maningrida area who produce 10,000 artworks a year. The culture is likely to become better known with the new museum. As one of the artists, Gulumbu Yunupingu, said: "These are my stories in Paris forever, when I am gone. From the Yolgnu people of this planet for all the people, no matter what colour or tongue they are speaking." Source: The Age related links :
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