A major exhibition of Australian Indigenous art – the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award – Celebrating 20 Years, opens its Australian tour at the National Archives in Canberra on Wednesday, 21 April 2004 at 6 pm.
The exhibition will be opened by the Artistic and Cultural Director of the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Franchesca Cubillo, at the Archives on Queen Victoria Terrace.
A media preview will be held at 10.30 am on Wednesday morning. At the preview, Franchesca Cubillo and curator Margie West will be available for interview and photographs.
Sponsored by Telstra, and presented by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, the exhibition comprises a selection of the finest works from the 20 th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA) and winning works acquired from the 18 th and 19 th Awards.
The Director-General of the National Archives, Ross Gibbs, said that it was fitting that the Archives was chosen as the first venue on the exhibition’s national tour.
‘The Archives’ collection of Indigenous records is a rich repository for Aboriginal people today, often revealing their family history through names, letters and stories dormant in the Archives files’, Mr Gibbs said.
‘In the same way, each of the works in the exhibition tells a story too. They’re social documents, connecting traditional and contemporary worlds, and capturing particular moments, interpretations and reflections’, he said.
‘And so there is a real nexus between the black and white pages of the Archives files and the vibrant colours of the paintings on display’, he said.
With vivid reds, cobalt blues, passionate pinks and brooding browns, the works have energised the gallery walls of the Archives with dramatic splashes of colour.
Both innovative and conventional, the paintings, 3D and multimedia works illustrate the exciting developments in contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art over the past three years and show just why Australian Indigenous art has become so popular worldwide.
On show in the exhibition are the first prize winning works for each of the last three years. Urban artist Richard Bell’s 2003 winner Scientia E Metaphysica (Bell’s Theorem) recalls the gestural wild sweeps of Pollock, and the manic colour extravagance of Warhol. The 2002 winner is the powerful and intricately painted memorial pole titled Birrkuda Ringgitji Hollow Log by Arnhem Land artist Gawirrin Gumana, and the winning work from 2001 is the mesmerising, monochromatic painting titled Salt on Mina Mina by Central Australian artist Dorothy Napangardi.
Certain to capture attention is Craig Koomeeta’s striking hand carved Saltwater Crocodile along with Fiona Foley’s graceful 3D aluminium work titled 9 Mangrove Pods and Barry Bellotti’s exquisitely carved emu egg.
Adding an exciting new dimension to Indigenous art is the delicate fine-lined Syaw-Fish Net by Territory based artist Regina Wilson (2003 winner of Telstra General Painting Award), which is a translation of 3D weaving into a painting.
The exhibition will enrich the Archives until 25 July 2004.