Photo Diary... Kunmanara Carroll and the Australian Tapestry Workshop
On the loom: Pamela Joyce and Cheryl Thornton weave Ilpili, 2021, Kunmanara Carroll.
Based in Pukatja and working from Ernabella Arts, Luritja, Pintupi and Pitjantjatjara artist Kunmanara Carroll is a creates paintings and ceramics that encompass the gravity of his deep knowledge of Country. His paintings display a sophisticated understanding of muted colour, gradual tone and meandering line. There is a striking agency to his paintings that reverberates through his use of rapid mark making.
Located near Kintore, on the way to Mount Leibig and Papunya, Carroll visited Ilpili is on a recent journey back to Country in April 2017. The design Carroll has created is part of the Seven Sisters story. The minyma kutjara (two women) story tells the tale of two women sitting down at a rock hole telling stories, while a wati (man) sits down behind a puli (boulder) watching the women.
For Australian Tapestry Workshop weavers Pamela Joyce, Chris Cochius and Cheryl Thornton, this tapestry presented challenges in relation to scale, as Carroll’s design is larger than the woven work. The weavers have concentrated on establishing the larger shapes within the work, focusing on the subtle tonal shifts, and using a painting sample (sent to the ATW by Carroll) to determine how they can translate his
mark-making into tapestry. With Carroll’s palette of only three colours, the weavers focused on subtle tonal shifts and transparencies. A video Zoom meeting between the weavers and Carroll aided both artist and weavers throughout this process of interpretation.
Ilpili was woven using 24 warp at 3 warps per cm with 7 strands of ATW wool and cotton yarn per bobbin.
Photography by Marie-Luise Skibbe.
Ilpili will be exhibiting as part of the JamFactory Icon 2021 exhibition Kunmanara Carroll: Ngaylu Nyanganyi Ngura Winki (I Can See All Those Places). The exhibition is showing in Gallery One at JamFactory Adelaide from 7 August - 26 September 2021 before touring nationally.
Alison Milyika, Kunmanara Carroll’s wife, speaks at the Cutting Off Ceremony for the tapestry at the Australian Tapestry Workshop, 2021.
On the loom: Pamela Joyce weaves Ilpili, 2021, Kunmanara Carroll.
Tapestry in progress at the Australian Tapestry Workshop: Ilpili, 2021, Kunmanara Carroll, woven by Pamela Joyce, Chris Cochius and Cheryl Thornton.
Ilpili Tapestry being removed from the loom at the Australian Tapestry Workshop, 2021.