Exhibition Insight... Exchange
Dean Toepfer and Roslyn Orsto, Pupuni Punarika (Good Waterlily) (black); Pupuni Punarika (Good Waterlily) (blue), 2021, photographer: Dean Toepfer
Presenting a selection of creative collaborations and workshop outcomes, this exhibition showcases the vitality and diversity of First Nations artists who have worked with designers and skilled makers at JamFactory in various ways to produce design objects across JamFactory’s four specialised studio areas - furniture, ceramics, metal and glass. These works offer new ways of engaging with First Nations material, culture and storytelling and speak to the rich possibilities of deeper, ongoing exchange. The exhibited works are drawn from four key projects in which JamFactory worked with artists from six leading Aboriginal Art Centres - Bábbarra Designs, Ikunjti Artists, Ninuku Arts, Tiwi Design, Tjala Arts and Warmun Art centre.
TEXTILE AND FURNITURE COLLABORATIONS FOR TARNANTHI FESTIVAL
With support from the Art Gallery of South Australia, in the lead up to the 2021 Tarnanthi Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, JamFactory worked with three Art Centres across the Northern Territory to select three Indigenous textile artists to pair with three South Australian furniture and product designers affiliated with JamFactory. These six custom-designed chairs, upholstered in the artists’ fabrics, were exhibited at JamFactory as part of the city-wide Tarnanthi Festival.
The relationship between artists and designers strengthened over the course of the design and making process, with the artists sharing the stories of their fabric designs with the furniture designers to give them a connection to the project. As a result, the designers created the furniture pieces by reflecting on the artists’ stories, forming a true cultural and artistic exchange.
Raylene Bonson and Daniel Emma
Ndjébbana–Kuninjku textile artist Raylene Bonson specialises in the linocut printing technique and is renowned for her designs depicting ancestral stories and ceremonial objects, particularly lorrkkon (hollow log for burial ceremony), kunmadj (dillybag) and mandjabu (conical fishtrap). She was mentored by her late mother, Nancy Gununwanga, a senior textile artist at Bábbarra Designs and a founding member of the Bábbarra Women’s Centre. Her sophisticated silkscreened (paperbark canoe/makassan boat) fabric design was inspired by the story of her partner’s father, who travelled with other men from Nakalarramba across the river to Djomi and, upon finding fresh water, settled on the land that became Maningrida. Inspired by and keen to reflect life in and around Maningrida, Emma Aiston and Daniel To have designed foldable utilitarian loveseats that celebrate “the transportable nature of wubbunj and the thought that this is something that can be moved around and used with relative ease.”
Roslyn Orsto and Dean Toepfer
Tiwi artist Roslyn Orsto is renowned for her ochre paintings on canvas and paper that utilise the wooden comb technique. Her vibrant punarika (waterlily) textile design celebrates the presence of waterlilies in the lakes, ponds, rivers and running streams of her homeland as well as the integral role that the plants play in her community as both bush medicines and sources of nourishment. In realising a new form on which to display Rolsyn’s punarika designs, Dean Toepfer has created two armchairs with a minimalist aesthetic and finishes that depict Tiwi lore relating to the use and stories of punarika. “The first chair represents the calm and nurturing lakes and ponds where waterlilies provide bush medicines and food, while the second depicts the fire that the elders and traditional owners create to calm the Rainbow Serpent that rises if the waterlilies are taken without her permission”, Toepfer says. “Both chairs depict the balance and harmony that the traditional owners managed for millennia.”
Keturah Nangala Zimran and Caren Ellis
Luritja–Pintupi artist Keturah Nangala Zimran creates bold, strong and bright textile designs, with fabric selected for this project featuring contrasting colours that depict the sand hills and puli puli (rocks) in the landscape. When designing the form of the armchair, Caren Elliss was greatly attracted to the bold, strong and bright graphical nature of Keturah’s textile design. Resonating with the intergenerational stories of Keturah, her mother and grandmother, Elliss responded to Keturah’s fabric by focusing on curves, particularly those found in the movement of the wind in the sand hills and the shape of the rocks in the landscape. The circular form of the armchair and footrest enclose the sitter in a way that suggests being enveloped by Keturah’s country and offering comfort and safety. “I wanted the furniture to act as a visual anchor, a boulder-like form on which to wrap Keturah’s work and story around, providing a 3D interpretation and a continuance of the visual cues and movement found in Keturah’s work,” Elliss says.
Daniel Emma and Raylene Bonson, Love Bench With Back; Love Bench Without Back, 2021, photographer: Dean Toepfer
Dean Toepfer and Roslyn Orsto, Pupuni Punarika (Good Waterlily) (black); Pupuni Punarika (Good Waterlily) (blue), 2021, photographer: Dean Toepfer
Caren Elliss and Keturah Nangala Zimran, Boulder Chair; Boulder Footrest, 2021, photographer: Dean Toepfer
WALKA WARU GLASS PROJECT WITH NINUKU ARTS
The ongoing collaboration between JamFactory’s Glass Studio and Ninuku Arts was initiated in 2018 when a group of artists and board members from Ninuku Arts travelled to JamFactory for a professional visit and were amazed by the Glass Studio. The project was led by former art centre manager and JamFactory alumnus Mandi King. After returning to community (in Kalka, near the tri-state border of SA, WA and the NT in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands), the artists discussed with Mandi possible ways of working with glass.
The making process involves the Glass Studio preparing graals (blown glass bubble) and sending them to Kalka where the artists use enamel paints to create their design before sending the painted graal back to JamFactory. A team of glass-blowers then enlarge the graals into the specified shape, being respectful and honouring the individual artwork painted onto the surface. This collaboration has brought together and range of emerging and senior artists for whom painting on glass was a new way to experiment and expand their practice.
Angkaliya Nelson
Born: 1969
Language Group: Pitjantjara
Community: Western/Central Desert
Angkaliya Nelson was born in Ernabella Mission and grew up in Amata, South Australia, where she later married and raised two children. In the late 1970s, Angkaliya moved west to Pipalyatjara, near her parents’ country, with her family and brother, Sean Williamson. In addition to her paintings, Angkaliya is a highly skilled weaver, woodcarver and painter, and uses her artworks to tell stories of the Seven Sisters and Mamungara.
Monica Puntjina Watson
Born: 1943
Language Group: Pitjantjara
Community: Kalka, South Australia
Monica Puntjina Watson was born in 1943 at Pukara, an important and sacred rock hole in Western Australia. Pukara is one of the sites of the Wanampi tjukurpa, the water snake Dreamtime story. As a young girl, she walked from Western Australia to the community of Pukatja in South Australia, alongside her father and his three wives. The youngest of her father’s wives was prominent artist Wingu Tingima.
Monica worked in the craft room at Pukatja before marrying Wimitja Watson, a Ngangkari (traditional healer), and moving to Amata to raise a large family. During the late 1970s and the Homeland Movement, the Watson family returned to their traditional homelands and settled into the community of Pipalyatjara. Monica continues to live in Pipalyatjara today, where she is a much respected elder and one of Ninuku Arts’ leading artists. She is well known for her quirky use of vibrant colours and composition, often framing her paintings with an intricate border created by a plethora of colourful dot work.
Nyanu Watson
Born: 1951 Pukatja, South Australia
Community: Kalka, South Australia
Language: Pitjantjatjara
Nyanu Watson grew up at Pukatja (Ernabella) in north-west South Australia, and witnessed the changes brought about when the missionaries arrived in 1937. In the early 1970s, Nyanu left the mission for Kalka during the Homelands Movement, when the peoples from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in South Australia’s north-west border region returned to their country.
Nyanu is now a prominent member of the Kalka Community and is well known for her unique depictions of local wildlife, especially the Ngintaka (Lizard), Anumara (Caterpillar) and Kakalyalya (Cockatoo). She is also known for her involvement in the collaborative efforts of the renowned Tjanpi Desert Weavers.
Angkaliya Nelson, Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters Story), 2021. Image courtesy of JamFactory.
Monica Puntjina Watson, Pukara, 2021. Image courtesy of JamFactory.
Nyanu Watson, Tjulpu - Nyanu, 2021. Image courtesy of JamFactory.
VESSELS: HOLDING ONTO TJUKURPA CERAMICS WORKSHOP WITH TJALA ARTS
Tjala Arts is located in Amata, a community in far North West South Australia on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. The art centre is primarily known for their dramatic and colourful paintings, as well as the artists’ vibrant use of colour throughout different mediums, including weaving. In 2021, five artists visited JamFactory to participate in a Professional Development Workshop with JamFactory’s Ceramics Studio that was supported by the Australia Council for the Arts. The artists involved in this project had never worked with ceramics before.
With this in mind, the Ceramics Studio helped to guide the artists through the process of working in a new medium and encouraged them to utilise their established skills as painters and to include their painted motifs as they shifted from canvas to clay. The Ceramics Studio also supported and worked closely with the artists to ensure the artistic integrity of the work is translated across what was for them a new and fascinating medium for artistic and cultural expression.
Deborah Burton
Born: 1970
Language: Pitjantjatjara
Community: Amata, South Australia
Debra’s mother and father moved from Ernabella to Amata early 1960. Debra has been painting at Tjala Arts (formerly Minymaku Arts) since its inception in 1999. Debra enjoys experimenting with traditional subject matter in contemporary styles. Burtons dreaming is Tjala–Honey Ant, Ili–Wild Fig which comes from her mother’s country.
Beverly Burton
Born: 1970
Language: Pitjantjatjara
Community: Amata, South Australia
Beverly started painting later in life and has quickly established herself as a strong emerging artist at Tjala Arts. She comes from an influential family lineage of cultural leaders and artists. Her mother, Naomi Kantjuriny is known for her work with the Mitakiki Women’s Collaborative and as a traditional Ngangkari Healer. Her father, Kunmanara (Hector) Burton was a senior artist at Tjala Arts and as an elder revered as an extremely important caretaker of Anangu law and culture.
Beverly’s paintings are powerful and dynamic, her use of brush and choice of palette creates vibrants and movement across the canvas the way the landscape shifts and changes across her country.
Barbara Moore
Born: 1964
Language: Anmatyerre
Community: Amata, South Australia
Barbara grew up in Ti Tree in the Northern Territory, and moved to Amata to live with her husband. Barbara began to paint at Tjala Arts (formerly Minymaku Arts) in 2003, and is committed to her painting practice, working at Tjala Arts on a daily basis. Barbara's paintings are highly regarded in the indigenous arts sector, but are also gaining significant success in the in the non-indigenous art world as outstanding contemporary artworks in their own right. Her bold and confident command of large scale canvases, saw her receive the prestigious General Painting Award at the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award (Telstra Prize) in 2012. She has been a multiple finalist at the National Indigenous Art Awards at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and the Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
In November 2019 Barbara has her first solo show and residency at the Kluge Ruhe Collection of Aboriginal Art at the University of Virginia. Barbara's work is held in numerous prestigious collections in Australia and abroad.
Deborah Burton, Ngayuku ngura - My Country, 2021. Image courtesy of JamFactory.
Beverly Burton, Ngayuku ngura - My Country, 2021. Image courtesy of JamFactory.
Barbara Mbitjana Moore, Ngayuku ngura - My Country, 2021. Image courtesy of JamFactory.
COLLBORATE2020 WESFARMERS GIFT COMMISSION WITH WARMUN ART CENTRE
COLLBORATE2020 is a suite of vessels celebrating works of art in the Wesfarmers Collection by distinguished Gija artists, Mabel Juli, Patrick Mung Mung and Rammey Ramsey of the Warmun Art Centre, located in the East Kimberley region of far north Western Australia. Wesfarmers and Warmun have, over the last three decades, developed an enduring and supportive relationship.
Wesfarmers engaged JamFactory to design and produce high-end corporate gifts based on these powerful works of art in the collection and facilitated collaboration with each artist. The design and production of the limited edition, anodised aluminium vessels – which feature etched and hand-painted surface decoration – was led by JamFactory’s Co-Creative Directors Daniel To and Emma Aiston (aka Daniel Emma) and facilitated through JamFactory’s Jewellery and Metal Studio with metal spinning and anodising undertaken by specialised manufacturing partners.
Mabel Juli
Born: 1931
Language: Gija
Community: Warmun, Western Australia
Mabel Juli was born at Five Mile, near Moola Boola Station (south of Warmun) and is one of Australia’s most revered painters. Following the end of the station era in the East Kimberley, Mabel settled in Warmun, where she began painting in the 1980s under the encouragement of senior Warmun artists. Mabel is renowned for her refined black and white depiction of Garnkiny doo Wardel (Moon and Star), an important Ngarranggarni (Dreaming) story that explores forbidden love, kinship and the origins of human mortality.
Patrick Mung Mung
Born: 1944
Language: Gija
Community: Warmun, Western Australia
Patrick Mung Mung is the son of senior Gija leader and esteemed cross-cultural communicator George Mung Mung. In 1991 following his father’s death, it fell to Patrick to accompany his father’s carving Mary of Warmun to Canberra for display in the High Court of Australia. This occasion marked the beginning of a journey for Patrick which saw him taking on his father’s role of senior artist, law and culture man. Patrick started painting that same year and was instrumental in establishing the artist-and-community-owned art centre at Warmun in 1998.
Patrick’s work is influenced by the generation of Warmun artists who preceded him, but his depiction of the Purnululu National Park in pastel coloured ochres encompassed by rings of dotted bright white, is distinctly his own.
Rammey Ramsey
Born: 1941
Language group: Gija
Community: Bow River, Western Australia
Rammey Ramsey paints the stunning gorge country of the north west of Halls Creek in an area surrounding Elgee Cliffs. In his artwork, he depicts the places that are home to rock wallabies and the camping areas near waterholes. Images of cliffs, hills, river beds, rocks, waterholes, roads, stockyards and meeting places appear as distillations of important features of the landscape. Rammey paints in the Ngarranggarni (Dreaming) way. In technical terms, this means the mixing of wet in wet of two colours on the surface of the canvas to create the gestural strokes and rhythm of the brush; in spiritual terms, this is a way of representing the four elements of life: earth, wind, fire and water.
Mabel Yuli, Wardal and Garnkiny, 2020. Image courtesy of Wesfarmers.
Patrick Mung Mung, Purnululu, 2020. Image courtesy of Wesfarmers.
Rammey Ramsey, Stony Country, 2020. Image courtesy of Wesfarmers.