News Archive

Stunning paintings from the desert people of Australia fill the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery for the next two months.

And against this dramatic background, another form of art will be created.

Indigenous performer Richard Walley will team up with the Austrian classical string musicians, the Mandelbrot Duo, to compose, rehearse then perform in the Gallery new works for didgeridoo, violin and cello.

The work of the world-class performers is designed to bridge traditional Western European composition and ancient Indigenous music. It will be a unique opportunity to see artists at work as they create new music.

The collaboration has been commissioned for the UWA WINTERarts festival, to co-incide with NAICOD week. The musicians will be working in the Gallery from 11am to 1pm on 5, 6, 7 and 8 July and performing their composition on Sunday 10 July at 7pm.

In the meantime, the stars of the Gallery will be 100 paintings from 95 Indigenous artists, forming the exhibition Desert Country , from the Art Gallery of South Australia.

John Barrett-Lennard, Curatorial Director at LWAG , says the paintings in Desert Country are incredibly rich, visually and culturally, and with so much to say, and he encourages visitors to the Gallery to both look and listen.

"The Aboriginal art movement that originated in the central desert more than 30 years ago has transformed Australians' understanding of Aboriginal art and culture and I am very pleased that we are able to present these great works in Perth," he said.

The Gallery is the first venue in a national tour. It is the first exhibition to chart the evolution of Australia's most influential art movement, revealing the extraordinary development of the Australian desert painting movement and the flourishing cross-cultural relationships between Aboriginal artists working in the desert regions of South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Through its dynamic paintings, Desert Country showcases the enormous diversity of desert art. Among the highlights are powerful works by Pitjantjatjara artists, mapping the devastated lands that they were forced to vacate during the atomic bomb and rocket testing of the 1950s.

Art Gallery of South Australia Director Nick Mitzevich says, "Without a doubt, desert painting is Australia's single most significant contribution to the art world and it deserves to be celebrated. We are extremely pleased to be able to share this collection with the rest of Australia."

Nici Cumpston, the Curator of the exhibition, hopes that beyond its artistic goals, the exhibition will also be a step forward to improved race relations with the wider Australian community.

" Desert Country allows us into an ancient existence and to witness history through the contemporary art of the oldest living culture in the world," she said. "Taking the time to learn the stories behind the paintings is one of the ways that enables us all to understand this culture and to enhance our respect for it."

As well as the music-making week, the Gallery is hosting other public events during the exhibition.

Dr John Stanton from the Berndt Museum of Anthropology will talk about a collection of crayon drawings by Aboriginal artists in the Northern Territory that were collected by the great UWA anthropologist Ronald M Berndt in the 1940s.

Before the dots, before Papunya is at the Gallery at 2pm on Wednesday 6 July. This is a UWA Extension event and you will need to book for it.

Desert Country continues until July 31.

Published in UWA News , 30 May 2011