Description
Description
“Hit by shotguns, burnt by dry season fires, rusted by monsoonal rain, discarded signs litter Territory roadsides. The power of the rules and warnings they once shouted have faded like their glossy reflective paint.”
— WILL STUBBS, Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre
A group of eight Yolŋu artists from Yirrkala have come to rescue, recycle and rework these battered warriors in new ways which have never been seen before. Murrŋiny is the Yolŋu word for steel. It is also the name by which this nation was known by its neighbours and the first Europeans who encountered them. This name references the shovel nosed spears made here since pre-Cook times. Old signs are new again.
To celebrate and mark the occasion of this extraordinary exhibition, Salon Art Projects have collaborated with Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre and NCCA to produce an accompanying catalogue that takes you on a beautiful photographic journey of the formation of this movement.
Featuring artists’ stories, biographies and images connecting their work to country.
Stunning artwork photography and close-up detail of the artists’ mastery and workmanship in transferring their designs to metal. Landscape photography that connects artists to place and to story.
With gratitude, we have been able to feature a small selection of rare archival photographs by anthropologist Donald Thomson, who lived and worked in north east Arnhem Land during the 1930s and the early years of WWII. These photographs have been reproduced with permission from the Thomson family and Museums Victoria.
The exhibition is a partnership between Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, Salon Art Projects and the Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, 7 August – 25 September 2021.
MURRŊINY ARTISTS
GUNYBI GANAMBARR
BARAYUWA MUNUŊGURR
WANAPATI YUNUPIŊU
WUKUN WANAMBI
BINYGURR WIRRPANDA
GANPILBIL MAYMURU
WURRANDAN MARAWILI
ISHMAEL MARIKA
Published: 2021
ISBN: 978-0-646-84244-8
144 pages
290 x 240 mm
Foreword by Petrit Abazi, Director,
Northern Centre for Contemporary Art
Preface by Matt Ward and Paul Johnstone, Salon Art Projects
Essays by Will Stubbs and Gunybi Ganambarr.
Photography: Fiona Morrison
Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre
