Going into the unknown at the Indigenous Heritage Exhibtion 2024

 (The Moving Circle of Artists' work is presented in the 2024 Indigenous Heritage Exhibition at Castellani House until 30 September, 2024. )

There was no print catalogue available. The QR code image was around, but I did not have the technology to use the QR code even with assistance of the attendants. I hope the organisers will put labels on the work items for viewers who cannot access the QR code.

I apologise to the artists whose work I reference without the proper attributions

Going into the unknown

Place hot and I feeling a lil jumpy despite the yoga routine earlier in the day. Some unexpected challenges which pile up and then come in to chill out in the gallery and find that I have to do guess work on the art and so.

Switch my mind, thinking yeah, go into the unknown. 

NO titles to guide you. 

Friends on social media had shared pictures of some of the most striking pieces so there is a familiarity in a way. And a helpful attendant shows the PDF on his phone to check prices if I want to buy but we can't seem to navigate the PDF. Not everyone is good with smart phones.

Moving with the benab through space 

I had not seen the benab suspended from the ceiling though in any of the social media photos. 

Something about how a thing which is normally fixed and solid, kind of dancing around in this unstable way, moving with its own momentum as there is no breeze really.  Is there something else moving the benab?

I feel like I could be on that hammock and that maybe this benab could be moving through space like a space ship and the baskets and matapee are a kind of guard while also providing some aerodynamics.

I unhook the canoe to move quicker among streams of stars. 

I have not seen yet, what I think might be Dillon Craig's Inner Spirits - which might be about a shaman on a journey. The herb is there. 

And even with the images of the painting on social media, watching the real thing, and first it seems like is a whole set of demons and so and I could imagine those who cursed the totem pole as evil cursing this as well, but something about the man and the snarling jaguar, the space between them. 

And standing with the shaman, looking from his end, seeing all the spirits and so. 

Confronting and living with the spirits without being afraid of them.

 

The painting is surrounded by matapee on the wall. The energy in this painting contrast with a kind of reflective calmness of I think Urî kon Padasî 'by Demion Mack - I recognise that the man is a Toshao, looking up.

I remember the Indigenous woman leading us in a silent prayer inviting us to either bow our heads and look down, or to look up depending on the tradition. I never thought of looking up to pray.

Walking through the ceramic trees

So while I dream about space and so, I have to be careful as there are the stands with the ceramics , many of which done by Lisa Thompson. 

I can imagine if "you break you pay thing " so being cautious and so. 

In a corner of the room without breeze and three jars with a white glaze and trees. 

Thing looks nice and cool and I go down to eye level carefully and imagine walking through these trees and liming (I think Whispering Trees might be the title).   

There is a story of Hanuman, the Hindu deity being large enough to fly between countries , and tiny enough to fit in Sita's palm.. ..

Walking in trees, Kind of coming back to ground.

Grounding

Two women at the creek, and you get the feeling to look over their shoulders to see what they are doing. And to follow the creek out of the boundaries of the painting. Looking to the creek out, easy to miss the fire, and there is a contrast in the detailed texture and colours  behind the women; and the smoothness in front of the women. 

 

Work by Ransford Simon

So in the grounding , coming to see details in the work. 

The woman cleaning Guyana in Nix's large piece, the change in colours from above ground to below ground. The details of the planted food, the vessel and the woven mat.

The woman here like the two women in Simon's painting - doing work.   

Details in the weaving on the skirt of a child in another piece, where the landscape behind the child is like a fantasy land and the contrast between the plait and the skirt.

So shifting mind from the fanciful to the details, not seeing big picture while seeing small things.

Grounding as in this piece by  Nix - first look at the bird standing in the brilliant blue and then the rubbish  in the waterway.  

 There is one piece with vibrant colours, abstract on the wall. Different details from the noise, heat, rubbish, rising prices.

 

Or maybe this is an abstraction of all those details. Who knows?