Crossing Country

A landmark exhibition of over 300 western Arnhem Land artworks has opened at the Art Gallery of NSW in partnership with ANU.

Crossing Country — the alchemy of western Arnhem Land art is the first major survey of the work of Kuninjku artists from Aboriginal communities west of Maningrida in the Northern Territory. The exhibition includes bark paintings, works on paper, sculpture and fibre art.

The artworks detail benign and malevolent beings, creative ancestors and their epic travails, skeletal remains, hand and footprints, body paint, enigmatic ceremonial objects and sacred sites. A number of the bark paintings, by the forefathers of some modern artists included in the exhibition, date back to the 19th century.

The Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Professor Jon Altman, was closely involved with the five-year Crossing Country project. Through research work and research collaboration in the western Arnhem Land region over the last 25 years, he is familiar with a number of the artists involved in the exhibition.

“It’s probably the biggest exhibition of bark paintings ever in one place. It ranges from some of the earliest bark paintings in existence to the contemporary art of the region today,” Professor Altman said. 

“What is particularly fascinating about Crossing Country is to witness on one hand the continuity of the art and art practice from the earliest pieces to more recent works, and on the other, the enormous change and innovation over the years.

“A highlight of the exhibition is the art produced over the last two decades that demonstrates the development of inspirational arts leader John Mawurndjul, winner of the Clemenger Contemporary Art Prize in 2003.

“The works of a number of other selected artists, including the late Yirawala, Peter Marralwanga, Wally Mandarrk and Crusoe Kuningbal are given comprehensive and respectful coverage,” Professor Altman said. 

The exhibition includes the mandjabu, or conical fish trap, manufactured by the late Anchor Kalunba, and kunmatj, or large baskets, woven by women with the tough tropical vine milil. These traps are unique to the Kuninjku people of western Arnhem Land and are used to trap barramundi in the early dry season in the area around Bulkay.

Professor Altman worked with Ms Hetti Perkins, the Gallery’s Senior Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art and her team, Dr Luke Taylor of the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and Ms Apolline Kohen, the Director of Maningrinda Arts and Culture, to bring the exhibition together.

Lofty Bardayal Nadjamerrk, Kabirriatyolme (The Discussion) (2003), natural pigments on paper