Upstairs

John Prince Siddon

A Walmajarri man of the Great Sandy Desert, Western Australia, John Prince Siddon (b. 1964) came to painting later in life. Using whatever surface is close at hand – canvas and board, but also bullock skulls, possum and kangaroo pelts, ngurti (coolamon), scrap tin, even satellite dishes – Prince combines his personal history with national stories and narrangkarni (ancestral creation stories) to create kaleidoscopic visions of contemporary Australian life.

Look at this collection of works on display together by John Prince Siddon.

• Prince is described as having a signature style. How would you describe his ‘signature style’?
• How are these works similar?
• What things do you recognise? What specific stories or issues do you think Prince is referencing?

Kulata Tjuta

Kulata Tjuta, meaning ‘many spears’, is an ongoing project of cultural maintenance, which began in the Amata community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. The installation is made up of 550 spears and takes on the appearance of an explosion frozen in time. This references the atomic bomb testing carried out at Emu Junction and Maralinga between 1953 and 1963 and the resulting ‘black mist’, which caused illness and death for many Anangu (people).

• Describe your first impressions of Kulata Tjuta. Now describe Kulata Tjuta in one word. Share your response with the class.
• Look carefully at the spears in Kulata Tjuta. How are the spears similar, but different?

More

Visit Yhonnie Scarce’s Thunder Raining Poison downstairs. This is an installation of 2,000 blown glass yams suspended from the Gallery ceiling. Thunder Raining Poison also responds to atomic bomb testing that occurred in Maralinga.

• Compare this work to Kulata Tjuta. How do they communicate differently the effects of atomic bomb testing?
• What similarities and differences do you notice about these two works?

Vincent Namatjira

Vincent Namatjira is a celebrated portraitist and storyteller of Australian history and identity. His paintings offer a wry look at the politics of history, power and leadership from a contemporary Aboriginal perspective. Namatjira often positions himself in this history – out of place and out of time – and in doing so he helps us to reconcile our complex pasts. 

• Do you recognise the figures depicted in this painting? They are artist Albert Namatjira, and musicians Slim Dusty and Archie Roach.
  • Albert Namatjira is Vincent Namatjira’s great-grandfather. Why do you think he depicted him in this painting?
  • Take a walk to Gallery 6 to find another painting by Vincent and a watercolour painting by Albert Namatjira.
  • Listen to music by Slim Dusty and Archie Roach. How would you describe their sound?

Tjanpi Desert Weavers

The Pleiades and the Orion constellation is central to the Tjanpi Desert Weaversʼ Paarpakani (Take flight). This work expresses the sky’s influence and incorporates celestial storytelling into the fibres of everyday life. In Paarpakani Orion – embodied as Wati Nyiru – is depicted astride the sculptural form of a bird woven from tjanpi (grass), symbolising movement and transformation. 

Did you know that Tjanpi is a Pitjantjatjara word that describes all kinds of grasses including spinifex grass.

• Can you identify any of these birds by name? Which of these birds do you recognise from your home or school? What identifying features helped you come to your decision?
• Move your body the way these sculptures might if they were to come to life. How would you describe the movement? Now turn your movement into marks on paper. Think about the speed and pressure applied when making your mark. Are you a tree with your branches slowly swaying in the wind? Or are you a bird gliding through the air?

Kaylene Whiskey

Kaylene Whiskey's Seven Sistas Sign (2021), is a play on words. It refers to the story of the Seven Sisters, Kungkarangkalpa, a significant Tjukurpa (ancestral story) for the Aṉangu people, as well as for many other language groups and communities across Australia. Centred on the constellations of Pleiades and Orion, it describes the seven sisters keeping each other safe and protecting one another as they are chased across the night sky by a bad man.

• List all of the things or people you recognise Seven Sistas Sign. What other things did your friends notice? Can your findings be grouped in some way?
• Draw a female role model in your life. It might be someone you know personally or it could be someone who influences you from sport or popular culture. Capture their strength, resilience and character. You may even like to transform this person into a superhero.

Ken Sisters, Kungkarangkalpa tjukurpa (Seven Sisters dreaming)

In the contemporary Western Desert art tradition, painting is frequently pursued collaboratively, with canvasses laid laterally on the ground in the direction of country. The Ken sisters – Tingila Yaritji Young, Maringka Tunkin, Sandra Ken, Freda Brady and Tjungkara Ken – are part of this desert art tradition, a distinct lineage formed initially by women, under the name of Minymaku Arts (meaning ‘belonging to women’), just twenty years ago in Amata in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands.

By working together – sometimes simultaneously painting together on a grounded canvas, and sometimes consecutively, where one sister’s mark calls for another’s reply (resembling an ancestral call and response) – the mnemonic or memory function of painting is performed.

• If you had to select a soundtrack to this work, what would it be and why? It might be an existing song, series of sounds or genre.
• Look closely at this work and select a section that appeals to you. With your finger (and without touching the work), trace the lines and shapes. Follow the line to the next, and so on. How would you describe these marks?
• With paper and pencil create marks in response to this work and how it makes you feel (without copying what you see). After one minute, pass your paper to the next person and continue drawing. After another minute pass the paper on again and continue drawing and so on.

Collaboration is Key

• If you were in the classroom or at home, extend the activity above and instead use large sheets of paper, paint or pastels. Play music, get everyone up moving and dancing. Change the music and have children move in a clockwise direction and continue to paint or draw- this time on a different section of the paper, adding to the previous design. Continue to move around the table and then around the room.