Through funding support from Arts NT, a group of cross-generational artists currently practicing at Jilamara Arts and Crafts were taken from Melville Island to Darwin to view a selection of the Tiwi art collection held in the Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory (MAGNT), and garner inspiration for a major print workshop. Working in collaboration with senior printer Basil Hall, the Jilamara artists have created a new series of original limited-edition prints and mixed works on paper in the techniques of etching and silkscreen responding to artworks by Tiwi artists passed.
Pedro Wonaeamirri, Timothy Cook and Pauletta Kerinauia exploring the Tiwi Collection at MAGNT
Jilamara artists are renowned for producing contemporary works based on ceremonial body painting designs, clan totems and Tiwi creation stories. Jilamara, which roughly translates to design, is passed on by family with each artist developing their own particular jilamara within the Tiwi palette of four colours, red, yellow, white and black, made up of natural ochres to produce paintings on linen, canvas, paper, printmaking, weaving, bark and carved ironwood.
This exhibition is presented by non-profit organisations Jilamara Art & Craft Association in collaboration with the Print Council of Australia Inc.
Collins Place Gallery
Until 19 January, 2018
Melbourne
