Durga Vishwanathan, is ensuring vast Australian landscapes fit into small Indian homes
Hypnotic combinations of lines and dots in myriad colours conveyed the stories of Australian animals, people and landscape to viewers in the Delhi recently.
However, it took some clever marketing on the part of Indian-Australian curator Durga Vishwanathan to ensure the success of the Desert Dreaming exhibition which showcased over 80 works by 43 artists from Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, Australia.
While the choice of 'master' artists as well as emerging artists, provided buyers a mix of price points, Vishwanathan, who is originally a Mumbai-girl, made another critical curatorial decision: “I must also say that I chose the works that I thought were generally small in size to fit in Indian homes, although Delhi houses are much larger than Mumbai flats.”
And the tactic seems to have worked—37 paintings were sold at the average price of AUD1,000, despite the economic slowdown. “Gallery dealers in Delhi did comment that the economic crisis has had an impact on the art market in India, as it has all over the world. We were very pleased with the results of the show in view that things have slowed down for everyone and the exhibition was only on for one week,” says Cecilia Alfonso, coordinator of the Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation.
Opening the exhibition, Australia’s High Commissioner to India, John McCarthy said, “India has a longstanding tradition for the art produced by its tribal and traditional communities and there is growing interest in Aboriginal art in India and around the world.”
It is easy to see why Aboriginal art with its distinctly bright colours, mesmerising use of symbols to convey ancient stories must resonate specially with Indians Yet trying to compare Indian tribal arts and aboriginal Australian art is quite futile say the curators.
“What intrigued me was that a lot of Indians especially from the 'art world' were trying to find similarities between Indian Aboriginal art and Australian Aboriginal art—specially the art from Bhopal, because they use dots too. But the main difference is that art from Bhopal is representational while this is abstract,” says Vishwananthan.
“Some of the artists who visited our exhibition saw a lot of similarities in the artworks displayed and their own work,” she adds. “A lot of people did think that there were lots of similarities between the aboriginal art and Indian tribal art. India is such a huge place with so many different styles as is Australian indigenous art. The style, colours, designs are very particular to a specific region in Australia too. It’s impossible to generalise,” says Alfonso.
So, along with the financial success, it was the opportunity of opening up the rather unknown world of Aboriginal Australia to Indians that this exhibition achieved. While urban Australian icons like the Sydney Opera House have replaced the otherwise eponymous Swiss Alps in many a recent Bollywood films few Indian tourists coming here take any time out to see the traditional arts, or the vast bush land of Australia.
However, when aboriginal Australia traveled to them, the Indians were enamored—they loved the vivid colours and uninhibited palette of the artworks, says Vishwananthan.
“The response of the Indian audience was extremely positive. They seemed to like the colour and the designs, and were intrigued by the way the paintings tell a story in a non representational way,” says Alfonso. “The audience was very reception and also curious, they asked lots and lots of questions about the art, stories, designs and use of colour.”
The stories and symbolism of these art works are after all extremely unique and interesting. The works in this particular exhibition are from the Yuendumu aboriginal community of Central Australia, along with some works from the Nyirripi community located 160km southwest of Yuendumu.
“All the stories in the paintings relate directly to the artists country, the animals, people and features of the landscapes,” says Alfonso.
As a desert community, in particular the waterholes, find an important place in these works. The seemingly abstract works actually represent the Aboriginal dreamtime—known as jukurrpa.
“All the stories are creation stories about events that took place a long time ago but which are equally applicable to society today,” explains Alfonso. The artists speak in a symbolic language—the layered circles can mean waterhole or meeting place, U shapes mean person, a male is usually next to spears and boomerangs, curved lines are flowing water, small lines are clouds and so on.
“These designs and symbols belong to the longest continuously surviving culture in the world to today,” adds Alfonso.Traditionally, the aboriginal people would dance the story and decorate their bodies with the same designs that they now transpose onto canvas.
They would also draw the designs on the sand as they told the stories or do ceremonial ground paintings. It is these designs that they now paint using modern materials.
“Aboriginal culture was oral, they had no written tradition. So they used song, dance and storytelling to pass down information from generation to generation—information which was vital for the Aboriginal people to survive in one of the harshest environments on earth,” says Alfonso.
“They needed to pass down knowledge about what animals were available to hunt where, what other foods were found in what places, most importantly, where the reliable water sources were. They were maps which showed you how to get from place to place, how to navigate across this vast land. The stories were repetitive as it made them easier to remember, told in a way similar to poetry, through songs.”
For instance, Magda Nakamarra Curtis’ Jamu Jamu Jukurrpa (Jamu Jamu Dreaming) represents the sand hills near Tjukurla, used during ceremonies, and as hunting ground for goannas, birds and small mammals.
Meanwhile, Bessie Nakamarra Sims’ Pamapardu Jukurrpa (Flying ant Dreaming) is a brilliant blue representation of the flying ants that build the large anthills found throughout Warlpiri country. These ants are collected and eaten, when they flee their old earth mounds lost to floods, to build new ones. Concentric circles are used to represent the mingkirri (earth mounds) and the dashes around the circles represent the pamapardu (flying ants).
Each jukurrpa can be depicted in numerous ways using varied colours and the Indian exhibition had various versions of the same jukurrpa too. “Traditionally the Aboriginal people in this area used natural ochres to paint the designs on their bodies,” says Alfonso.
“Warlukurlangu is one of the oldest art centres in Australia and the people here have been painting on modern mediums, ie canvas and linen since 1985 using modern acrylics.”The Warlukurlangu Artists’ Cooperative is totally aboriginal owned and the artists get 50% of the art revenues, while the remaining 50% goes towards wages and paying for materials and all costs associated with running this business. “In recent years we have been very successful at marketing the work and profits have been steered towards community projects,” says Alfonso.
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