The exhibition Stories has its genesis in the question ‘What is Aboriginal Art?’
The Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery Indigenous Reference Group tried to answer the question among its members, but was confronted by a plethora of possibilities and the search for a solution that suited all. It was decided that the exhibition should explore the diversity of traditional and urban expressions of our Country, Knowledge, Spirit, and Politics.
Stories highlights the issue of identity (past and present); it represents the beliefs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and individuals, in place and presence. Indigenous people’s ‘identity’, and the unique consanguineous ties that envelop our society, is often the focus of external derision (‘everybody’s related’), but the use of these kinship ties links us to common heritage, ancestry, moiety, our mutual experience.
Image above: Ginger Riley Munduwalawala, Garimala keeps watch over a moonlit landscape whilst his partner sleeps, 1997. Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 207 x 188.5cm
Image below: Jonathan Jones, blue poles, 2004. Fluorescent lights, Perspex, MDF, edition 2/4, 169 x 35 x 35 cm
Museum of Art and Culture Lake Macquarie, 1A First Street, Booragul 2284 View in Google Maps
1A First Street , Booragul 2284