Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders please be aware that this review mentions someone who has recently passed away.
This is a glorious visual feast for the eyes . Beautifully presented , exquisitely photographed ,this is a stunning large coffee – table book about the work of Kunmanara Carroll.
It is linked in with the Jam Factory exhibition of his works and his work at Ernabella Arts.There is a Forward, a Preface and a CV of Carroll’s life and notes at the back. Belinda Briggs is Yorta Yorta and Wemba Wemba, living and working in the Dungala Kaiela (Goulburn Murray) region in northern Victoria. Currently writer and curator at the Shepparton Art Museum, she is also vice-president of Kaiela Arts and passionate about her community, particularly her contributions to the endeavours of the Rumbalara Football Netball Club. Belinda’s curatorial projects include First Languages of the Monash University Collection, MUMA, 2017–2018, and the Indigenous Ceramic Award, SAM, 2016 and 2018.
Alison Milyika Carroll, a senior Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara woman, is an accomplished artist and a significant cultural leader and an important advocate and mentor for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and arts across the APY Lands. She is the current Chair of Ernabella Arts, Pukatja Community, APY Lands, and has been involved with the organisation as an artist and director.
Alison is also a member of the Tarnanthi Cultural Advisory Committee, works with Ku Arts and the NPY Women’s Council, and has held advisory roles on projects such as Songlines at the National Museum of Australia.
Luke Scholes was Curator of Aboriginal Art and Material Culture at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory between 2015 and 2021. During this time he curated the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Awards. Between 2003 and 2007 he worked as a field officer and later as Assistant Manager at Papunya Tula Artists. In 2008 he worked for Martumili Artists in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. During 2010 and 2011 he was Project Officer, Indigenous Art, at the National Gallery of Victoria.
The book shows how Carroll’s work is indelibly linked to his expression of his relationship with Country.Carroll was a Luritja, Pintupi and Pitjantjatjara man . After retiring from a long career as the town’s constable, he turned to art, beginning to create at Ernabella Arts in 2009, Carroll was born in 1950, in Haasts Bluff, and later moved to Papunya when the new settlement was created there. He went to school in Papunya before moving to Areyonga, where he finished school, and then travelling on donkey with his family to Eagle Bore, a homeland just north of Ernabella. At the age of 19, he moved to Pukatja in the north of South Australia After a long career in a range of community roles, becoming the town’s constable, Carroll began exploring art and painting , encouraged by then-owner Julian Green , at Ernabella Arts in 2009 .
In 2011 he was introduced to ceramics used his works to pass on cultural knowledge from his father’s Country of Walungurru in the Northern Territory. in the north of South Australia Carroll was shortlisted for the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards for four consecutive years and his work, both solo and collaborative, is held in national and international collections. Carroll was selected by the Jam Factory gallery for their annual ICON exhibition, which celebrates influential crafts-based artists working in South Australia.
Carroll’s thrilling work could be described as bold yet austere , using subdued colour schemes , understated tonal gradations and swirling lines that featured both in his canvases and incised into his ceramic works.All of the designs express Carroll’s knowledge of Walungurru Country and its people’s heritage .Carroll often depicted the rocky country of Ilpili; the cultural site of Yumari, whose name translates as ‘mother’ in Luritja law; Wanampi, the water serpent and the rocky country of Ilpili.Carroll often named his pieces after the cultural images and figures they feature, leading to repeated names that in their repetition give strength to the knowledge they display of his paternal Country.
Some of Carroll’s work depicting his Country includes dot paintings.There is also the special Ilpili tapestry linked in with the book and the exhibition woven by the Australian Tapestry Workshop , telling part of the Seven Sisters story.
Carroll’s inspired not just with his artistic output, but through his leadership, vision and mentorship – more young people were drawn to Ernabella Arts , and the number of men increased learning what is regarded more as a female led art form.
Sadly, shortly after Ngaylu Nyanganyi Ngura Winki opened, Carroll passed away.
ISBN: 9781743058664
ISBN-10: 1743058667
Audience: General
Format: Hardcover
Language: English , AUS
Number Of Pages: 136
Published: 1st September 2021
Publisher: Wakefield Press
Country of Publication: AU
Dimensions (cm): 28.0 x 23.5
Weight (kg): 1.09
Edition Number: 1
https://www.wakefieldpress.com.au/product.php?productid=1734&cat=0&page=&featured=Y