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Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre
29 August 2008"This is letting you know so you will learn from us. Learn from these words like we have learnt from you. Your knowledge, your education, your background, we are using it. Some of the law and some of the culture of yours. OK and in the same way you must learn..." Djambawa Marawili, Senior Artist & Madarrpa clan leader
Djambawa Marawili |
Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre located at in the remote town of Yirrkala is one of Australia's most acclaimed art galleries. In a recent visit the Federal Minister for the Arts Peter Garrett proclaimed it as "the best art centre in Australia".
Over its fifteen year life BLM has developed an international reputation for curatorial and scholarly excellence. But most importantly BLM is deeply treasured by the Yolngu people of North East Arnhem Land who use their art as a great communicator of culture and knowledge. Since the 1970-1 Gove Land Rights Case the 16 Yolngu clans have used paintings to tell the world about culture and law. The recent BLM "Saltwater Exhibition", which toured Australia, was a major vehicle for communicating to the High Court Indigenous law and culture of the sea. The saltwater paintings were an important determinant of the High Court's Blue Mud Bay Decision of 2 July 2008.
In Western contemporary society we often think of painting and art as a means for personal and cultural development. Yolngu bark paintings are more than this. They have spiritual and legal dimensions that go to the Yolngu cosmos.
There are certain realities of running a gallery. There is only so much wall space to hang paintings and catching a plane up to Gove is not like being able to visit a gallery in the inner city of one of Australia's cities.
BLM is at the heart of a creative community. As new painters and paintings emerge, older paintings of tremendous merit are stored in the back room. They require a lot of time to find and explore.
The "BLM Backroom Bark Paintings" that are unveiled online today are the first instalment of a series of backroom explorations. We are putting the photographs of these exquisite bark paintings online and are inviting you to purchase the bark paintings. You need to look at the photographs and brief descriptions carefully. You will find the size of the painting listed and you need to note that the online image has been set at a maximum width of 450 pixels and proportionately adjusted to fit on to your computer screen. So if you are unsure about how big a painting is simply get a rule or tape measure and plot out the written measurements rather than work from the computer image.
This is a unique investment opportunity. By buying these paintings you can be sure that you are not only making a unique contribution to your own personal and cultural treasure house, you are forming a unique relationship with the Yolngu cosmology and culture that is most rewarding to study and understand. Importantly you are putting back investments into the Yolngu community that helps BLM and the Yolngu community to continue to excel and awe the world.
In this first on-line exhibition we are offering 71 bark paintings for sale on line. To purchase a painting simply note the artist and catalogue number and call the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre on 08-8987-1701. When you order please note the BLM Art Crew are very special people. They can get a painting to you anywhere in the world at premium freight prices. The person you talk to on the phone is likely to be an artist, curator, printmaker, community supporter who has taken BLM to its unique position today. So be patient and if you are lucky you may even hear a little of the stories and images that are part of your painting.
Awards
1994 NATSIAA Dundiwuy Wanambi Best Bark
1995 NATSIAA Yananymul Mununggurr Best bark
1996 NATSIAA Djambawa Marawili Best Bark
1996 NATSIAA Naminapu Maymuru-White Best Work on Paper
1997 NATSIAA Yanggarriny Wunungmurra First Prize
1997 NATSIAA Djutjadjutja Mununggurr Best Bark
1998 NATSIAA Wukun Wanambi Best Bark
1998 NIHAA Naminapu Maymuru-White Runner up
2000 NIHAA Wolpa Wanambi First Prize
2002 NATSIAA Gawirrin Gumana First Prize
2003 NATSIAA Galuma Maymuru Best Bark
2004 NATSIAA Gulumbu Yunupingu First Prize
2005 NATSIAA Banduk Marika Best Bark
2005 NATSIAA Naminapu Maymuru-White Best 3D Work
2006 NATSIAA Baluka Maymuru Best 3D Work
2006 Vibe Magazine Deadliest Visual Artist of the Year Gulumbu Yunupingu
2008 TOGART Contemporary Art Award Djirrirra Wunungmurra First Prize
2008 Xtrata Coal Emerging Indigenous Art Award Gunybi Ganambarr First Prize
2008 NATSIAA Nyapanyapa Yunupingu (& the Mulka Project) Best 3D Work
(NATSIAA- National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award NIHAA-National Indigenous Heritage Art Award)
Bibliography
Buwayak-InvisibilityAnnandale galleries March 2003
Buku Larrnggay Mulka Saltwater : Yirrkala bark paintings of sea country (Sydney : Jennifer Isaacs Publishing, 1999)
Campbell MacKnight The Voyage to Marege' : Macassan Trepangers in Northern Australia (Carlton, Vic., Melbourne University Press, 1976)
Charles Mountford Records of the American-Australian expedition to Arnhem Land, volume 1 Art, Myth and Symbolism (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1954)
Howard Morphy Journey to the Crocodiles Nest (Canberra: Institute of Aboriginal Studies Press, 1984)
Howard Morphy Ancestral Connections: Art and an Aboriginal System of Knowledge (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991)
Morphy Howard Aboriginal Art (London: Phaidon, 1998)
Wally Caruana and Nigel Lendon The painters of the Wawilag Sisters Story 1937-1997 (Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 1997)
Gillian Hutcherson Djalkiri Wanga: The land is my Foundation: 50 years of Aboriginal art from Yirrkala, Northeast Arnhem Land (Nedlands, W.A. : The University of W.A. Berndt Museum of Anthropology, 1995)
Gillian Hutcherson Gong-Wapitja, Women and Art from Yirrkala Aboriginal Studies Press 1998
Judith Ryan Spirit in Land, Bark paintings from Arnhem Land, National Gallery of Victoria 1990
Rirratjingu Ethnobotany:Aboriginal Plant use from Yirrkala, Arnhem Land, Australia Parks and Wildlife Commission NT 1995
Helen Groger-Wurm Australian Aboriginal Bark Paintings and their Mythological Interpretations (Canberra; Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1973)
Anne Wells This is their Dreaming (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1971)
Yirrkala Film Project, Film Australia (23 titles 1981-95)
Yothu Yindi discography 1988-2003
Williams, Nancy "Australian Aboriginal Art at Yirrkala: Introduction and Development of Marketing" In Nelson Graburn (ed) Ethnic and Tourist Arts: Cultural expressions from the Fourth World p266-284 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976) ---
| Contact Details | |
| Name: | Buku-Larrnggay Mulka |
| Phone: | 08-8987-1701 |
| FAX: | 08-8987-2701 |
| Email: | art@yirrkala.com |
| WWW: | http://www.yirrkala.com |