Exhibition Essay:

Go West – A selection of notable paintings from Western Australia

Go West at Art Mob is a very exciting and eclectic exhibition of works whose unifying concept or theme is that the artists and works all emanate from Western Australia – one of the most significant regions, in total, for contemporary Aboriginal art-making.  Interestingly, the works are all from the judiciously acquired stock collection of Art Mob, amassed over some time.

The range and breadth of works in this varied show is truly inspiring, as of course are the lives and traditions of the artists themselves.   Art Mob’s gallery assistant Emma is particularly taken with the paintings by Nyumitja Laidlaw of her Seven Sisters’ Story dreamings.  Laidlaw primarily paints on this subject closely associated with her birthplace and country. 

A true magnum opus is Elizabeth Nyumi Nungurrayi’s ‘Parwalla’, an acrylic on linen and a massive 1300mm x 3000mm.  This unique work symbolically depicts the frenetic activity when the rains come to the swampy Parwalla region and the women with their coolamons gather bush tucker.  The whitish patterning represents the spinifex which grows strongly after the wet season rains.

Lily Karadada paints the rock art image of the Wandjina along with some of her people collecting the highly valued bush tucker.  As a traditional woman, she has incorporated one of her favourite food sources – the long-necked turtle - into her work.

Eubena Nampitjin’s canvas ‘Kunawarritji’ is a powerful, predominantly orange and red depiction of her country, south-west of Balgo.  Eubena is the best known of the Warlayirti Artists’ Cooperative’s many painters and began painting, like so many important Aboriginal artists, in later life, in the mid-1980s.

Art Mob is, again, pleased to feature work by the talented Jack Dale, the revered stockman from Derby, West Kimberley, who is thoroughly steeped in Aboriginal

knowledge and is ‘as real and fair dinkum as it gets.’  His ‘Wandjinas – Baby Dreaming’ features mother spirits with their infants and utilises the extremely rare blue ochre for which Jack is famed. 

One of the most celebrated Kimberley artists is Stumpy Brown, full sister to the late artist Rover Thomas.  She is a senior law woman and traditional owner and custodian of Ngupawarlu, her country.  In delightful bright colours and concentric circles and rectangles, she paints this, her beloved country.  The forms depict trees, lakes and waterholes.

Cliff Reid paints a confronting image which will appeal to many visitors, but will disconcert some.  In black and ochre-brown, it is ‘Yumari’ (Mother-in-law) and is a cautionary tale of an Eagle Man who married his mother-in-law, a Crow Woman.  Although the woman had a baby, it was not a happy union, as suggested by some of the weapons in the foreground of the work.  The Crow Woman left the man …

These are but a representative selection and description of some of the outstanding works in Go West; there are also many other artists and their works in the exhibition.  Come and enjoy them for yourselves throughout the month of June and remember to watch out for Art Mob’s forthcoming shows.       Diana Klaosen  2007