Opening Hours: Mon-Thurs 9am -9pm; Friday 9am-5pm. Saturday - Sunday 1pm-5pm.
For more information contact the Library 02 6268 8116, Or email: jc.doyle@adfa.edu.au

Crossing Cultures: Mach 2

This exhibition is the result of bringing together two groups of Indigenous artists who would not normally get to meet one another, let alone make art together. This cross cultural artistic exchange took place at one of Australia’s leading art schools, where all the artists grasped with both hands the opportunity to explore new media and experience the kind of equipment, materials and professional support most art students take for granted but only a handful of the thousands of Indigenous artists working across Australia today can access.

In October 2006 the College of Fine Arts UNSW hosted a print making workshop conducted by Michael Kempson of Cicada Press. Participating artists were Danny Eastwood, Jamie Eastwood, Jake Soewardie, James Soewardie, Peter Hinton and Kayelene Slater of the newly established Corroboree Arts and Crafts Co-op in Western Sydney and Michael Jagamara Nelson, Marjorie Nelson Napaltjarri, Maylene Marshall, Linda Anderson Nakamarra, Mereda Sandy and Lurline Sandy from world-famous Papunya community in the Northern Territory, whose artists are struggling to establish their own art centre.

The relationship between the two groups of artists grew out of an exhibition called Crossing Cultures: Indigenous Art from Western Sydney and the North Western Desert held at the newly created Blacktown Arts Centre Development Space in July this year. It was the premiere event for the newly established Corroboree Arts and Crafts Co-op, and the Papunya artists’ first attempt to show the world that there are artists in Papunya in need of an art centre. When the Papunya artists could not make it to the opening of Crossing Cultures, its COFA-based curators Joanne Brown and Vivien Johnson decided to go one better and bring the two groups of artists together by inviting the Western Sydney artists to join the Papunya artists in a print making workshop at the College.

The invitation was eagerly accepted and accommodation for the visiting Papunya artists arranged in the peaceful surroundings of Margaret Farm, an artists’ residence recently set up by Blacktown and Campbelltown Councils. Sylvia Ross, Head of Art at COFA and her assistant Natalie Vlies were generous in their support and two months of planning and hoping later, the idea became a reality. Over four days the artists kept Kempson and his dedicated student assistants run off their feet, producing dozens of beautiful etchings and relief lino prints in a heightened atmosphere of artistic discovery and exchange. The exhibition contains a selection of prints representing each of the participating artists, together with a group of the canvases created by the indefatigable Papunya artists during their “time off”.

At COFA, the Corroboree artists are still working with Kempson to refine their skills in print media - and back in Papunya artists are lining up for the next opportunity to go to art school in Sydney and catch up with their new friends in Western Sydney.

All artwork on this page is subject to individual copyright ownership