Artists who Capture the Night
There is an intangible clarity exposed when modern art is displayed in its contemporary context alongside the ancient expressions of Aboriginal artists. And when the space in which it is shown is in the remote Northern Territory, in a modern new Gallery dedicated to ‘two-way learning’ and cultural diversity, the intangible seems so close. With the Stuart Highway separating the Gallery from Warlpiri Camp, one of the most disadvantaged Aboriginal neighbourhoods in Australia with its own harsh history, an ancient culture crushed into a new shape by the modern, the Godinymayin Yijard Rivers Arts and Culture Centre (GYRACC) is a serious space in a complex land where cultures can truly combine.
‘Garnkiny to Ganyu’ (‘Moon to Star’ in the Gija and Yolngu languages of Northern Australia), curated by Clare Armitage, is essentially a series of landscapes, each of the artists in some way inspired by the enormous mystery of the night skies. The strokes of paint, the angles of the camera, the individual and cultural influences that led to each artist’s expression, form an exhibition that captures the ancient and the now.
The theme of the exhibition is pertinent in this tropical North of Australia. Night skies are breathtaking, unimpeded by smog or salt breeze, and for many of the Aboriginal people living in the region, it remains their infinite ceiling. ‘Garnkiny to Ganyu’ lays bare the wonders of what it would be like to sleep perpetually under this profoundness—what does it mean to live with no walls? To know that for the past 50,000 years your ancestors have been buried along the Katherine River under these same stars? How does the depth of the night sky imbue consciousness? Art