Beneath the mesmerising pools of bleeding colour and carefully drawn shapes that occupied the un-stretched canvases of this exhibition, stared the question: who will answer for the mistakes and injustices of the past? We may know who carries the burden of tragedy but not its weight or how long it will be endured. Judy Watson cautioned us about the responsibility for the wounds we inflict on the environment and each other with her latest paintings and installation in the exhibition ‘Bad and doubtful debts’.
The paintings lined all the walls in one room, immersing the viewer in a flood of hues which tell of stories of the sea, and of water—a fundamental element and concept of Watson’s practice.1 Water bubbles up to the dry, dusty surface of her Country in north-western Queensland, and splits it open to expose the cool, lusciousness of its gorges. It is life flowing under the ground of the Waanyi people, once pulsing under the feet of her grandmother. Watson casts her history, memory and stories in the coloured water she pours onto her canvas landscapes. But this time she also casts a vivid picture of our recent dealings.
Spill, a canvas mottled beige, black and grey, is inscribed with brown pigment that forms land and coastlines. The painting resembles an old, weathered map accentuated by the unfinished edges of the cloth, typical of the raw quality sought by Watson. However, sailing along the work’s expanse of ocean is a beautifully rendered, realistic image of a modern cargo ship. The ship floats below the text, ‘Coral Sea’, while heading away from the vigorous splashes of black on the right-hand edge of the canvas. Watson