The collaboration between Robert Gordon and Juluwarlu Artwork Group (who’re based mostly within the north-western a part of Western Australia’s Pilbara area) has been years within the making.
Robert Gordon inventive director Kate Gordon says the Yindjibarndi artist collective first reached out to the model again in 2021. Since then, the 2 groups have been working collectively behind the scenes on a set crammed with tales of Nation and tradition that was ‘born some 50,000 years in the past’!
The ensuing vary options artworks by Nana Jane Cheedy which can be equal components stunning and academic. She’s a linguist, trainer and artist, who was chosen to signify the 35 artists from the Juluwarlu Artwork Group, below the steerage of CEO and Elder Lorraine Coppin.
‘As an artist, I particularly love to do authentic artworks concerning the thaarga ngarli (meals) and jarmi (bush medicines) which can be discovered on Yindjibarndi Nation,’ Nana Jane Cheedy says. ‘By drawing the crops and the animals, I can discuss how our previous folks historically used them and educate the younger folks tips on how to proceed to make use of them.’
So as to replicate the textures of the unique yarranga marni boards she created – by scratching and carving onto layers of plaster and gesso – Robert Gordon utilised an ‘industrial sand blasting approach’ normally reserved for brand printing. It meant tracings needed to be made of every drawing, earlier than the machine may translate it into etchings on the ceramics, however Kate says it’s helped the items really feel extra ‘alive’.
‘[The collection] is a mix of the traditional with the trendy to create a splendidly tactile vary of ceramics that’s true to the unique drawings,’ she provides.
The attractive vary additionally channels the artworks in additional methods than one, with the group matching stoneware’s earthy colors to photographs of the native grasses on Nation! They even used outlines of Nana Jane Cheedy’s drawings to design the natural shapes, whereas one other dish was created after listening to how the group preferred to make their damper with a giant bowl that would ‘sit comfortably within the criminal of your arm’.
‘All of us be taught concerning the tradition of the Yindjibarndi folks, their natural world, their meals, the colors of the land, once we have a look at Nana Jane’s work,’ Kate says.
Store the Robert Gordon x Juluwarlu assortment completely via Myer.
