Art is a language - as explored by Djon Mundine in this floor talk - sharing key insights into the Three Echoes: Western Desert Art exhibition.
Join Djon Mundine for the opening of Three Echoes - Western Desert Art at the Art Gallery at Royal Park.
Featuring the early men’s paintings of Papunya Tula, to the artists of Ikuntji, through to the Utopia women’s paintings and batiks. Discover the three echoes within this significant collection of works.
"In the early 1970s, my father once told me of how, when he was a child in Bandjalung country, people coming along the river or through the woods would ‘Coo-ee’ to announce their presence at certain places where their voice would echo repeatedly, reverberating into the distance; to which the receiver would, ‘chant-like’, respond." - Djon Mundine OAM.
About the speaker
Three Echoes - Western Desert Art Curator, Djon Mundine OAM FAHA is a proud Bandjalung man from the Northern Rivers of New South Wales. Djon is a curator, writer, artist and activist and is celebrated as a foundational figure in the criticism and exhibition of contemporary Aboriginal art.
Djon has held many senior curatorial positions in both national and international institutions, some of which include the National Museum of Australia, ACT; the Museum of Contemporary Art, NSW; Art Gallery of New South Wales; and Campbelltown Art Centre, NSW.
In 1993, Djon received the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to the promotion and development of Aboriginal arts, crafts and culture. Djon also won The Australia Council for the Arts’ 2020 Red Ochre Award for Lifetime Achievement.
About the exhibition
Three Echoes - Western Desert Art explores the poetic notion of echoes - how we can echo a thought, a sentiment or a consciousness.
In the 1970s, Australian Aboriginal people from the desert began talking to the world through art, transferring their creation stories of the land and people to canvas. Now, this foundational echo is going back and forth. No longer a one-sided, outward calling, it reverberates multi-dimensionally within Australia and around the world.
Curated by Djon Mundine OAM FAHA, this exhibition showcases 81 paintings, prints and batiks by 57 acclaimed artists from Ikuntji (Haasts Bluff), Papunya and Utopia Aboriginal communities in the western desert regions of the Northern Territory.
While the works are drawn from the early 1970s to early 2000s, the exhibition celebrates our world’s oldest continuous living culture and artistic traditions that span tens of thousands of years.
Three Echoes – Western Desert Art is an initiative of Museums & Galleries Queensland developed in partnership with Karin Schack and Andrew Arnott and curated by Djon Mundine OAM FAHA. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through its Visions of Australia program and through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. It is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.
Art Gallery at Royal Park, 2 Wellington Street
1 February – 6 April 2025
Free entry | Open daily, 10am-4pm
Image: Michael Riley, Djon 1990 (printed 2013) from the series ‘Michael Riley Portraits 1984-1990’, inkjet print on paper (frame: 46.0 cm x 43.4 cm depth 5.0 cm, image: 43.5 cm x 41.0 cm).