Yarrkalpa. Paintings as Portals of Knowledge
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| Admission: 10 € |
| Planning: Duration: 60 min |
| Suitable for: 16 years and older |
| Which languages: English |
| Venue: Special Exhibition 1, Ground Floor |
| Part of: One Object, Many Questions |
Yarrkalpa or Hunting Ground is a painting measuring 5 x 3 meters that eight artists from the Martu region of Western Australia created collectively for their descendants in 2013. This seemingly abstract painting expresses their knowledge of the land they live on: its structure, its inhabitants, its dangers, its treasures. It is a visual encyclopaedia of the ecological knowledge with which the Martumili people of Western Australia have survived in the desert for millennia.
Margo Neale has curated the exhibition Songlines. Seven Sisters Create Australia. She talks to curator Marc Wrasse about one of the most important exhibits in this exhibition and about contemporary paintings by Indigenous artists as portals of knowledge.
Margo Ngawa Neale, of Aboriginal descent, is Head of the Centre for Indigenous Knowledges, Senior Indigenous Curator & Advisor at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the Australian National University.
Margo has curated major pioneering exhibitions including the multi-award winning Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters, from 17 June to 30 October at the Humboldt Forum, along with other international touring exhibitions of Indigenous art and culture. Furthermore, she is the series editor for a 10 volume book series First Knowledges. Her first volume Songlines: The Power and Promise, co-authored with Lynne Kelly, went rapidly to the best seller list. Margo has won a number of awards and her expertise is sought by successive Australian Governments.
Marc Wrasse is curator for education and outreach at the Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss.