Impressions of the 29th NATSIAA exhibition
Last Friday, two members of IDAIA’s team were attending the ceremony of the 29th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Island Art Awards (NATSIAA) in Darwin. Laure, the new communication assistant at IDAIA, shares her impressions.
The exhibition of the selected artworks for the NATSIAA was my first exhibition totally dedicated to Aboriginal art since I arrived in Australia 3 weeks ago. Of course I had learnt a lot about Aboriginal art, but I hadn’t had the opportunity to see masterpieces as were exhibited at the museum « in reality » – except for Alick Tipoti’s artwork exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Sydney on the occasion of the Biennale.
On the night of the opening ceremony last Friday, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory was opened till 9pm giving time for the visitors to appreciate each and every artwork. The selected works were all interesting ; some were impressive for the quality of the work or for their colours, some others because of the theme the artist had decided to address. It was a mix of contemporary and more traditional artworks, of paintings – on barks or canvas –, sculptures and weavings, by famous and emerging artists . The public was quite impressive too, as there were collectors, art dealers, professionals, and people who were less familiar with Aboriginal art. It was striking to see the contemporary aspect of these artworks and I must admit I wasn’t expecting this ; even if the interpretation of many artworks are related to traditional Dreaming and symbols of the Aboriginal culture, the artists’ way of expression was totally innovative and creative. This is what I find so interesting in contemporary Aboriginal art.
With the awards ceremony we saw another dimension of the Aboriginal culture. The idea of the event was to emphasize the links that exist between artists and between the different Aboriginal communities with each award being presented to the winner by another artist or important person of the sector – I really liked the spirit of the ceremony. We also assisted to traditional dances from different areas, men dances and women dances. It was such a great opportunity for me to experience ! I think this is really impressive to admire such an old, rich culture still strong and very much alive today. It was even more exciting to share the Tiwi community’s joy of having one of their own won the major prize for the first time, and to see major prize winner Timothy Cook dancing with them at the end of their performance.
Attending the 29th Telstra NATSIAA was for me the perfect opportunity to discover the Aboriginal art and culture at its best considering both the artistic and human dimensions. If you can, I highly recommend that you visit the exhibition.
You can also find the award winners and all the artworks exhibited on the official website of the NATSIAA here.
Laure Hellin, communication and marketing assistant