Place Sky Breath
24 Aug
Martiniello
On exhibition at
PAUL JOHNSTONE GALLERY
2/2 Harriet Place
Darwin
OPENING HOURS
Tues to Fri 10 am – 5 pm
Sat 10 am – 2 pm
“Indigenous artists, no matter what their particular art form, are in the process of shattering silence.”
The interplay of light and form; of strength and fragility; and of ancient cultural practices and contemporary art is central to the great power of Jenni Kemarre Martiniello’s works in glass.
Of Arrernte, Chinese and Anglo-Celtic descent, Martiniello gloriously re-imagines traditional woven dillybags and fishtraps, fusing European and Indigenous influences into something more; into something other; into Place Sky Breath.
Inspired by the colours and textures of saltbush, speargrass, hibiscus, senna and other native plants, a number of the glass baskets on exhibition in Place Sky Breath also bloom with bush flowers and windswept grasses. It is no easy task to bring such Australian colours to glass, and the murrine, or images, captured in these works represent not only immense artistry but long experimentation by Martiniello to bring about the reds, the greens, and the golds of country. Indeed, like the traditional weaving on which they are based, Martiniello’s works have a clean simplicity and beauty that in many ways belie the skill, labour, and knowledge that inform each creation.
Place Sky Breath also sees stunning blues enter the glass works of Jenni Kemarre Martiniello. Here the tight weave gives way, evoking the nests of our native birds, their feathers and their flight. The Feather Nest Sky works unite not just basket and nest, but also fabulously contains a sense of air and freedom. Incredibly beautiful, the glass captures light and your eye in their ne(s)t.
These works are a tribute. While the Arrernte weaving practices of Martiniello’s grandmother and aunties underlie her work, the bicornual, or horned, objects in this exhibition also draw on the unique baskets of North Queensland. Traditionally these baskets were made using a special weave that allowed them to fit securely and comfortably on the back, whilst a long handle could hang around the forehead, leaving hands free. Martiniello says she is seeking recognition for Indigenous weavers, and defying the colonizing versions of cultural as well as social history. “For example, as a child I saw traditional Aboriginal woven baskets, eel traps, fish traps, dilly bags displayed in the South Australian Museum in Adelaide as if they were relics from a dead past, extinct cultural practices, despite the fact that I knew they were living traditional practices.” Martiniello’s works give a new voice to these objects.
She says there is always a sociopolitical aspect to what she does.
– KATE SIEPER
Feather Nest Sky
The Feather Nest Sky is a new series of works that is inspired by the diverse forms and colours of native Australian birds’ feathers, and the sometimes neat sometimes messy construction of their nests against the sky at various times of the day — for example the blues of mid morning, reds of sunset, subtle golds and pinks of sunrise. As with the Feather Nest Sky works, the keys to the Seed & Stamen series is colour, form, place and movement. In this instance is it the delicate and ephemeral forms of native blossom seeds and stamens as blown by wind into air, and as they settle onto the moving surfaces of water in nearby creeks and waterholes. The Spill Basket also refers to the spill of natural elements into creeks and their haphazard collisions and movements as they move downstream.
– JENNI KEMARRE MARTINIELLO
PHOTOGRAPHY BY FIONA MORRISON
IMAGE: Bush Flowers and Grasses Bicornual #13 (detail), 2017 24 wide x 27 high x 14 deep cm, hot blown glass with murrine
