arts
Curators in
Arnhem Land
for works for
Easter Aboriginal
exhibition at
Whistlewood,
Shoreham
Shoreham-based curators Susan
McCulloch and Emily McCulloch
Childs have just returned from a trip
to East Arnhem Land to select new
works for their upcoming Easter
salon and Art Parade of Aboriginal
art. The focus of their trip was the
arts centre Buku Larrnggay Mulka
at Yirrkala near Nhulumbuy (Gove)
some 1000 kilometres east of
Darwin.
“Buku Larrnggay Mulka is one of
the great arts centres of Australia,
Susan McCulloch at Buku Larrnggay Mulka Art
renowned for its generations of leading Centre, Ar nhem Land
bark artists as well as imposing and
One of the artworks by Tjunkaya Tapaya from the
creative carvings of larrakitj (hollow log
coffins) and figurative sculptures,” says APY Lands to be shown in the Easter Art Parade
Susan McCulloch. “ It’s one of the
largest and most prestigious Aboriginalowned arts centres and represents the
work of more than 250 artists as well
as housing a unique new media cultural
and art program, a historical museum
and a thriving fine art print workshop.”
Susan and Emily McCulloch have
been working with Buku Larrnggay
Mulka for several decades in writing
on the centre and the work of its
artists for their books and art reviews as well as showing barks, carvings and weavings at
their art consultancy and gallery Whistlewood at Shoreham.
However the relationship goes back even further with Susan McCulloch’s late father – the
critic and founding MPRG director Alan McCulloch – having curated an exhibition of works
from Yirrkala and Oenpelli in the collection of Museum Victoria for the Museum of Fine
Arts, Houston, USA in 1965.
Plans to create another exhibition along the lines of the 1965 exhibition were on the
agenda at the McCullochs visit to the art centre. More immediately, their Easter show will
show the results of their latest selection of barks and carvings as well as more than 70 other
Aboriginal art works.
These will be shown in a unique Art Parade in which the Arnhem Land works and more
than 70 others from Papunya, Utopia, the APY Lands, Western Australia and Queensland
are arranged in regions, with some displayed on the walls while others are ‘paraded’ by a
team of assistants as Susan McCulloch provides commentary on the art of the regions and
individual artists.
Autumn Salon + Art Parade @ Easter | Open April 19-22 11am-5pm.
Whistlewood, 642 Tucks Road, Shoreham | Details: 5989 8282
Art Parade | Easter Saturday April 19. 2.30pm.
(Free event. Places limited, bookings essential) Bookings online: mccullochart.eventbrite.com.au
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