THE CAPE YORK PROJECT 2024 (view exhibition here)
The Cape York Project, an exhibition of new and past works by Ian Waldron, is largely inspired by “Cape York” , a large privately commissioned piece destined for the new museum at Punsand Bay, one hour’s drive from Pajinka – the very tip of Cape York. The accompanying artworks are an expression of the commissioner, Cameron McTavish’s passion for Cape York: Waldron’s representations of histories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, colonial exploration, exploitation and land use, the mammoth feat of the construction of the telegraph line (Laura to Thursday Island), and the pearl diving industry.
ON THE LAND (MINI SURVEY) 2024 (view exhibition here)
On the Land (mini-survey) is a retrospective glance at four of Waldron’s ongoing series: On the Land, Back on the Land, Seduction Suite and Bloodwood Totems. The vastness of the artist’s oeuvre is most visible here: continuous themes in Waldron’s career – Bloodwood Totems and Black Cockatoos among other subject matter – are exhibited both on canvas and in sculpture.
The two most powerful influences on his life, his Kurtjar heritage, and the Western art world are brought together by intriguing juxtapositions of the artist’s work. Paintings depicting a Gulf Country cattle station and Kurtjar language - the “Chatta Chatta” of the old people - speak to deep connections with Waldron’s country and culture in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
THE TOWER OF BLUE HORSES 2022 (featured in The tower of blue horses 2022 view exhibition here)
I have been painting horses a long time. On Kurtjar country, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, they are part of our kinship system, regarded with familial care and affection.
Over the past 15 years, I have been painting the horses on our cattle station, Delta Downs. These works form a series in black and white, On the Land. When I decided to paint a series in blue, I was reminded of the blue horse works of Franz Marc. I was struck by the parallels between my own and Marc’s treatment of animals, particularly with regard to spiritual kinship and the status of horses, not as beasts of burden, but kin.
My blue horses are painted on Kurtjar country. I wanted the horses to feel accessible, as if you could reach out and stroke them.
CHATTA CHATTA 2019 (featured in Nirdakiy - Middle Creek 2019 view exhibition here)
Chatta Chatta is about the old people of the past speaking Kurtjar language as I walk through country where they lay. Their chatter talks to me about country, trees, the animals, the river, waterholes, stuff like that.
THE GULF 2017 (featured in The Gulf 2017 view exhibition here)
Every work that I have ever painted is anchored in The Gulf one way or another. My art is the visual representation of my identity - I am my country. As a title, The Gulf is my homeland, but also an ambiguous reference to a chasm between two worlds.
BRIGHTON BEACH 2017
An important part of my practice for many years has been multi-media artwork based on life at Delta Downs Station. Delta is on my traditional country in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Kurtjar country, and is the largest Indigenous owned and managed cattle station in Australia. Many of the historical works have referenced old photographs my mother keeps in a shoe box. Brighton Beach was inspired by one such photograph of a stockman and his wife at their worker’s quarters. The shape of the building, its place in a row of others like it, and the vertical pattern of the corrugated iron immediately reminded me of the typical Brighton Beach bathing boxes…that’s how colour was introduced. Ultimately, this beach could be the Gold Coast or any beach in Australia.. and paradoxically with Hills Hoist and outback dwelling, perhaps becomes quintessentially Australian?
BACK ON THE LAND SERIES 2015
… Working as a ticket writer in his teens was the beginning of the artist’s life in the visual arts, an early experience that taught him the power of a cleverly constructed image. Waldron went on the study fine arts and has been shown in the countries’ most prestigious exhibitions including the Archibald, Dobell and Wynne Prizes and has been awarded best open painting in the 1995 National Aboriginal Art Award and the prestigious Glover Prize for landscape painting in 2010. Waldron’s success as a painter can be attributed to an imaginative working of western art styles to communicate the strength and achievements of the Kurtjar people against seemingly unbeatable odds.
ON THE LAND SERIES 2014
Capturing the viewers imagination will create within them curiosity and motivate them to discover more about your art and the stories behind it. This is my goal in the series of black and white paintings, On the Land, which depicts the daily and historical life of my people, Kurtjar, on the Gulf of Carpentaria. So little is known about Indigenous culture on the Gulf, and many people don’t even know where the Gulf is. By painting scenes of contemporary working life, leisure pursuits and important historical themes, I am creating an awareness of our people and their enduring presence and great achievements on their traditional land. These achievements include running and owning the Delta Downs cattle station, one of the largest and the only wholly Indigenous owned and managed cattle station in Australia.
SEDUCTION SUITE SERIES 2014
This series of works based on food advertising takes me back to the beginning of my art career. The first form of art I did as a paid job was advertising for supermarkets. I created posters for shop window displays which promoted new products and special offers. I honed my skills and became adept at creating eye-catching posters which brought customers through the door. This work taught me the importance of balancing colour, composition and text to engage the viewer, drawing them to make a personal connection with what was on the poster. Advertising and fine art must both have a high degree of novelty to be noticed in the first place, and the technical sophistication to elicit a response in the viewer without offending them. I have always maintained you catch more flies with honey and I like to seduce the viewer, giving them a pleasurable experience while simultaneously communicating personal and cultural imperatives. Without my background in advertising I don’t think I would have such an insight into how the audience responds to visual stimuli.
I look back on these days in my youth, working with such imaginative enthusiasm to create appealing poster art, with great warmth which I think is evident in these paintings. It was during this time that I become aware of the power of pairing words with images to communicate and influence thinking. I knew that I could utilise these tools in my fine art practice. Capturing the viewers imagination will create within them curiosity and motivate them to discover more about your art and the stories behind it. This is my goal in the series of black and white paintings I have created depicting the daily and historical life of my people, Kurtjar, on the Gulf of Carpentaria. So little is known about Indigenous culture on the Gulf, and many people don’t even know where the Gulf is. By painting scenes of contemporary working life, leisure pursuits and important historical themes, I am creating an awareness of our people and their enduring presence and great achievements on their traditional land. These achievements include running and owning the Delta Downs cattle station, one of the largest and the only wholly Indigenous owned and managed cattle station in Australia.
NORMAN RIVER 2013
This painting is about Kurtjar country in the far north of Queensland, and our country runs from the Normanton River up to the Stanton River, and there is about a million acres of land there that is our country known as Delta Downs.
At the top of the painting you see the blue coming into the land, but there is no coastline as such because the land is so flat. There are no mountains in our country – the water melds right into the land across big massive plains and mudflats that flood in the wet season, and so the water comes in quite a way.
It is my mother’s family country, and the words in the painting describe the places and things found there. I do not speak the language but I think it is very important to know of these things. This language gives me a greater feeling for the country and what’s been happening there. My clan totem is the bloodwood tree… it is hard timber with a sap that seeps out like blood, and it grows all over our country from the mudflats on the coast to the savannah lands.
I am in two places – because fishing and going out in the boat and all that has been, and still is, a major part of my life. I still do it as much as I can… fishing and hunting food. Then I go back to the cattle country and that is my country too.
CELLARBRATIONS 2012
The central image in Cellarbrations is an Indigenous man throwing branches covered in paint over his shoulder to create a stippled body decoration. This image is also used in Uncle Bumble painting up, Gulf of Carpentaria, celebrating Kurtjar traditions of male initiation. Cellarbrations is a sharp, stabbing reminder of the extent to which substance abuse has become an issue in contemporary Australian society. As life in some Indigenous communities has become less structured and organised around seasonal activity and tradition, alcohol abuse has blighted many families. Young men who a few generations earlier would know precisely who they are and what their status is within a traditional kinship structure, now struggle with identity. Charging up is a form of celebration that is far removed from the experiences of rights of passage and culturally meaningful milestones.
BLACK COCKATOO 2004/2013
Ian worked in various industries before studying Visual Arts at the Northern Territory University in the mid-1990s. Throughout his art practice, he pays tribute to the story of the Kurtjar people in his homeland of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Ian has worked prolifically in his studio in Far North Queensland over the last years and developed a number of series, focusing on paintings and installations. Recurring subject matter in his works comprises characters, sites and memories, which are important to the artist, such as Bloodwood totem and black cockatoo. Ian was the winner of the 2010 Glover Prize, Tasmania, and has been selected as a finalist three times in The Wynne Prize at the AGNSW. His works are held in numerous private and public collections nationally.
The Black Cockatoo, or the Palm Cockatoo, is the largest species of cockatoo. It boasts solid black feather colouration, large open crest, bare red cheeks, and a red and black tongue. The beak of this bird is so enormous that it never fully closes. The Black Cockatoo is found in Northern Australia on Cape York Peninsula.
A courting male cockatoo will choose a stick, trim it to size, and then drum with it on a hollow branch. Male and female may perform a drum duet when their chick is old enough to leave the nest. It is the only cockatoo that builds a nest. The male and female build it together during courtship by dropping sticks into a hollow log. The sticks collect and form a little platform. This keeps the egg and chick from drowning if water collects in the log's bottom.
BLOODWOOD TOTEM SERIES 2004
Painting continues to be an integral part of asserting identity for Indigenous Australians in post-traditional life. Equally important is connection with land and the physical elements. The title Totem reflects the artist’s desire to explore the relationship between the physicalities of land and the cultural beliefs and traditions of Aboriginal Australians.
The artist states: I first saw this image by Nicholas Chevalier, Mount Arapiles and the Mitre (1863) when I was studying Fine Art in Darwin over 20 years ago. While there I was very fortunate to work with seminal Indigenous artists like Rover Thomas, Queenie McKenzie and Freddie Timms. I felt I had a foot in both camps, enjoying both Aboriginal and European art forms. Art History was new to me and although I loved this image it always bothered me. It was so much a European perspective, so I wanted to paint it with my own story, replacing the surveyors with the local tribe; the cattle at the waterhole with wallabies and bird life. The poles are a contemporary representation of the Bloodwood tree, a Kurtjar clan totem, both then and still today.
One of the most important species of flora on the artist’s traditional country on the Gulf of Carpentaria is the Bloodwood tree, a eucalyptus encased in a thick, rough bark. The design in this painting reflects the natural shape and textures of the Bloodwood tree, a hardwood often used for making didgeridoos. The tree gained its name from the red sap that flows from it when cut. Colour is used to represent the various stages of growth and change in the tree through the seasons.
Looking through the Bloodwood Totem, we are offered a rare insight into a hybrid world, perceptions of indigenous culture and connectivity filtered through a stylish and very precise urban familiarity.
All text courtesy of the Artist & Katrina Chapman
