Mina Mina Maranoa: In Focus
Fireworks Gallery is excited to announce that the opening of Mina Mina Maranoa: Dorothy Napangardi and Joanne Currie Nalingu will be held on the 20th March from 6pm, during which both artists will be present. The opening coincides with the launch of Dorothy's carpet design commission for the Plaza Ballroom Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. Mina Mina Maranoa features 15 new paintings by Dorothy and exhibits the evolution of Joanne's Senseless series.
Although Dorothy depicts the movement of her ancestors across Mina Mina – a Dreaming site north-west of Yuendumu – as they danced and pierced their digging sticks into the ground, the artist is reluctant to use the formal iconography associated with the Dreaming. Napangardi’s unrestrained approach reveals itself through her use of open bands of monochromatic lines, with weaves of colour darting through what could be interpreted as her ancestor’s pattern of movement. Dorothy paints at a distance from her ancestral homelands, primarily in Alice Springs. This lends itself to a more unconventional approach to representing the Dreamings associated with Mina Mina.
Spending her early childhood at the Yumba Aboriginal mission on the banks of the Maranoa River in Mitchell, Joanne witnessed first hand the noxious effects of alcohol and displacement on the people around her. The Senseless series, a suite of fiberglass sculptures based on actual shield designs of the Maranoa people, is a frank response to this formative time. The titles and accompanying wall plaques of these five sculptures are her native Gunggari words for Sight, Sound, Taste, Touch and Smell. She explains, I missed the sensual experience of my country due to the problems caused by alcohol – it was all eroded 40 years ago. In her recent paintings, Joanne layers her familiar river lines over digitally-printed images of the Maranoa shield designs.
