FireWorks Gallery

The Ancient PRESENT is a local and international exhibition + publication series. It also forms the model for a forthcoming series of collaborative exhibitions designed to stimulate new intergenerational and intercultural conversations about Australian contemporary art and broaden the understandings of what elements are in play in shaping its expression.

Our first presentation of The Ancient PRESENT - an organic travelling exhibition + corporate event module - will be shown in varying formats and venues in Australia and the USA in 2025 and beyond. 

The artists: Tommy Yannima Pikarli Watson (c.1935-2017) has an established national and international reputation; his career is still being fully fathomed. Joanne Currie Nalingu (b.1964)  recognised in many major Australian cities is on the verge of establishing her own international standing. 

Tommy + Joanne - a yin + yang coupling…

Tommy Watson was a senior Pitjantjatjara elder who grew up near Irrunytju in the remote desert heartlands near the tri-state border of Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory, with little outside contact. Joanne Currie is a mid-career artist and grandmother based in Brisbane who grew up (literally) in a camp beside the Maranoa River, in Mitchell, south-western Queensland. 

Despite some obvious contrasts, this pairing highlights what they implicitly share as artists. The unique works by both artists allude to perceptions of space, spatiality and time as conceptual expressions in their painting practices. Tommy + Joanne are also, in a sense, outsiders. Joanne started painting in her early twenties and continues showing across Australia with imagery drawn largely from the Maranoa River region in south-west Queensland. Tommy lived thousands of kilometres away in arid, desert country in the centre of Australia. A highly respected bushman initiated into an ancient tribal world, Tommy didn’t start painting seriously for the commercial market until he was in his mid-60s. Initially a key figure for a new remote community art centre established in his locale, Tommy soon left to go his own way in the art world, becoming an independent trailblazer amongst his contemporaries. The scope and impact of his peculiar trajectory is still being understood, his full body of work yet to be proportionately examined. 

Joanne had no formal education, let alone community art access like that which flourishes today. Through many hardships, she simply watched and listened to other contemporary artists she met, observing the indisputable protocols of what an Aboriginal artist’s story may be. Determined to hone her own visual language, Joanne has continued to explore and develop her own painting style. She almost ‘sews’ her paint into rhythmic lines. Her work is neither ‘desert dots’ nor a modernised pastiche of that technique. It echoes the idea of flow and infinity; a narrative that implies time is a river. Reflecting on the spaces of turbulence and gratitude in her own life, Joanne’s ‘river lines’ drift and merge to provide a place of contemplation for the viewer to consider their own path.

Tommy compounded layers of vibrant dotted colours together and created astonishing work that abounds with notions of spatial infinity. His style too is utterly distinctive, and often demanded a particular brand of acrylic paints, refusing all others. This flair saw many of his works begin with a ground of intense ultra-marine blue to set up a heightened theatre within which other vibrant and discordant colours rebound. Joanne too remains extremely particular about her paint and materiality and has strict controls on paint consistency and the atmospheric conditions of her own processes. 

In the sometimes-raucous world of art conversations especially surrounding the urbanisation and marketing of Australian Aboriginal art, Joanne continues to hold her nerve. Recognising that rural and remote Queensland histories for Aboriginal art and culture can be complicated, her distinctive work continues marking a succinct line back to its original ‘source’ material. 
Meanwhile, Tommy bridged the existence of a two worlds reality by fiercely clinging to his own hard-won ceremonial connectivity which allowed a direct processing of ‘life into art’. With prescient confidence, Tommy created a visual language that performs something of a magician’s act. Over a relatively short period, he awakened new contemporary audiences to his work, whilst at the same time mining the depths and realms of cultural consciousness, known only to himself. This suggests a much larger philosophical conversation about which we remain curious but will perhaps never know anything about. How could we? 

Together these two artists bring these mysteries of an ageless yet still advancing culture into the here and now. Tommy and Joanne emulate, in their respective works, the duality of calm meditation and radical excitement… a cocktail in which new audiences all over the world may recognise both their innovation and independence of spirit.

Michael Eather, Exhibition Curator
FireWorks Gallery Brisbane

Acknowledgements:
This project is made possible by a marvellous group of collaborative spirits: Firstly, Joanne Currie with her family; Authors + collectors Dr. Marie Geissler + Ken McGregor and have been invaluable for major artworks and insightful texts; Kathryn Ritchie has assisted with key networks across the USA: Further significant artworks have been supplied by fellow Aboriginal dealer/collectors Adrian Newstead + Geoff Henderson alongside private collectors in Australia, USA and Europe. Our team would especially like to thank Kate McQuestin and the collegiate support through Advance Global Australians networking across Australia and USA.