Iltja Ntjarra (Many Hands) Art Centre
Iltja Ntjarra (Many Hands) Art Centre
Founded in 2004 in Mparntwe, Northern Territory, Australia
Iltja Ntjarra’s project for the 23rd Biennale of Sydney is co-curated by Marisa Maher working closely with the Artistic Director and Curatorium of the 23rd Biennale of Sydney.
Participants:
Mervyn Rubuntja
Born 1958 in Telegraph Station, Mparntwe (Alice Springs), Australia Lives and works Mparntwe (Alice Springs) Central and Western Aranda
Selma Coulthard
Born 1954 in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), Australia Lives and works Mparntwe (Alice Springs) Western and Southern Aranda
Vanessa Inkamala
Born 1968 in Ntaria (Hermannsburg), Australia Lives and works Mparntwe (Alice Springs), Australia Western Aranda
Kathy Inkamala
Born 1968 in Ntaria (Hermannsburg), Australia Lives and works Mparntwe (Alice Springs), Australia Western Aranda
Dellina Inkamala
Born 1984 in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), Australia Lives and works Mparntwe (Alice Springs) Western Aranda
Clara Inkamala
Born 1954 in Ntaria (Hermannsburg) Lives and works Mparntwe (Alice Springs), Australia Western Aranda
We are proud our fathers were a part of the original Hermannsburg Watercolour Movement and now, generations on we are still painting together, carrying on this same tradition.
– Iltja Ntjarra Artists
Iltja Ntjarra (Many Hands) Art Centre is a not-for-profit art centre, proudly Aboriginal owned and directed. The centre has a special focus on supporting the ‘Hermannsburg School’-style watercolour artists, who continue to paint in the tradition of their grandfather and relative, Albert Namatjira, arguably one of Australia’s most famous artists of the 20th century. The Art Centre started operating in 2004 to provide a place for Western Aranda artists to come together to paint, share and learn new techniques and ideas.
The artists painting at Iltja Ntjarra (Many Hands) Art Centre today do so with an eye to the future and the past, thereby closing a loop. Over the past ten years, Iltja Ntjarra artists have consistently experimented with new materials, methods, source material, processes and scale. In recent projects, their work has been transformed into fashion and incorporated into light projections. They have developed a strong collaborative practice and asserted a powerful political voice. This has all been done with a continued commitment to create landscape paintings of their beloved country in the style of Albert Namatjira.
Pmarra Nurna-kanha Ntarntarai – Care for our Country, 2022
mixed media installation
Clara Inkamala
Our Way, 2021
watercolours on recycled metal street signs
Mervyn Rubuntja
Don’t Give Away, 2021
No Fracking Anytime, 2021
Our Floodway, 2021
Selma Nunay Coulthard
No Trespassing, 2021
Respect our Country, 2021
Please, Do not Enter, 2021
Urrampinyi (Tempe Downs), West of Alice Springs, NT, 2021
Petermann Ranges, NT, 2021
A journey to Henbury, 2021
Vanessa Inkamala
No Entry, 2021
No dig it, 2021
Rutjipma (Mt Sonder), NT, 2021
Kathy Inkamala
Yaparlpa (Glen Helen), NT, 2021
Rutjipma (Mt Sonder), NT, 2021
Dellina Inkamala
Ltarkalibaka (Mt Giles), NT, 2021
Rutjipma (Mt Sonder), NT, 2021
Clara Inkamala
Our Way, 2021
watercolours on recycled metal street signs
Kathy Inkamala, Selma Coulthard and Dellina Inkamala
NTARNTARITJIKA RESPECT COUNTRY CARE LISTEN, 2021
Acrylic on recycled signs
Courtesy the artists & Iltja Ntjarra / Many Hands Art Centre
Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous assistance from the Australia Council for the Arts and assistance from Artback NT
The artists from Iltja Ntjarra (Many Hands) Art Centre regularly experiment with materials, forms and methods of making to depict the beauty of their country, in the painting style made famous by Albert Namatjira of who they are direct descendants.
For rīvus, the group have repurposed discarded road signs, found everywhere in Mparntwe, as a means of sharing a political message. Whether used to direct traffic or to communicate specific rules, signs like these are crucial in governing our relationship to the land. In bright and arresting colours, they are used to convey laws and regulations across the continent. Usually signs like these would direct people’s attention to common conventions around road traffic, private property and the organisation of space. In the hands of the Iltja Ntjarra artists, their function is subverted to communicate important information relating to country, its beauty, cultural practices and customary lore on traditional lands. Each sign has been painted with images of Country in the Hermansberg style. Alongside these beautiful images are messages that urge us to look after the land, telling us that it is not something to be owned or taken advantage of for profit.