Z munu A titutjara II (488-23AS)
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Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara people, South Australia
1991
Alfred Lowe
Arrernte people, Northern Territory
1996
Z munu A titutjara II (488-23AS)
2023
glazed ceramic with sgraffito, mixed media
- Place made
- Adelaide
- Medium
- glazed ceramic with sgraffito, mixed media
- Dimensions
- 55.0 x 44.0 cm
- Credit line
- Edward Minton Newman Bequest Fund 2023
- Accession number
- 20236C27
- Collection area
- Australian decorative arts and design - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
- Copyright
- © the artists and the APY Art Centre Collective
- Image credit
- Photos: Sam Roberts, Zaachariaha Fielding, Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara people, South Australia, born Port Augusta, South Australia 1991, Alfred Lowe, Arrernte people, Northern Territory, born Moora, Western Australia 1996, Z munu A titutjara II (488-23AS), 2023, Adelaide, glazed ceramic with sgraffito, mixed media, 55.0 x 44.0 cm; Edward Minton Newman Bequest Fund 2023, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, © the artists and the APY Art Centre Collective.
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This work is born of a collaboration between ceramcist Alfred Lowe and painter Zaachariaha Fielding, two artists whose practice explores themes of place and identity. With it's strong form, bold colours and mark-making, this pot embodies Lowe's mastery of ceramic forms, textures and mark-making, while the outer surface decoration showcases Fielding's energetic flowing lines and circular forms.
Aboriginal people have long worked in clay, with it's deep association with Country, and mark-making continues to be an important part of Aboriginal art and culture today.
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“I was raised on desert country in the eastern Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, and come from a long line of multi-disciplinary artists. I am compelled to make work that honours the visual language of my ancient culture. The iconography reflects the way I live my culture in the present, as a constant feature of my world, and visualises how I interact with the beings that populate the Tjukurpa I’ve inherited."
Zaachariah Fielding is a multi-disciplinary artist. He has worked for many years in the music industry, and until recently was best known as one half of the electronic music duo 'Electric Fields'. In 2020 he took up painting, and now works in the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Gallery Art Centre in Thebarton where he works alongside other Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara artists.
"I am aware of the traditional elements of what’s happening in the studio. I am a part of that and an essence of that, but I’m not just an Indigenous Aboriginal artist. I paint everything and anything that comes into my life. I am putting it all together and allowing it to make sense or not make sense. There is no wrong or right in my work or in a person." *
Fielding's paintings are bold and energetic, and feature bright, fluid lines and circular forms. His works explore themes of identity, place, and memory. "I am drawn to the use of gold and metallics in my work because they represent the power, the richness, the regality that can be achieved through oneness, through knowing and accepting you are part of something bigger, and the feeling of being WITH. I like to imagine a global choir- all the different voices harmonising to create music so rich and powerful, beyond any individual capability. That is so exciting to me, and my work invites people to share in that excitement."
* https://hugomichellgallery.com/collections/exhibitions-2023/products/collections-tarnanthi-2023
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"Culture is contemporary, it lives in the now, and the way we do things changes. People make the mistake of separating culture and the other influences in life, but they are the same thing. Everything is part of the journey and our life." Alfred Lowe, 2023.*
Arrernte ceramicist, Alfred Lowe’s practice is concerned with contemporary ways of navigating and manifesting identity and culture. He makes hand-coiled clay forms that explore themes of Country and identity.
Working with buff raku trachyte clay, Lowe creates roughly textured forms, to which he has applied underglaze while wet to achieve a bright, flat finish. He uses a range of forms, colours and textures to create different contexts for the lines. His work explores how lines can have different impacts on different forms, a process comparable to how people use lines to define their lives – by establishing border lines, classifying bloodlines, drawing lines in the sand or crossing the line.
"The underlying theme is where I’m from, Alice Springs and central Australia in general. The landscape is so powerful it’s difficult to not talk about it or represent it in my work. However, a lot of it is also about me, about self-identity, body image and how I fit in with the world and the world fits in with me."*
* https://hugomichellgallery.com/collections/exhibitions-2023/products/collections-tarnanthi-2023