ARTIST:	Michelle Holmes Apwerl
DATES:	Contemporary Aboriginal
TITLE:	Apmer Mwrangaha (Beautiful Country)
MEDIUM:	Acrylic on linen
SIZE:	122 x 153 cm
REMARKS:	Studio stamp verso Authenticity certificate
$NZ:	Category D
Michelle Holmes Apwerl is a contemporary aboriginal artist of Ampilatwatja, Australia. She is daughter of Jilly Holmes Apetyarr who is also a senior artist of Ampilatwatja. Apwerls work is prized for being some of the most established indigenous art of the region. Her images can be seen to echo the original Utopian batik art movement of the 1980's. Her primary subject matter is the surrounding countryside and expresses the cultural links between the Aboriginal people and the Australian rural landscape. Ampilatwatja Ampilatwatja (pronounced am-blood a-watch) is a community that lies approximately 320 kilometers north-east of Alice Springs. Around 1910, free hold title leases were granted by the federal government for the establishment of cattle stations on Alyawarr lands in an attempt to occupy the centre of Australia. Traditional Aboriginal owners were coerced from culturally significant sites and rites to hunting grounds, in order to make room for cattle stations. From the 1960s until the mid 1970s, Ammaroo Station became a gathering place for Alyawarr people. In 1976, under the Native Title Act, Alyawarr families were granted a small plot, or run, of land some ten kilometers from Ammaroo station and known as Honeymoon Bore. In June 1999 Desart, the association of central Australian Aboriginal art and craft centres responded to a call from the Aherrenge council of Ampilatwatja to visit the community in the hope of developing an art centre. The first artists workshop was held the following month. The paintings that were produced from the workshop, immediately revealed an exciting Ngwampen, a new and fresh approach to depicting the countries and traditions of Alyawarr people. During the next three months the artists collaborated on canvas and the subsequent exhibition that was held in Western Australia received critical acclaim. By the end of 1999, paintings by the artists of Ampilatwatja had been acquired by major Australian private collectors and had been exhibited at the recently opened Fox Studios in Sydney. Artists of Ampilatwatja exude a complex and progressive approach to depicting the traditional knowledge of dreaming and country through the translation of water holes and soakages, bush medicines, bush tuckers and mountains as well as sand hills and ant hills. The landscape format developed by these artists is detailed in thousands of dots of pure colour and has created a unique vision in the flourishing Aboriginal fine art market. Conventional western formats of landscape painting is restricted by diminishing horizon lines and vanishing points of perspectives, Artists of Ampilatwatja are able to unfold the middle ground of their countries to reveal the locations of tiny soakages, where bush medicine plants can be found and bush tuckers grow. The reinterpretation of this format is a mature and progressive approach to painting. This process is not one which can simply be described as naive as some artists of the community are the direct descendants of the late Albert Namitjira and the Hermannsburg school of watercolour and are well versed in the practices of western image construction. Their work retains the cultural heritage and values of Alyawarr lore. Places that hold great significance are depicted in their paintings, identifying the country and the lay of the land instead of cultural symbols, roundels and dreaming lines. Their paintings are a process of identification as they trace their origins, their knowledge of their lands and the life that exists in the desert regions of central Australia. What may be considered to be an empty, dry, arid desert is for the artists of Ampilatwatja a vibrant and life sustaining environment, filled with fruits, medicines, sources of water and culture that spans time immemorial. Apwerl's home, Ampilatwatja, is a community approx 320 kms north east of Alice Springs. In June 1999 'Desart', the association of central Australian Aboriginal art and craft centres, responded to a call from the Aherrenge council of Ampilatwatja to visit the community in the hope of developing an art centre. The projects that followed in July 1999 immediately revealed exciting new talent with the innovative depictions of the traditions of Alyawarr people. Artists of Ampilatwatja exude a complex and progressive approach to depicting the traditional knowledge of dreaming and country through the translation of water holes, bush medicines, mountains and sandy terrain. Apwerl's work emulates this innovation and her work can be seen to retain the cultural heritage and values of Alyawarr lore. Places that hold great significance are depicted in her new art works, identifying the country and the lay of the land instead of cultural symbols, roundels and dreaming lines. It is a process of identifying through the language of their painting the places where they come from, the knowledge they have of their lands and the abundance of life. These adaptations of the landscape are broadening audience's perspectives on Australian desert regions. What may be labelled as empty, dry arid desert is now demonstrated, through the artists of Ampilatwatja, to be a vibrant and life sustaining environment, filled with fruits, medicines, sources of water and culture. Apwerl's works are held in the Robert Holmes a' Court Collection and she continues to work as an established artist within her region.
Jonathan Grant Galleries Ltd 280 Parnell Rd, Parnell, Auckland, New Zealand. Telephone +64-9-308 9125 Email jonathan@jgg.co.nz
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