Mamang Koort - Heart of the whale …
Albany, PIAF 2016
Lizzie Riley, Annette Davis, Valdene Diprose, Caroline and Cheryl Narkle, Harbour Panorama, (2015-16), 14 x 1.2 metres, mixed media installation on cotton canvas, suspended on plywood.
This artwork was an extension of the Albany residency program. It came out of a rich, sustained collaboration with four local Albany artists over a period of nine months. We worked spontaneously and intuitively and began by making indexical marks around Princess Royal Harbour. Additional layers were created by drawing, stitching, weaving, and painting onto the canvas. In 2016, the work was exhibited in Mamang Koort exhibition in Albany, (as part of the Perth International Arts Festival), and later at the Matter of Mutual Memory exhibition in Perth.
“They call the water around here, Mamang Koort, the harbour and further out towards the Sound. Mamang means whale and Koort is your heart so this water is heart of the wild whale. [The whales] used to come here and have their babies … there would be an expectant mum and she would have a nursemaid or two with her. The harbour was deeper, of course, then.”
Venice Gillies – Menang Elder
the work processes …
… showing some of the spontaneous and intuitive collaborative work undertaken by the artists …
photographs: Dan McCabe, Annette Davis and Valdene Diprose