Archive for March 2023
NICHOLAS WALTON-HEALEY – SALT FRAMES
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A SELECTION OF IMAGES
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‘SPOOR’ Nicholas Walton-Healey from the exhibition SALT FRAMES
‘WHISPER’ by Nicholas Walton-Healey from the exhibition SALT FRAMES
‘SKIN’ Nicholas Walton-Healey from the exhibition SALT FRAMES
‘TOUNGE’ Nicholas Walton-Healey from the exhibition SALT FRAMES
‘CARESS’ Nicholas Walton-Healey from the exhibition SALT FRAMES
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A COMMENTARY ON THE BODY OF WORK by Victoria Cooper
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watch the water long enough and you’ll see a fish jump … *
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Salt Frames review
Nicholas is a poet…
Salt Frames is simultaneously a visual and textual poem. On the surface it is an exhibition of light and colour abstractions from time spent on the Nightcliff Foreshore, Darwin. But this work also has deeper layers and meaning that are evoked through the supporting words and symbols within the images, as Walton-Healey discloses: “Sea salt aids the healing of wounds (including those beneath the surface of the skin).”
Walton-Healey points out that more broadly Australians have an affinity to the coast. The sea and the coast become places of personal meditation and for some physical and psychological healing. His seascapes are not the usual pictorial or grand panorama – instead he shares visual metaphors; those moments of revelation and contemplation that can hold many different meanings to the viewer.
The text blocks with the images are, for me, not titles but words that operate as codes to other ways of being and thinking. If we cast our minds to memories of reverie by the sea, perhaps these words articulate our collective human experience of being at the coast.
On connecting with Walton-Healey’s opening speech, the meaning embedded in the words and the images of layered light, colour and stilled moments was underpinned by a deeply moving human story. Through the visual poetry of this exhibition the artist has humbly shared vulnerability, tenderness and deep thinking. In this openness of vision he also created space for the viewer to spend time to consider and connect with our own stories and memories.
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Dr Victoria Cooper
* A teaching by Larrakia Warrior Robert E. Lewis to Nicholas Walton-Healey
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THE OPENING SPEECH BY PAMELA KLEEMANN-PASSI
Pamela Kleeman-Passi speaks
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Acknowledgement to Country
We respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land, the Boon Wurrung and Woiwurrung (Wurundjeri) peoples of the Kulin Nation. We extend gratitude to all Elders past and present and their enduring connection to land, sea and community.
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Welcome to the Salt Frames exhibition …
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My friendship with Nick grew out of a deeply personal connection of loss and renewal, and a mutual passion for experiencing life through the lens of creativity. And now we have Darwin in common! Our shared stories meandered and overlapped during my month there mid-last year for my own exhibition. I actually didn’t know that much about Darwin until that visit, and I returned to Melbourne with a deep fondness for the culture, the landscape and the communities. I thank Nick for facilitating a visit to the Tiwi Islands to spend a moment of precious, rejuvenating time at the Tarntipi Bush Camp on Bathurst Island.
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So what you see within these salt frames of the Nightcliff foreshore is Nick’s immersion in and introspection on the blessings and cruelties of life, and the healing power of the water and the land. The evocative single word titles express an array of feelings and experiences and the images are imbued with opposites:
Landscape / seascape Water / land Surface / depth
Smoothness / crusty, gritty textures Clarity / blurriness Light / dark
Shadows / highlights Colour / monochrome Reflection / absorption
Representation / abstraction Emotion / rationale
He’s combined the poetic and the photographic, with an Impressionist painterly quality to many of the works. Nightcliff is a very special place for Nick… but it also has a fascinating history and I quote from Tess Lea’s personal/historical book, Darwin: “Even the dumping grounds of Nightcliff, where unwanted machinery and detritus from WWII were tipped over a cliff, have merged into the rocks below, no longer distinguishable, just deformed lumps of rust and chalk.” The colour of rusted metal is very evident within some of the images – how over time, it’s merged with the landscape shaped by the power of the sea.
In this time of climate fragility and significant settler land and sea degradation, I feel compelled to refer to ecological grief and the healing power of the land and the water because the land and sea are absolutely fundamental to a community’s overall mental health. Nick’s images are testament to that healing power.
For Nick…
On the edge, at the edge… of love and loss and longing,
And remembering and wanting to forget
And letting go but holding on…
Wedged between land and water, pushing and pulling
Lapping across a surface that belies a depth so utterly profound and unfathomable
A photographic imprint, focused and blurred
Where light inscribes water, water inscribes land
And language and form mutate and merge, rippling and surging in a constant soundtrack
That violently crashes and gently caresses in waves and heartbeats
Eroding, erasing, healing and repairing
The run-off leaving traces that ebb and flow
As life and love and loss and longing ebb and flow…
And it’s sink or swim or scramble to a fragile stability on solid ground and remain upright
or undone
Or both…
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Pamela Kleemann-Passi © 2023
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ROBERT LEWIS TALKS ABOUT HIS CONNECTION WITH NICK
Robert Lewis, Larrakia Warrior, speaks at the opening of SALT FRAMES
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Nic from Vic
Hi my name is Robbie Lewis, I’m a Larrakia Man. Born and bred on Larrakia land in Darwin.
2013, The Eye See Workshop, working with young Indigenous people living on a local community, in the Darwin region, where I met a young man trying to make understanding of life, this is when I first met a young spirited man, Nicholas Walton-Healey!!
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A student photographer trying to find he’s way around the community. At first, I saw another white man taking photos of Indigenous people. But now, 10 years later, I see a great man showing the rest of the world through he’s eyes the beautiful things he sees through a camera.
To talk about
Communications – to talk, to say, to hear, to listen, to answer, to reply, also to understand and help.
Management – to be a leader, a teacher, to educate, to be in charge, to manage and help.
Worker – to do a job, to earn a wage, to keep things moving forward, to do work and to help where there is no other.
Just don’t forget why they go together.
The Student
This one person brings all these people together.
Now I see this man as a teacher!!
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Robert Lewis © 2023
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NICK’S RESPONSE
Nick addresses the audience at his exhibition
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Thank you everyone for making it out tonight. I don’t have the time to personally thank each one of you, here. But I’m really proud of, and humbled by, the diversity of the groups represented in this room. Friends. Family. Collaborators. Colleges. Mentors. And Muses. You’ve all contributed in some important way to the journey I’ve been on, with my photography.
Pam and Rob, I’m especially grateful for the friendship I share with each of you, and for your very kind and thoughtful words tonight.
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What you’re looking-at in the salt frames photographs, is The Timor Sea. And more people go missing each year in The Timor Sea, than they do in any other sea throughout the world.
I can certainly say that I’ve felt the pull. The allure of its rhythm, and hypnotic calamity.
It made perfect sense to me, when I read that statement in a book that Pam recently lent to me. Over the past twelve months, Pam has gifted me some important inspiration – we met at the ANAT Spectra Live event in Melbourne, and our paths crossed again in The Northern Territory last year. They converged at Tactile Arts in Darwin, during Sweet Dreams and Gut Reactions, the title of Pam’s exhibition, which got me thinking…
It’s probably an understatement, for those of you who know me, to say I’m inspired by the viscerality of art. I’ve always understood the role of the artist to entail a questioning of accepted definitions of the normal and possible. And that the moral and aesthetic responsibility of the photographer is to make the invisible, visible and the familiar, strange…
Photography is a highly intuitive process for me. I make the pictures first, and make-sense of them, second. So, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was doing, walking up and down the Nightcliff foreshore at all hours of day and night, last year.
I was actually stopped one evening by an elderly couple, who said ‘ahh, you’re a photographer!?’ I looked-at them, bemused, because I had a camera in my hand, and responded with, ‘yeah!’ But then the lady then came closer, and touched me on the arm. She looked into my eyes and said, ‘Well, that’s good, because we’ve seen you out here every night this week and thought you were homeless.’
The remark startled me because, while I was always on the lookout for crocs, I actually felt pretty safe in Darwin last year, which was when I made the majority of these photographs. Even if I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor of Rob’s kitchen.
I have a really special connection with Rob, who is like a big brother, to me; one of my mentors, teachers, guides and best mates, over the past ten years.
I first met Rob on an Indigenous community known and referred to in Darwin as Knuckey’s. This was back in 2013, when I first travelled-up to Darwin with one of my university lectures – Mark Galer – for The Eye See Workshop. Although our initial encounters were brief, I remember being struck by the enormity of Rob’s heart; the fact that he actually, genuinely cared for the people living on this, and the other communities we visited.
At the end of that workshop, I was invited back to Darwin by Rob’s boss-at-the-time. From this point, I entered into what became a five-year-plus partnership. This lead me back out onto those communities, and ultimately, to almost all of the so-called town camps in and around the Greater Darwin Region.
For all this time, I was like Rob’s little shadow. I followed him everywhere, and especially to the programs he ran with the men and family groups from these communities. Through these means, I built my own friendships and connections. But that’s another story, another project…
The Salt Frames are more overly focussed on my personal connection with Rob. Our friendship grew partly through the bond I developed with his late mother, Robyn, who I learnt to recognise and identify as an authentically Darwin person; Robyn’s mother (Rob’s maternal grandmother), was born at Lamaroo Beach, before being stolen as a child, and was eventually adopted by Juma Fejo.
The Fejos are one of the original eight family groups recognised as the Traditional Custodians of the Greater Darwin Region.
So Rob’s Larrakia, and the Larrakia are also known as The Salt Water People. The Salt Frames show Larrakia country, which includes Nightcliff, the place where Rob and I spent a lot our time when we weren’t working on the communities together.
Watch the water long enough and you’ll see a fish jump. That’s what Rob used to say to me. And I found it really frustrating at first, because I couldn’t see any fish. But over time, I realised that, rather than asking me to simply look-at the water, Rob was actually asking me to look into it. In this way, he transformed my ability to ‘see.’
But he wasn’t the only person I went to Nightcliff beach with. Before and after re-locating from Melbourne to Darwin, Nightcliff was the place that my late fiancé most liked to visit. She loved watching the sunsets. And unwinding and connecting on the beach. Over the years, we made a lot of love along this coastline. Beside the Timor Sea. And sure enough, it was not too far up from one of these spots that we returned on the afternoon she received her cancer diagnosis.
Shit happens. We deal with it. And then we move-on. That’s also one of Rob’s sayings; but it was the teaching I found most difficult to comprehend. Dealing with it, was what I really trying to do in the five and half months I spent in The Territory last year, walking around the beach like a homeless person.
Making these photographs was one way I felt I could make-good on my promise to do something with my photography, while at the same-time maintaining the connection that my finance and I shared with the families and communities we worked with. In August last year, Rob accompanied my mother and I over to the Tiwi Islands, for her Pukamani ceremony. The overwhelming majority of the photographs in this collection were made in the weeks that followed this event.
So whichever way you look at them, the Salt Frames show profound and enduring connection. But they also acknowledge the inescapably transient nature of being. You don’t get to beauty without pain, and love is very hard to name, without seeing the full-face of loss. The process of curating and assembling this show, and gathering you all in this room tonight, is part of an attempt to move forward.
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Thank you all … Nicholas Walton-Healey
Nicholas Walton-Healey © 2023
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Nicholas with Pam Kleemann-Passi and Robert Lewis
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© Photographs by Nicholas Walton-Healey Photographs of the opening ©2023 Doug Spowart
RE–BRAND: The NEW ‘MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHY’ – Formerly the MGA
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MAPh Composite
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For more than 30 years the ‘Monash Gallery of Art’ has successfully advocated for the arts and Australian photography. Now the Gallery name will be rebranded as the MAPh – Museum of Australian Photography – abbreviated into MAPh. We were excited to be able to attend the event and witness moment of change in the history of the Gallery.
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Director Anouska Phizacklea
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A launch party on to celebrate the transformation took place on Sunday, 19 March 2023. After a Welcome to Country and smoking ceremony by a Wurundjeri Elder, MAPh Gallery Director Anouska Phizacklea addressed the assembled guests. She spoke of the long history of the MGA and how the name change presented the opportunity for the growth of the gallery and its continuing service to photography in, and of, Australia.
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MAPh – 100 FACES Exhibition entry
MAPh Developments
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Director Anouska Phizacklea leads a Q+A session
In the afternoon the MAPh was further celebrated with a stellar line-up of Australian artist/photographers including Ray Cook, Hoda Afshar, @Jane Burton, Ross Coulter, Anouska Phizacklea, Van Sowerwine, @Sonia Payes, @Paula Mahoney and David Rosetzky. Director Anouska Phizacklea led a Q+A session where the panellists were invited to speak about their life works, what inspires them and what new projects they’re working on.
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Congratulations to the Director and team at the new MAPh and we look forward to your new identity and the emergence of a new exciting era in Australian photography exhibiting, collecting and commentary.
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(some texts edited from the MAPh Releases and SM posts)
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All photos ©2023 Doug Spowart
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The NGA’s CEREMONY: An Art Educators workshop at Shepparton Art Museum
SAM / NGA Ceremony Teacher Learning Program
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ABOUT Ceremony + The 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial
From the publication Foreword by Nick Mitzevich, Director – National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia is proud to present the fourth iteration of the National Indigenous Art Triennial, titled Ceremony. The exhibition is curated, and this publication edited, by National Gallery Senior Curator-at-large, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Hetti Perkins (Arrernte and Kalkadoon peoples), one of the country’s most celebrated and experienced curators.
Ceremony brings together more than 35 artists from around Australia whose work highlights the primacy of ceremony in their practice and how it connects to community, culture and Country. Featuring newly commissioned works from across the continent, Ceremony represents the diverse practices of First Nations artists in this country, from large-scale installation, performance and video, to ceramics, carving, weaving and photography.
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Ceremony: Teacher Professional Learning Program – An Art Educators workshop at Shepparton Art Museum
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WORKSHOP STRATEGY: The intent of the Teacher Professional Learning Program is to develop capacity for educators in engaging with First Nations visual arts practice using Ceremony, the National Gallery of Australia’s National Indigenous Art Triennial (NIAT) traveling exhibition, as a reference point.
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Anni Jane Linklater, SAM Education Coordinator, opened the event with an Acknowledgement of Country and we were introduced to the NGA teams facilitating the program including members from the curatorial work group, the education representatives and attending artists exhibited in the exhibition.
In the Teacher Professional Learning Program at SAM
With our fellow art educators and other art community representatives the program began with a short lecture session discussing the issues and framework for educational programs and presentations on First Nations art and artists. In this presentation Kelli Cole (NGA First Nations Curator), Aidan Hartshorn (Ceremony Exhibition Curator) and Belinda Briggs (SAM First Nations Curator) discussed the importance of the NIAT to the Australian National Gallery, ‘the significance of commissioning new work, First Nations perspectives and engagement as key National Gallery priority’.
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Kelli Cole discusses Yarrenyty Arltere Artists & Tangentyere Artists, Blak Pariament House (detail), 2021
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In the next part of the program we undertook a floor talk with Kelli Cole and Aidan Hartshorn. Also in this session we were introduced to artist Penny Evans (K/Gamilaroi people), who talked about her work in the show – Burn, 2021. Aidan Hartshorn spoke about his personal connection with his language that was referenced in S.J Norman’s (Wiradjuri people), Bone Library, 2012-2021. The floor talk was both informative and inspirational. We were invited to ask questions and add our thoughts to the interpretation of each of the artworks.
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Some of the discussion topics included were:
- Rather than use of the word “Country” in discussing the artist and their art, which was not advised, instead “Place” was suggested as an alternative term. In using the word “Place” the presenter shows they understand and respect the deep and layered meaning embedded in the word “Country” for First Nations’ culture.
- Research the artist; their story, history and approaches to their art before presenting to give an informed discussion.
- Always use the artists’ words where possible, if not, draw upon the curators’ information.
- Bring creative interactive activities; sensorial and conceptual connections and empathy to the experience of the work for the audience/students.
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Penny Evans, K/Gamilaroi people, discusses her work Burn, 2020-2021
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After morning tea we worked under the guidance of artist Penny Evans in shaping malleable brown clay into small objects to reference the banksia or other forms of nature. Evans created an inclusive, relaxing, meditative space for the participants in their creative work. While working we discussed issues of contemporary education and the importance of using hands in teaching and learning across a variety of subjects beyond art. We were all in agreement that this is a fundamental mode of education to empower students to communicate and work through the development of ideas and knowledge.
Penny Evans in her clay workshop
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After a working lunch in SAM’s Café, Leanne Waterhouse discussed that the NGA were in the process of refining a framework with which First Nations art and cultural issues could be presented. She introduced the provisional draft document entitled The Art Ways of Learning Principles which outlines a values-based approach for best practice and engagement in the National Gallery of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts program and broader learning programs. The principles consist of 5 themes or “pillars” that outline concepts including the values and characteristics of the framework as follows (from the lecture slide):
- Encouraging deep listening and thinking
- Centring First Nations artists voices
- Elevating First Nations arts diversity
- Creating memorable experiences
- Promoting living culture(s) of First Nations people
As educators we were encouraged to consider these Principles and their connection with ‘Indigenous ways of Knowing, Being and Doing’ when we are communicating with others about culture and art.
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Joel Bray, Wiradjuri people, Giraaru Galing Gaanhagirri (the wind will bring rain), 2022 (fragment of video)
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Finally, under the guidance of Noah Watson, NGA First Nations Learning Facilitator and Leanne Waterhouse, we were asked to form two separate groups and prepare a presentation each focussing on a different artwork. One group was given Joel Bray, (Wiradjuri people), Giraaru Galing Gaanhagirri (the wind will bring rain), 2022: an installation of TV screens in which the audience is engaged with the artist’s performance of a dance where his body becomes transparent merging his movement with images of his country.
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Discussing Gutiŋarra Yunupiŋu, Gumatj people, Maralitja, 2021 (constructed image)
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The other group discussed Gutiŋarra Yunupiŋu, (Gumatj people), Maralitja, 2021: an installation of 3 large-scale screens that engaged the audience with a video of waves breaking on the beach from a ground level perspective. During the video there were segments of ceremony and meaning that connected to the artist’s life, his totem, Bäru (the crocodile) and his story in Place.
Through our deep immersion in the Ceremony exhibition through this program we were challenged, inspired, and at times deeply moved by the sharing of knowledge/knowing. This workshop has enhanced both our teaching and learning experience in the engagement with, and discussion of the art of First Nations Peoples. We wish to acknowledge the Shepparton Art Museum for hosting the event and exhibition as well as the National Gallery of Australia for their initiative with the National Indigenous Art Triennial and the opportunity for regional artists and educators to connect with such an informative program.
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Drs Victoria Cooper + Doug Spowart
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4th NIAT – CEREMONY Online Publication
FOR MORE INFORMATION VIEW THE ONLINE PUBLICATION: “CLICK” HERE
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.Images of the workshop and gallery installation ©Doug Spowart 2023
All other copyrights reside with the artists whose works were represented in the Ceremony exhibition
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