Title

A Sacred Place - Micky Durrng.

Venues

UTS Gallery (11 May 2004 – 4 June 2004)

Date

(2004)

Summary

Single-artist exhibition. Located: Australia (NSW). Paintings

Curator

Djon Mundine

Country of context

Australia

Abstract

Presented by UTS Gallery and the UTS Equity & Diversity Unit.

Site specific wall painting
The gallery space will be covered by Micky Durrng's 'wall painting' of a body design of the Liyagalawumirr people of north-east Arnhem Land. In 1998 elder Durrng placed this design boldly onto the flat regular surface of a piece of bark for the first time. While Durrng's paintings are minimal and geometric, they depict sacred stories of the travels and creations of Ancestral beings known as The Two Djan'kawu Sisters who are thought of as the original mothers of Aboriginal people.

The stripes alternatively represent the rays of the sun, the refraction of light from the scales of fish caught by the Kingfisher bird in the coastal mangroves, and marks left on the trunks of mangrove trees by the coming and going of the tides. This form of installation grew from conversations between the artist and curator Djon Mundine. Under Durrng's instructions the concept is to create a space of shimmering light - to place the viewer in the landscape - inside 'a sacred place'. This work has been seen around the world in site specific configurations as part of the MCA's Native Born exhibition, since 2000. [gallery media]