Our recent foray into 100% Design London 2019 was four days of pure interior designer jubilance.
Bay Gallery Home offers colour and pattern with origin helping support the Aboriginal artists we represent. The Australian Aboriginals are the oldest continuous race in the world sustaining symbiotic relationships with the land. Designers were keen to embrace the traditional owners’ depictions of their land and Dreamtime stories and we enjoyed meeting so many professionals in interior design and architecture who worked across residential and commercial projects.
Some of the most interesting conversations we had, were with those in the commercial sector looking to add colour to the grey/black/wood/concrete/stripped brick interiors they have been specifying for years. One designer said he had being asked to specify internal gardens, including moss walls, but as an alternative he wanted to offer our Lilly Green wallpaper.
One of the best moments of a design fair for us, is watching people’s faces as they come across our stand and the Aboriginal designs for the first time. As we explain the origin of the designs and invite people to explore our stand, it’s great to see any self consciousness leave them, opening them up to a wholly tactile experience as they study the fabrics, wallpapers, tiles and rugs.
We were also thrilled many interior designers wanted to specify our ‘My Country’ collection for their own homes.
Sabrina is a young Aboriginal Central Desert artist related to the famous colour field abstractionist Shorty Jangala Robertson; like Shorty she paints Ngapa Jukurrpa (Pirlinyarnu) inheriting it from her father and grandfather who in turn learnt it from generations across millennia. Her mother is the world renowned artist Dorothy Napangardi (recently featured in the Australia exhibition at the Royal Academy). Mount Farewell (Pirlinyarnu) is where Sabrina's Dreaming sits in her traditional lands are. She has chosen to depict the sacred Dreamtime story, in a way unique to her, where water appears to travel across the canvas with small water soakages encased in the rain drops and native plants and animals dot the land.
In 2014 her work was selected for 'Same Country Same Jukurrpa' at the Australian Museum. Sabrina's painting was shown alongside hugely important artists of the desert community she comes from including Judy Napangardi Watson, Alma Nungarrayi Granites and Otto Jungarrayi Sims. The exhibition followed on from the world's first Aboriginal women only exhibition held at the Museum in 1992 entitled 'Woman Artists'. The new exhibitions aim was to show the development in artistic styles amongst the artists as they moved away from traditional circular dot painting to establish their unique styles as artists whilst sharing their ancestors stories.
You can by the painting in the gallery or online at www.baygalleryhome.com
Ngapa Jukurrpa Pirlinyarnu, Sabrina Nangala Robertson, Acrylic on linen 30x30cm
