The Musée du Quai Branly houses the art and artefacts of indigenous cultures, with an Australian Aboriginal collection in its Oceana Section. It most notably holds the largest international commission of contemporary Indigenous art from Australia. In 2013, with the aim of integrating non-European art into the architectural concept of the building, architect Jean Nouvel commissioned a series of contemporary Aboriginal art installations to be painted on the ceilings, roof and façade of the building on Rue de l’Université. Eight artists were called upon: four women (Lena Nyadbi, Judy Watson, Gulumbu Yunupingu, Ningura Napurrula) and four men (John Mawurndjul, Paddy Nyunkuny Bedford, Michael Riley, Tommy Watson), each originating from different communities and cultures, reflecting the art of the territories and urban art.
Dayiwul Lirlmim (Baramundi Scales) by Lena Nyadbi, on the roof of the Musée du Quai Branly.
It is against this historical backdrop of interest and investment in the Australian Aboriginal art movement that buyers from Arteum came across our My Country collection at LDF, commissioning us to supply their museum shop with My Country wallpaper-covered stationary.
And for those with a further interest in the intersection of Australian Aboriginal Art and Architecture, here is a short video documenting the Quai Branly project:
Short film following the making of Australia's greatest indigenous art commission. Interviews with architects, planners and artists. The viewer gains an insight into the complexities of such an important project .
In her life as an artist Sylvaria Napurrurla Walker stands in a family tradition of reputed Utopian painters. The Red Mallee Dreaming she inherited from her grandmother Topsy Pwerle Jones, who along with her aunt Joycelyn Petyarre Jones influenced Sylvaria's evocative feathery compositional style.
The Jitilypuru, or Red Mallee flower is a Eucalyptus species found in arid areas of the desert, and used by the Aboriginals as a sweetener (Eucalyptus rhodantha (Rose Mallee). It is a plant with few yet long-living flowers, lasting 20-30 days and daily producing large amount of nectar. Flowering occurs between March and November, peaking in the winter months of June to August.
The colour and scale dynamics in this painting beautifully convey the delight of this vibrant, fragrant flower in the arid Australian desert landscape, and through its image the artist expresses her and her community's connection with Country, with its bright sweet gifts.
Photo credit: www.malleenativeplants.com.au
Red Malee Dreaming by Sylvaria Napurrurla Walker, detail.
Dreamtime is the English translation of the word Jukurrpa, with a meaning encompassing the creation myths and transmitted memories of the Australian Aboriginal people, an immemorial expressive tradition. Jukurrpa is so intrinsically connected with this 40,000 year old community's history and wisdom that the most accurate way of translating it has been to allude to our sense of the formative intangible experience, memory, the divine, the imagination, the dream that inspires creation.
"Our Art is born from the dreams of each artist and the intense colours we see in our land... Through dreams, we can enter the other – parallel – world, in which since creation, gods, spirits and men have lived together." **
Every artist has a Dreaming, which they will interpret throughout their life, enjoying their connection to their dream and the keys they hold to community life.
Red Malee Dreaming by Sylvaria Napurrurla Walker, detail.
** Quoted from the excellent documentary The Men of the Fifth World:
The aboriginal culture of Australia, includes a large number of tribes inhabiting the oceanic continent before the arrival of the white man. But all that rich culture is doomed to survive in stocks in which its people are destined to extinction.
The voices of the amazing Australian Aboriginal women artists we represent, the sale of their artwork & the My Country Interiors collection means their communities earn crucial revenue streams.
This allows them to gain independence, access to health care, maintain their origins, cultural heritage and connection with the land.
Through their roles as artists they are expanding the global awareness of an ancient culture in contemporary times. The artist communities we represent are made up of men and women, who have distinct but equally valuable stories to tell and paint of their people and country & it is our privilege to share them and give them a platform.
Visual language is integral to the Australian Aboriginal culture. Here (as elsewhere) Art is more than the final product that moves us, art is defined by its creative process. Here, all of creation is in relationship, at one with the land, and the artists are in relationship with their community, sharing stories.
Whether painted on musical instruments or on canvas, the artists recount mapping myths, rituals and sacred topography – they are metaphors for life's journeys, full of symbolism and references to history, botany, topography and the traditional rural Aboriginal way of life.
My Country ceramic wall tiles, core collection (30 cm x 30 cm)
Due to the meaning and spiritual importance of every element in the artworks, the very first design stage for My Country involves state of the art techniques to ensure the detailed quality of each artwork is preserved across mediums.
My Country's sensitive translations of sophisticated colour, geometry, texture and scale dynamics is born of consultation and deliberation with design and manufacturing experts. Such collaborations ensure the collection successfully articulates the relationship between motif and medium, visual and physical texture in an unprecedented way!
We look forward to exhibiting this at Surface Design!
And if you are not able to make it, you are always welcome to pop by our gallery & showroom.
Bay Gallery Home's Bush Onion 1 tile, expertly manufactured by Johnson Tiles.
bay gallery home's my country range of australian aboriginal wallpapers, tiles & rugs is a translation of authentic artworks.
Starting with Water Dreaming, by Shorty Jangala Robertson.
This Ngapa Jukurrpa, or Water Dreaming is the work of a master of colour field abstraction: Shorty Jangala Robertson. Described as a stetson-wearing superstar, he didn’t start painting until he was quite elderly. After a life of struggle and trauma involving being hunted by “white fella” during the Coniston massacre, and being separated from his mother during WW2, Shorty became a sought after world class artist. His paintings are found in collections around the world, and notably in the New South Wallers Art Gallery.
The Rug Makers: dedicated to their craft! Here they painstakingly colour match the artist's palette...
The technical expertise of our collaborators is key to our pioneering core range of wallpapers, ceramics wall tiles & rugs, and our made to order service.
My Country is unique in translating authentic Central Australian Aboriginal artwork into interior surfaces. Due to the meaning and spiritual importance of every element in the artworks, we make sure to enlist state of the art techniques to preserve the detailed quality of each piece.
Translating the quality of the artists' brushstrokes and character, and in particular their sophisticated use of colour across mediums posed a real technical challenge, to which our collaborators masterfully rose!
Tada! Our vibrant Water Dreaming rug, 100% wool (200cm x 140cm).
Mina Mina Dreamtime Rug, 100 % wool, hand knotted.
The wonderful throbbing, pulsating and constantly moving work of Pauline Nangala Gallagher is influenced by a semi-blindness in one eye. Whilst this might be a disadvantage in day to day life, it gives her a wholly unique perspective. Pauline’s country is Pikilyi (Vaughan Springs), a sacred water hole 350 km north-west of Alice Springs. Canvases and paints have been dropped to this remote location since 2005. Pauline paints her stories using a huge array of colours influenced by the colours of her country.
Bay Gallery Home offers bespoke, made to order rugs from our vast collection of authentic Australian Aboriginal Artworks recounting the Aboriginal Dreamtime.
My Country rugs are hand-knotted and available in wool, bamboo silk, Chinese silk or art viscose silk. They can be made to any size, colours may be altered, though the design must stay the same.
Our rugs are manufactured through the ‘GoodWeave’ programme and distributed from the UK.
Water Dreaming (Ngapa Jukurrpa) - Puruyrru, 100% wool hand made rug.
The artist, Shanna, is the great grand-daughter of Paddy Japaljarri Sims (Dec) and Bessie Nakamarra Sims (Dec), two of the senior Aboriginal artists at the forefront of the Aboriginal art movement. Shanna started painting when she was 14 years old. Her favourite Jukurrpa, or Dreaming, is the highly complex Water Dreaming, Puyurru, which she depicts in deceptively simple terms and an unrestricted palette.
Bay Gallery Home offers bespoke, made to order rugs from our vast collection of authentic Australian Aboriginal Artworks recounting the Aboriginal Dreamtime.
My Country rugs are hand-knotted and available in wool, bamboo silk, Chinese silk or art viscose silk. They can be made to any size, colours may be altered, though the design must stay the same.
Our rugs are manufactured through the ‘GoodWeave’ programme and distributed from the UK.
Margaret Kemarre Ross, Bush Flowers & Medicine Plants.
"We look for these plants in rocky country, we can find a little purple plum that we use to clean the kidneys and sometimes for flu. The yellow flowers are used for scabies, we boil them in water and wash our skin with it. The pink flowers we use for when we have sore eyes, we mix the flowers with water and the colour changes to a light green."
The Australian Aboriginal people are the one of the oldest continuous populations on earth, and their visual language is considered one of the world’s oldest Art forms, spanning over 50,000 years. The connection to 'country' is essential. Their tribal Dreamings, creation and mapping myths, rituals and sacred topography inspire bold, beautiful abstract paintings featuring the landscape, plants and animals of Australia's central desert. The Aboriginals see no difference between themselves, the sky, the land and the animals they share it with. All are one and the same.
My Country, Bush Onion 2 sequence of ceramic wall tiles
Australian Bustard birds feature in this Bush Onion Dreaming story, traditionally jealous of the larger, stronger Emu. The altercations between these birds are often recounted in Australian Aboriginal lore.
This sequence of four tiles is made up of two end tile designs and one middle tile design that can be used as many times as desired. It creates a lovely dynamic symmetrical effect at large scale, we encourage you to use it as a focal point, border or in one of our furniture designs!.
One of our beautiful hand crafted Cedar of Lebanon dining tables, made in Gloucestershire from sustainably managed woodlands.
An elegant combination of red ochre & the slight irregularities of hand painted art, reminiscent of Jali screens – shown here used en masse as a feature in bathrooms, kitchen splash backs, fireplaces...
Bush onion, or janmarda, can be found in the river banks and are dug up using digging sticks. The Aboriginal people wait for the leaves to dry out before eating it. So long as the bulb is white inside, it will be eaten raw or cooked.
Through her painting, the tile artist Sarah Napurrula White is telling a Bush Onion Dreaming, or Janmarda Jukurrpa. One of the main sites for this story is Purrupurru, in the remote red centre of Australia, where you can see an old Jungarrayi man in the form of a large stone figure.
Sarah also likes to paint Bush Onion Dreamings because she likes the designs and patterns. When she’s not painting, Sarah works for the aged and children, and on weekends she loves to go hunting with the old people.
The majority of our artists are women who play an active role in their communities, not only practically but in building communal ties through the visual language of Dreamtime painting.
With their geometric harmony, these ceramic tiles lend themselves to versatile use, from en masse styling as a splash back, to design feature in our bespoke furniture range.
Bush Onion 1 beautifully offsetting modern minimalism.
Emu Dreaming denotes a sacred waterhole where initiation ceremonies are performed. The jealousy between Emus and the Australian Bustard are a theme of Dreamtime, and they would be found fighting over bush raisins around the site...
The artist, Sarah Napurrarula White, lives and paints several hours away from the main art centre. Every few weeks art centre workers drive three hours to the remote settlement on her traditional homelands that she shares with her young family.
Her paintings were used for several tile designs due to their simple, beautiful graphic nature – giving them an aesthetic versatility when used in space: whether modern, rustic or eclectic!
My Country, Wallpaper BLUE depicts Kangaroo plant & Pigweed plentiful after the rain, a rich source of food for Kangaroos.
In this depiction, Michelle Pula Morton introduces us to a microscopic view of the land she cherishes, an intimate portrayal that is a distinct departure from her typical work.
In 2013, Michelle was awarded the 30th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA) People’s Choice in 2013. The award recognises important contributions made by Indigenous artists from regional and urban areas throughout Australia, working in both traditional and contemporary media
My Country, Wallpaper PINK depicts the land in the dry season, when only the hardiest bushes & established trees are still visible.
"This is my country. I paint because I enjoy painting. My Mother, Edie Holmes let us paint with her when we where young and now we paint all the time. We still paint and talk together in a family group with our kids."
As Alana Ngwarraye paints, children and extended family gather and tell stories. Having learnt the skill from her mother, her painting now supports her four children.
Bay Gallery Home's My Country Wallpaper, PINK : stylish enough to feature in VOGUE!
Painting by Louise Napangardi Dickson (Mina Mina Dreaming) - available as a rug.
Today we celebrate Australia's cultural richness by remembering the Australian Aboriginal Flag and its symbolic colours: black for the aboriginal people of Australia; yellow for the sun – the protector & giver of life; red for the earth, the ceremonial red ochres and the Aboriginal peoples' spiritual relationship to the land.
The flag was designed in 1971 by Aboriginal artist Harold Thomas. It is now an 'Official Flag of Australia', but was originally created for the land rights movement, establishing the inherent Aboriginal right to land.
My Country, Wallpaper GREEN is a translation of a painting by Lilly Kemarre Morton, depicting the Australian outback: bush tucker & bush medicine plentiful after the rains.
Notice the sugar bag tree, rendered here in yellow by Lilly – a natural bee sweetener found in tree hollows, it is a favoured motif of hers.
Lilly's husband is the legendary Banjo Petyarre Morton, who led the historical Aboriginal stockmen walk-offs of 1949, successfully winning the fundamental right to earn wages instead of rations.
Bay Gallery Home's My Country Wallpaper, GREEN.
Lilly's landscapes beautifully communicate the rich knowledge she possesses of both medicinal plants and country, the heart of her culture.
As a young girl, Lilly lived traditionally off of the land with her family and Alyawarr people. In Lilly's lifetime, she has experienced and borne witness to the irreversible changes of country and way of life, previously unchanged for thousands of years.
She is now a kind and gentle elder of the community, and often tells her family and friends stories of how life used to be in Alywarre, her language. These stories are also a great inspiration for many of the artists within the community.
Lilly is passionate about nature, especially her country and the plants that grow on it, and though she has little English, she is ever keen to explain the various bush medicines which she depicts in her paintings.
"Our art is born from the dreams of each artist and the intense colours we see in our land."
My Countryreferences the Australian Aboriginal philosophy and creative process, whereby all of creation is in relationship, at one with the land.
In our pioneering translations of our artists' artwork into interiors ranges : wallpapers, tiles, rugs, we bring something of the character of Australia's landscapes into your homes.
The artwork we represent stands in the tradition of a sophisticated visual language, composed of layers of regular irregularities of colour, geometry, repetition and scale dynamics.
The particular provenance and symbols of this art – mapping myths, rituals and sacred topography – results in a compelling, versatile aesthetic with a most subtle compositional depth of field. It imbues spaces with wider horizons of the imagination.
