Mina Mina 2004

Napangardi was a senior Warlpiri woman who painted her Country of Mina Mina, a cultural site 300 km west of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory. Mina Mina is an important ceremonial site where Walpiri women have danced and performed for generations. There are also a number of mulju (water soakages) at Mina Mina where women collect bush tucker including ngalyipi (snake vine) and yakajirri (bush sultana). Caring for Country is a daily experience for many Aboriginal people who balance their cultural and spiritual responsibilities with their busy contemporary lives.

Untitled (Layers of stuff building over time) 2014

Based on his own unique vision and quirky personal style, David Shrigley’s works reflect on the banality and absurdity of everyday life. Although he had a formal art education Shrigley does not demonstrate any traditional artistic skills in his work now. He draws and paints in the same way he did as a young child, for example using his own fingers rather than a paint brush.

We are used to seeing images accompanied by text all around us, on social media, on the TV, and on signs and advertisements, but in Shrigley’s works this relationship is sometimes not immediately obvious. He prompts us to question the meaning between image and text and allows room for our own interpretation.

How do you interpret this work? How does it connect to your everyday life?

Untitled 2014 and Untitled 2015

Our lives have always been torn and put together – people have always been pushed around. You see it in the streets, in the kids begging, those eyes, the way they look at you.

– Kay Hassan, 2000

This is what South African artist Kay Hassan says about these portraits, inspired by the people of Johannesburg. Hassan creates these large-scale ‘paper constructions’ by shredding billboard paper and gluing the tattered scraps of commercial advertisements back together to assemble large collages. In this way he is embracing and celebrating everyday materials that he finds in his city. The materials and techniques are as important as the finished portraits in capturing the character of Johannesburg.

Think about something that represents your neighbourhood or community. How could you turn this into a work of art?

Four letter words: Home 2013, Four letter words: Wild 2013 and Four letter words: Rest 2013 from the On Top of the World: Flags for Melbourne series 2013

Flags evolved centuries ago as part of military campaigns and battles as ‘field signs’ or visual tools for identification and communication across distance. Today they have many common purposes, but retain their roots in communicating identity. Alongside the communication of nationality, flags have been regularly adopted as part of festivities, rallies and cultural events. They are fundamentally understood, across many situations and cultures, as a way of stating identity and belief.

These works were created as part of a public art project, called Flags for Melbourne, developed by Melbourne print studio Spacecraft. They invited artists to explore the symbolic, semantic and decorative potential of flags, considering both their customary use, as well as alternative opportunities for flag-waving.

Jon Campbell created his flags for display atop working cranes across building sites in the CBD.

Kulai pamle (First family) 2017

Hans Ahwang’s neckpiece, Kulai pamle (First family), is based on his family history. His maternal family, the Ware family, were one of the first families to leave Mabuiag Island in the Torres Strait in the early 1900s to resettle on the eastern side of Moa Island at Wug Village. Made from sea hibiscus acquired from Saibai Island, the hoop lei features moon shells collected off the coral reef of Mua, and feathers from Ahwang’s garden on Mua, as well as green feathers from the emerald dove of the Torres Strait. Describing his process Ahwang states: ‘This lei is inspired by the lifestyle and the culture of my people, it’s important to continue to do some things the old ways and learn from the Elders, that’s why I am doing the rekindling projects with the young people of Mua’.

Ku – Camp dog 2015 and Laughing ku 2015

Ku is the Wik‑Mungkan language name for the ‘camp dogs’ of Aurukun in Queensland. Drawing on their wood‑carving skills, historically used for ceremonial purposes, these artists have sculpted a suite of Ku. Each dog in the collection has its own personality and quirky expression and together they create a formidable pack. In Aboriginal communities across the country, cheeky dogs are respected creatures and often seen wandering the streets, stealing scraps and resting in the shade.

Off-piste bench 2015

Jonathan Ben-Tovim’s Off-piste bench playfully explores the idea of ‘up-cycling’, the process of creating new artefacts and products from unwanted products and waste materials. Ben-Tovim explains, ‘products can suddenly lose their value just because they are a few years old, even if they have a lot of amazing technology in them. I thought it was interesting to show that when things are repurposed in a new context, all of a sudden they can seem valuable again’. Off-piste bench demonstrates how the perception of material value can be manipulated, celebrated and co-opted through the design process.

Ngalpan Buway lei (Our family lei) 2017

Ngalpan Buway lei (Our family lei) is a collaborative neckpiece made by Theresa Clermont, Shirley Daniel, Dadib Ingui and Bonita Kaida. Coming together at the lei workshop on Saibai Island, the women shared experiences of Elders teaching them to bead, weave and make jewellery from natural materials found across the Torres Strait and Papua New Guinea (PNG). Turning their focus to recycling material resources at hand on Saibai, they developed a technique for making cylinders from aluminium soft drink cans. With PNG visible from the banks of Saibai, the Cassowary feathers are purchased from PNG day traders and incorporated to symbolise the strong ties between the people of Saibai and PNG.

Messiah Luzab Lera Kaubo Arsir II (The whole island of Mer, making things, making lei II) 2017

This collaborative work pays homage to the traditional lei. The central painting of the Octopus and silver and enamel totems reference the tribes of Mer: Komet, Zagareb, Meuram, Magaram, Geuram, Peibre, Meriam‑Samsep, Piadram and Dauer Meriam. Looking closely, you can find celebrations of some of the many species found on Mer, including Tup (the Sardine), Wanpun (the Gecko), Arti (the Octopus), Iwer (yellow and black fish), eneu (wongai seed), ero (bell fruit), lusik (flowers), lulam (leaves), lukurup (wild cherry tomatoes), weswes (coral), pet (shell) and gar (the mangrove pod). The combination of many artists’ hands has instilled this monumental lei with a sense of identity and place specific to the people of Mer and signifies the artists’ strong connection with their land and waterways.

Cow 2003

Subodh Gupta was born in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, one of the poorest and least developed areas of India. His work celebrates the visible traces of everyday life for many Indians. Gupta grew up in a devout Hindu household. Hindu is a religion that considers everything around us, and everywhere, to be imbued with the divine. By elevating humble objects found in domestic and street life, he provides an opportunity to appreciate the everyday, and to reflect on our place in the world.
Speaking of this sculpture of a bicycle with milk pails Gupta explains, ‘The bicycle is like a mechanised cow in the city. In the country if I wanted milk, I would go to the cows to get it; in the city it is delivered to you by bicycle’

Early morning 2010, Will it ever work 2011 and Self portrait IV, 25 March 2012 2012

David Hockney has experimented with innovative technologies throughout his career and, in 2009, began drawing on touch screens with his first iPhone. He soon after moved on to a larger iPad screen, which is similar in scale to a traditional sketchbook. He prefers drawing using a stylus pen rather than his finger, and loves the range of colour, speed and mobility the iPad offers for his daily art‑making. The drawing application records each mark made in the production of his works, which helps Hockney challenge himself to draw faster and with greater economy. Through these humorous and joyful works Hockney reminds us to take note of the small moments in everyday life that often get overlooked.

How can you use electronic devices such as computers and tablets to make art and explore the world around you?

Gazir lagoon II 2017

Gazir lagoon II by Louisa Nancy Kiwat and Fred Mislam Kiwat are lei made from the artists’ own collections of shells and seeds gathered over many years from the reef, beach and bush of Erub. Both born on Thursday Island and raised on Erub (Darnley Island), the Kiwats were married in 2004. The collaborative neckpieces represent masculinity and femininity, imbued with a sense of place, memory and identity, specific to their relationship.

Samul Gy Mariyl (Coconut and cassowary feather spirits) 2017

Petta Laza made Samul Gy Mariyl as homage to her Athe (Grandfather) and Aka (Grandmother) in acknowledgment of Laza’s heritage, which extends to Badhu Island, Saibai Island, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Constructed from the parts of multiple coconuts, Laza peeled and shredded the outer layer of the fibrous husk to create the leaf elements threaded on the coconut shoot. The multiple faces with red mouths and tongues are made from the hard inner layer of the coconut shell.

City walkers 2018

While planning for this work, Julian Opie asked a local photographer to set up his camera in various places around Melbourne and record the passers‑by. The photographer created hundreds of photographs and Opie selected the ones he preferred, then drew them in his London studio. In City walkers, Opie has reduced each person down to simple shapes, but has been able to retain their individuality by including elements of their personal style choices, such as a tattoo, a goatee or the logo on a T‑shirt. He says, ‘A gang of characters emerged, caught in mid stride, going about their business with bags or phones or cold drinks. Their random, momentary decisions became frozen into a set piece’.

Opie has a strong interest in art from the past. The configuration of this wall frieze was inspired by ancient Egyptian art but the work is also a picture of everyday life in twenty-first-century Melbourne.

Mr Lion (Dingo story ku) 2016

Ku is the Wik‑Mungkan language name for the ‘camp dogs’ of Aurukun in Queensland. Drawing on their wood‑carving skills, historically used for ceremonial purposes, these artists have sculpted a suite of Ku. Each dog in the collection has its own personality and quirky expression and together they create a formidable pack. In Aboriginal communities across the country, cheeky dogs are respected creatures and often seen wandering the streets, stealing scraps and resting in the shade.

Big ku 2016 and Ochre ku 2016

Ku is the Wik‑Mungkan language name for the ‘camp dogs’ of Aurukun in Queensland. Drawing on their wood‑carving skills, historically used for ceremonial purposes, these artists have sculpted a suite of Ku. Each dog in the collection has its own personality and quirky expression and together they create a formidable pack. In Aboriginal communities across the country, cheeky dogs are respected creatures and often seen wandering the streets, stealing scraps and resting in the shade.

360 flip on country 2014

Claudia Moodoonuthi has painted six skateboards with colourful designs that express her connection to Country and ceremony of the Kaiadilt and Lardil peoples, of Bentinck Island, Queensland. The vibrant paintings on the face of the skateboards echo those of founding Kaiadilt artists. The bold stripes and dotted compositions beneath the wheels of the skateboards reveal Moodoonuthi’s deep familiarity with Lardil iconography as nurtured in her formative years. As a collection, these
skateboards show Moodoonuthi’s powers of invention on objects symbolic of modern Indigenous youth.

Starlight ku 2015 and Black ku 2016

Ku is the Wik‑Mungkan language name for the ‘camp dogs’ of Aurukun in Queensland. Drawing on their wood‑carving skills, historically used for ceremonial purposes, these artists have sculpted a suite of Ku. Each dog in the collection has its own personality and quirky expression and together they create a formidable pack. In Aboriginal communities across the country, cheeky dogs are respected creatures and often seen wandering the streets, stealing scraps and resting in the shade.

Ku (Camp dog) 2004, Baby blossum Ku 2016 and Champ ku 2016

Ku is the Wik‑Mungkan language name for the ‘camp dogs’ of Aurukun in Queensland. Drawing on their wood‑carving skills, historically used for ceremonial purposes, these artists have sculpted a suite of Ku. Each dog in the collection has its own personality and quirky expression and together they create a formidable pack. In Aboriginal communities across the country, cheeky dogs are respected creatures and often seen wandering the streets, stealing scraps and resting in the shade.

Brutus ku 2015

Ku is the Wik‑Mungkan language name for the ‘camp dogs’ of Aurukun in Queensland. Drawing on their wood‑carving skills, historically used for ceremonial purposes, these artists have sculpted a suite of Ku. Each dog in the collection has its own personality and quirky expression and together they create a formidable pack. In Aboriginal communities across the country, cheeky dogs are respected creatures and often seen wandering the streets, stealing scraps and resting in the shade.

Smiley Blue Eye 2016, Three legged ku 2016, Ancient ku 2016 and Blue boy ku 2018

Ku is the Wik‑Mungkan language name for the ‘camp dogs’ of Aurukun in Queensland. Drawing on their wood‑carving skills, historically used for ceremonial purposes, these artists have sculpted a suite of Ku. Each dog in the collection has its own personality and quirky expression and together they create a formidable pack. In Aboriginal communities across the country, cheeky dogs are respected creatures and often seen wandering the streets, stealing scraps and resting in the shade.

Sai (Fish fence) 2017

Rion Savage was born in 1974 in Mount Isa and presently works as the activities supervisor for the arts and crafts group on Erub (Darnley Island). With ancestry from Torres Strait, Cape York, Papua New Guinea, Jamaica and Europe, Savage learned to paint, weave, carve and make traditional dance costumes, including Zarzee (skirts) and Dari (headdresses), from his grandfather Sam Savage and his uncles, who remain important influences on his art. Sai (fish fence) is a woven lei made from insulation foam, sprayed with yellow enamel paint for effect. The weaving style is inspired by pandanas weaving and represents a traditional fish trap. Repurposing industrial materials, such as foam, rubber and aluminium to create art that can express cultural values and a sense of place, excites the artist.

As Savage says: ‘I love innovation and I love innovative art. Just last night I was thinking about how I love art because when you create something it inspires people’.

Ilwer (The morning star) 2017

Ilwer (The morning star) by Maryann Sebasio is made from black rubber adorned with a fringe of long blue and pink nylon‑silk threads. Sebasio has crocheted the blue thread around the perimeter of the black rubber circle and stitched shells collected from the Erub reef, in the Torres Strait, Queensland. Speaking about her practice Sebasio explains, ‘The works I create represent my ancestors and my culture, and incorporate materials from the environment on Erub Island that I have collected, like seeds, shells, and ghost nets that have washed up on the shore’.

33 objects that can fit through the hole in my pocket 2013

Charlie Sofo documents everyday findings and happenings through his art practice. This video comprises short vignettes in which the camera, locked on a shot of the artist’s feet, documents random objects – a vegetable peeler, a lighter, a tube of glue – falling down his trouser leg and landing on the floor. This work raises questions about perceived and actual value, the resourcefulness of artists, as well as the challenging economic conditions many artists work within. Sofo also humorously critiques how people might distinguish between trash or treasure.

Thukral & Tagra
est. 2003
Jiten Thukral
India, born 1976
Sumir

Coming soon at your neighbourhood 2008

This work by artist duo Thukral & Tagra is a statement on the rapid expansion of consumer culture in urban India. The artists use the dinosaurs as a metaphor to convey their theory that ‘our current modes of consumption are outdated and if we continue it may well also be humans who are extinct’. The logo appearing throughout the work originates from the artists’ invented brand Bosedk Design, the name of a mock‑English‑language version of an insulting Punjabi term. Appearing across their practice from design and retail commissions to paintings, sculptures, wallpaper and installations, Thukral & Tagra use the Bosedk branding as a deliberate and ironic comment on this consumer culture and the commercialisation of the art world.

Kakan (Baskets) 2013–2016

Delissa Walker’s handwoven baskets highlight the importance of generational knowledge and cultural continuation by sharing the role weaving plays in the everyday lives of First Nations people. As Walker explains, ‘I think of my baskets as more than my hobby, but as passing on and teaching my culture just as my grandmother did for me. When I made the big basket, it was a bit emotional for me because it is the biggest piece made since my grandmother passed. I am the only one who makes them this big. So, if I don’t do it, a special part of my culture and grandmother would be lost. The direction I take with my weaving is to simply teach and inspire anyone who wants to learn and, of course, my children’.

Crepe copper lei 2017

Rosie Ware is a textile designer and printer based on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait. Her work is inspired by her culture, the maritime history of the Torres Strait and the beautiful islands and marine environment that surrounds her. Crepe copper lei uses sheet copper to re‑imagine the crepe‑paper lei Ware recalls her mother making for festive occasions. The folded and articulated copper sheet is threaded on steel cable, along with periwinkle and cowrie shells collected by the artist from the Torres Strait. Ware has finished the lei with white enamel, painting highlights along the copper folds.

Black ku 2016

Ku is the Wik‑Mungkan language name for the ‘camp dogs’ of Aurukun in Queensland. Drawing on their wood‑carving skills, historically used for ceremonial purposes, these artists have sculpted a suite of Ku. Each dog in the collection has its own personality and quirky expression and together they create a formidable pack. In Aboriginal communities across the country, cheeky dogs are respected creatures and often seen wandering the streets, stealing scraps and resting in the shade.

<h3><em>A corny world flag</em> 2013 from the <em>On Top of the World: Flags for Melbourne</em> series 2013</h3>
Destiny Deacon is one of Australia’s boldest and most acclaimed contemporary artists, whose thoughtful and nuanced work offers a snapshot of contemporary Australian life from a Blak perspective. Provocative and political, Deacon uses humour as a tool to disarm her audience, reminding us that ‘serious’ art can also have a sense of humour. The artist’s A corny world flag was flown atop the Old Arts Building at the University of Melbourne.

<em>The Old Arts Building at the University of Melbourne is a landmark historic building at the centre of Melbourne’s oldest university. How do you think placing </em>A corny world flag<em> on top of this building might have changed the way people viewed the building or the university?</em>

Friendship love truth 2013 from the On Top of the World: Flags for Melbourne series 2013

Flags evolved centuries ago as part of military campaigns and battles as ‘field signs’ or visual tools for identification and communication across distance. Today they have many common purposes, but retain their roots in communicating identity. Alongside the communication of nationality, flags have been regularly adopted as part of festivities, rallies and cultural events. They are fundamentally understood, across many situations and cultures, as a way of stating identity and belief. These works were created as part of a public art project, called Flags for Melbourne, developed by Melbourne print studio Spacecraft. They invited artists to explore the symbolic, semantic and decorative potential of flags, considering both their customary use, as well as alternative opportunities for flag-waving. Kate Daw’s flag was created for Melbourne’s famous Art Deco Gothic style Manchester Unity Building, which also inspired the graphic language of her project

Untitled 2015 and Untitled 2013

‘Our lives have always been torn and put together – people have always been
pushed around. You see it in the streets, in the kids begging, those eyes, the way they look at you.’
–Kay Hassan, 2000

This is what South African artist Kay Hassan says about these portraits, inspired by the people of Johannesburg. Hassan creates these large‑scale ‘paper constructions’ by shredding billboard paper and gluing the tattered scraps of commercial advertisements back together to assemble large collages. In this way he is embracing and celebrating everyday materials that he finds in his city. The materials and techniques are as important as the finished portraits in capturing the character of Johannesburg.

Think about something that represents your neighbourhood or community. How could you turn this into a work of art?

A flag for the community of Princes Hill Primary 2013 from the On Top of the World: Flags for Melbourne series 2013

For this work artist Helen Johnson collaborated with students from Princes Hill Primary on the design, which is made up of a collage of students’ artworks. Princes Hill Primary was included as one of the sites for the Flags for Melbourne project because in 1901 when Australia became a Federation, Ivor Evans, a thirteen‑year‑old student of the school, entered a competition to design a flag. Evans was declared the winner along with four other people whose designs were almost identical, and the new flag was flown for the first time above the dome of the Melbourne Exhibition Building in September of that year.

What are some of the changes that have taken place in Australia since 1901 and how are these reflected in this flag?

If I was white 2002

Vernon Ah Kee’s work exposes the racism experienced by people of colour in Australian society. Ah Kee’s text speaks directly to a white audience through a text‑based chorus of Black voices. One reads, ‘If I was White I could walk down the street and people would pay no particular attention to me’. By turning the tables on his audience and switching the subjective positions of people’s experiences, Ah Kee pushes the ‘coloniser’ to consider the experiences that come with being colonised. This work references both the everyday experiences of people of colour in Australia and uses text as a means of protesting against racism.

Untitled (Problem) 2014

Based on his own unique vision and quirky personal style, David Shrigley’s works reflect on the banality and absurdity of everyday life. Although he had a formal art education Shrigley does not demonstrate any traditional artistic skills in his work now. He draws and paints in the same way he did as a young child – in this case he painted Untitled (Problem) with his own fingers rather than a paint brush. We are used to seeing images accompanied by text all around us, on social media, on the TV, and on signs and advertisements, but in Shrigley’s works this relationship often is not immediately obvious. He prompts us to question the meaning between image and text and allows
room for our own interpretation.

How do you interpret this work? How might this allude to change in our everyday lives?