Michael Nelson Jagamara: Possum Stories, installation view,
Photographer Mick Richards. Courtesy of FireWorks Gallery.
FireWorks Gallery's current exhibition 'Michael Nelson Jagamara: Possum Stories' was officially opened by Simon Wright (Queensland Art Gallery) on Saturday 17th of October. The exhibition focuses on the Possum Dreaming as portrayed by legendary Warlpiri artist Michael Nelson Jagamara (1946-2020) and features four collaborative paintings with Imants Tillers. As Michael Eather writes in his accompanying notes: 'this Dreaming holds particular significance for several reasons. Primarily, it manifests a critical mythological story central to the kinship structure and tribal law of the Warlpiri and the surrounding First Nations tribes.'
With the approaching 40th anniversary of Jagamara's painting 'Possum Dreaming' (1987), (commissioned for the Sydney Opera House's Joan Sutherland Theatre Northern Foyer), 'Possum Stories' was planned to showcase Jagamara's continued interpretations of the Dreaming, in particular from 2000 to 2019. It was during this period, that Tillers began his active collaborative relationship with Jagamara, facilitated by Eather, FireWorks Gallery and the Campfire group. Tillers, had of course already infamously appropriated images from Jagamara's Five Dreamings (1984), combining them a with figure from German neo-expressionist Georg Baselitz in his painting The Nine Shots (1985). Tillers had not asked for permission from Jagamara, and as Wright explained in his opening remarks the painting 'ignited a lasting and robust debate about myriad issues surrounding the use of traditional indigenous imagery by non-indigenous artists'.
Fifteen years later, in June 2001, FireWorks 'became a neutral site for mutual trust and conversation, exchange, understanding to gradually emerge... (the two artists became) friends and and the fruit of that very important relationship in the history of Australian art now hangs in this Gallery).' (Wright)
The very first collaborative painting undertaken by Jagamara and Tillers, Nature Speaks (With Confused Possum) (2001), is on display in the exhibition, along with From Afar (2002) and two works Know Yourself (2021) and Intuition 3 (2024) which were begun in 2019, but not completed until after Jagamara's passing.
FIRWORKS GALLERY
9/31 Thompson Street,
Bowen Hills, Queensland 4006
+61 7 3216 1250
Tuesday - Saturday 10am to 5pm or by appointment