Yirrkala artists visit Wollongong

Mar 31, 2004

Three artists from Yirrkala, an Aboriginal township in northeast Arnhem Land, are visiting Wollongong this week as part of an artist's symposium and two associated exhibitions at the University of Wollongong and Wollongong City Gallery.

Watjumi (Marrnyula) Munungurr, Dhangal Gurruwiwi, and Djapirri Mununggurritj, whose work is represented in the current Tracking Cloth exhibition at the Wollongong City Gallery are artists in residence at the University's Faculty of Creative Arts.

As part of their residency they will be working on developing designs to be reproduced on cloth, an ongoing artistic exchange with Sue Blanchfield, visual arts lecturer in the textile studio. The exchange with the Yirrkala artists began in 1995 with a workshop in resist dying and batik conducted in the community. Successive workshops in printmaking on cloth and prints on paper were also conducted in Yirrkala throughout 1996 with many of the artists coming to Wollongong to make use of the studio facilities in the Faculty.

In 2001 Sue returned to Yirrkala and worked with the three artists specifically to produce the three works to be included in the Tracking Cloth exhibition. Wollongong City Gallery has recently announced its intention to purchase these works for their collection.