By Josephine Grieve
When internationally renowned curator and long-term Mittagong resident Djon Mundine OAM FAHA, realised the name Mittagong means ‘a place of many dogs’ in Gundungurra language as well as ‘a hill’, he decided to create an exhibition called The Dingo Project, now showing at Ngununggula – Southern Highlands Regional Gallery at Retford Park.
Forming ‘a kind of avant-garde theatre group’ across age and gender, he began a conversation with some of Australia’s top artists as well as local emerging artists in the Highlands.
27 artists worked across diverse art forms to respond to the curator’s question :: What does the dingo mean to you?
The result?
A surprising, enchanting and sometimes humourous exhibition for us to connect with.
Oh, and a mob of sheep took over the regional gallery.
Cos….why not?
There are so many reasons to visit this important exhibition, but we’ve narrowed it down to seven.
1 :: This is Djon Mundine’s first major exhibition in the Highlands
Most Australians have experienced the stunning installation of 200 hollow log coffins – The Aboriginal Memorial – at the main entrance to the National Gallery in Canberra but most Highlanders don’t know that Djon Mundine OAM FAHA who curated the Memorial and many other exhibitions around the world has lived in Mittagong for the last decade.
After working with major public galleries across Australia, Europe and Asia, Mundine is now interested in making exhibitions in local regional contexts.
“It’s what happens on the ground in the regions that really counts, you get to see the best things. And Ngununggula is the perfect place for a curator with its four extraordinary gallery spaces, high ceilings and evocative history.”
2 :: Where else does the curator make a wall stencil of his own body at the threshold of the exhibition?
To celebrate the beginning of The Dingo Project, Mundine painted up in traditional ochre colours and made a stencil on the wall of the antechamber to the galleries.
This body graffiti captures his hair flung up high like a boomerang. Visitors can watch as it happened on a video screen in the exhibition.
3 :: See ochres from local sacred sites in Trish Levett’s painting Dingo Dreaming
Trish Levett, local artist and respected Gundungurra knowledge holder, used ochres from sacred sites near Carrington Falls to make her work called Dingo Dreaming for the exhibition.
“Djon encouraged me to step outside my comfort zone,” she said.
“It’s the first time I’ve painted with ochres and I loved it.”
Grounded in the very earth of Gundungurra country, her work “represents our spiritual connection with the dingo and with our country, our gurra.”
4 :: It’s possibly the world’s first exhibition to be opened by a mob of sheep
Twelve East Friesian ewes travelled from Pecora Dairy in Robertson to Ngununggula in Bowral to open The Dingo Project exhibition.
While the sheep wandered through the gallery enjoying and interrogating the artwork, the human guests watched them on video screens from the external courtyard of the former dairy.
From the moment he conceived the idea of this exhibition, curator Djon Mundine knew that it had to include a mob of sheep.
“The sheep were invited because there is nothing more colonial than the white wool sheep,” he said at the opening.
“On the other hand, the sheep could also represent the people in the art world where I have spent most of my working life.”
Visitors to Ngununggula can see the video documentation of this extraordinary happening in the fourth gallery.
5 :: Reflect on the fate of the last thylacine and what it means for our precious endangered species like the koala and wombat
It feels uncomfortable to watch the 1933 footage of the last thylacine from the Tasmanian Museum. Especially, because this film has been made more realistic following a recent colourisation by an expert in France.
It feels even more uncomfortable to see the names of the people who were paid one pound for thylacine skin in the Tasmanian extermination campaign in the 1800s and early 1900s. Is your family name there?
Raising consciousness about the environment and asking questions about the treatment of Australian Aboriginals was always part of The Dingo Project. However, the theme of extinction is juxtaposed with ideas about how to live with ‘the other’. Ideas that are both serious and playful.
6 :: Imagine the cold climate rainforest of the Southern Highlands in a new way
At first glance, the rainforest in Danie Mellor’s painting Bayi Minyirral could be from the Yarrawa Brush in Robertson with its tree ferns, vines and chiaroscuro light but the artist actually represents tropical rainforest from North Queensland where he was born.
Dr Danie Mellor who now lives and works in the Southern Highlands, has work in public and private collections around Australia.
Creating a magical atmosphere for a funerary ritual, the tones of this painting reveal Mellor’s training in traditional blue and white ceramics at Strode, England.
7 :: Learn how a surfing dingo called Ray and a stingray called X became best friends on the crest of a big wave
Lin Onus and Michael Eather honour the Dingo’s role as a companion animal in The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray, a project inspired by the famous wave by Japanese artist Hokusai.
This is a rare opportunity to see the whole series of woodblock prints including the iconic Michael and I are just slipping down to the pub for a minute, surrounded by life size fibreglass sculptures of the ochre-striped Dingo and the glossy grey stingray.
It’s a unique and thought-provoking exhibition that’s for sure!
“This project may make you feel uncomfortable in places, but it will enable people to come together with more empathy, compassion and understanding,” said Megan Monte, Director of Ngununggula.
The Dingo Project is showing at Ngununggula 8 January – 13 March 2022.
Curator Djon Mundine OAM FAHA will host an artist discussion on Saturday 5 February 2022. Contact the gallery to book for the artist discussion.
Ngununggula, Retford Park | Southern Highlands Regional Gallery, is open daily between 10 am to 4 pm.
Admission is free. Follow the winding road up to the gallery car park and Ngununggula Entry – 1 Art Gallery Lane, Bowral, corner Rowland Road and Jonathan Street.
