JOHN MAWURNDJUL: I AM THE OLD AND THE NEW AN INTERVIEW WITH MCA CURATORS CLOTHILDE BULLEN MCA SENIOR CURATOR OF ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER COLLECTIONS & EXHIBITIONS John Marwurndjul: I am the old and the new is a landmark exhibition presenting the artist’s most significant works from the MCA, AGSA and other public and private collections. Tell us about the development of this exhibition by a curatorial team from the MCA and AGSA and curated in close consultation with the artist, John Mawurndjul AM, staff from Maningrida Arts & Culture and Dr Murray Garde. John Mawurndjul, Maningrida, 2018. Photograph: Rhett Hammerton
20 • Blue Mountains City Art Gallery
During a second visit to Maningrida, and to a number of particular sites on country significant to John Mawurndjul, the MCA curatorial team, John and Murray Garde (a friend of John’s and a wonderful translator)
had serious conversations about the framework of the exhibition. John described the way in which he thought it would work; to group all works by moiety – in this case Duwa and Yirridjdja – and then to follow a path of ‘kunred’ (special places) in different parts of his country. Mimih spirits were to be presented together, lorrkkons as a group and then etchings placed in their own separate space as they are, in John’s words, a ‘western’ thing. It was critical to shift the sense of the curators as the gatekeepers and knowledge-holders and instead position the artist as the expert on his own practice and ways of narrating it. The exhibition themes are grouped by places – or kunred – then animals and spirits, mimih, lorrkkon and etchings. Can you tell us more about the concept of kunred and why it is so important in the context of Mawurndul’s work?