Excellent news is the publication of a book about the extraordinary young art movement on Bentinck and Mornington Islands in the remote Gulf of Carpentaria. The Heart of Everything comes from specialist publisher McCulloch & McCulloch and uses the resources of a couple of professors to tell the story of a group of women, displaced from their homeland on Bentinck Island to nearby Mornington, and finding their children growing up with no cultural knowledge of the old place, and not even the language, Kaiadilt, to learn about it from their mothers and aunts.
So the elders set out to paint their story – and in a couple of years, artists such as Sally Gabori, Netta Loogatha and May Moodoonuthi had earnt enough money to return to Bentinck and build an outstation.
Accompanying the book’s launch is a Forum involving both authors and artists at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane – Saturday 17 May, 1-3pm – and an exhibition of Bentick art in Sydney – at Caruana & Reid Fine Art, Exhibiting 21 May – 7 June, 2008, 44 Roslyn Gardens, Elizabeth Bay.
In Melbourne, Sally Gabori has a solo show at Alcaston Gallery from 27 May, and on 31st May, the artist herself will be there in the afternoon, along with one of the book’s authors, Prof. Nick Evans, talking at 3pm. The exhibition will be online from 16 May.
