Wik & Kugu

5 Jul-2 Sep 2023

PV 5 Jul 2023, 6-8pm

Overview

JGM Gallery presents Wik & Kugu, a group exhibition of paintings and sculptures.

Located in the Aurukun Shire Council on the west coast of Queensland's Cape York Peninsula, the Wik & Kugu Arts Centre is distinguished by its sculptural tradition and its artists' striking representations of Country.  

Included in this exhibition are two paintings by Alair Pambegan, a Wik-Mungkan man who has painted a body design and a composition filled with fish. As with the sculptures of his co-exhibitors, Pambegan's representative style is rather playful, conveying, amongst other things, his fondness for the natural world. By angling the fish at 0, 45 and 90 degree angles, he imbues the arrangement with a sense of order and interconnectedness. The result is a calmness, which is reinforced by the serene blue that fills the negative space. 

Bruce Bell's subject is the Ku' (dog), a recurring motif for many Wik & Kugu artists. His dogs adopt an aggressive stance, however, their claws are rounded and the vibrant colour scheme engenders a feeling of endearment, not fear. Though their weapons are negated, a tension lingers in these creatures and there is a spectral sense of arrested energy and movement.

The idea of metamorphosis, then, is key to understanding these Ku' sculptures. During the Dreamtime (the origin story of First Nations Australians), the Ku' travelled from the Northern Territory to the Cape York Peninsula where, at the mouth of the Knox River, it transformed in the Nyiingkuchen (Freshwater Shark).