For more than four decades, Judy Watson has created powerful, ethereal works of art channelling the stories of her family’s Waanyi Country in north-west Queensland. ‘mudunama kundana wandaraba jarribirri: Judy Watson’ is a comprehensive survey of the renowned Queensland artist’s incisive meditations on colonial, social and ecological concerns. It is her most extensive solo exhibition to date.
The exhibition includes 130 works, across painting, prints, sculpture, installation and video, from an artistic practice centred on truth-telling around the environment, historical government policy affecting Indigenous Australians, and institutions that collect First Nations cultural material and remains.
The title ‘mudunama kundana wandaraba jarribirri’, translated as ‘tomorrow the tree grows stronger’, is taken from a poem in Waanyi language by the artist’s son Otis Carmichael.
Just as a young tree grows in strength, the act of reclaiming and voicing Indigenous language encourages a regeneration of culture.
Image: Judy Watson, Waanyi people, Australia b.1959 / moreton bay rivers, australian temperature chart, freshwater mussels mussels, net, spectrogram 2022 / Indigo dye, graphite, synthetic polymer paint, waxed linen thread and pastel on cotton / 247 x 488cm / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Collection / © Judy Watson/Copyright Agency
