Term Overview:
In term 2 students will have the wonderful opportunity to examine Aboriginal art through the works of the Top End artists Wandjuk Marika and Ngarra.
Throughout the term, students will contemplate Aboriginal people’s spiritual, cultural and ancestral connection to, and custodianship of, the land. They will examine how Aboriginal art speaks to the informed through stories about the relationship between the people and the land and the sea. Students will examine a range of Aboriginal artworks and examine them as texts that communicate creation and ancestral song cycles. Through discussions, they will explore how knowledge transfer happens through design (visual art), song and dance.
Students will respond to the artworks of Wandjuk Marika and Ngarra, from their own cultural understandings and perspectives, and will create their own stories based on their own lives, families, places and relationship to the land.
Students will explore Yirrkala, North Eastern Arnhem land traditional painting materials and techniques through the work of Wandjuk Marika and Artist in Residence, Rarriwuy Marika. They will have the unique and special experience of viewing a painting as it is created and painted by the Artist in Residence in the visual art room as a part of the residency.
Inspired by the Top End Kimberly artist, Ngarra, students will extend their explorations of Aboriginal art from another contemporary perspective, considering Ngarra’s unique and vibrant palette and use of colour and the impact that access to a range of contemporary materials has had on his work.
Throughout the term, students will have the opportunity to respond to the works of these artists using both traditional and contemporary means of expression and materials. Works will be created using a range of traditional and contemporary materials; bark, twigs, brushes, coloured pencils, texta pens, crayons and gouache paint.