Talks & Conversations

Artist Talk: Marlene Gilson and Alick Tipoti

Part of The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art Opening Weekend

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Artists Marlene Gilson and Alick Tipoti join us in celebration of the exhibition The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art, in this conversation moderated by Jessica Clark, the National Gallery of Victoria’s senior curator of First Nations Art. Their discussion will explore the artists’ creative practices and revelations from the traveling exhibition.

About the presenters

Marlene Gilson (Wathaurong, born 1944) creates multi-figure paintings that seek to reclaim and recontextual the representation of historical events. Inspired by dollhouses, Indian miniature paintings, and illustrations on biscuit tins, Gilson meticulously renders theatrical, rich narratives that unfold across the canvas. Learning her Wathaurung history from her grandmother, Gilson began painting while recovering from an illness. She privileges stories that relate to her Ancestral lands near Naarm/Melbourne in Victoria. Often including her two totems, Bunjil the Eagle and Waa the Crow, Gilson’s paintings both reconfigure historical narratives and display her spiritual connection to Country.  

 

Alick Tipoti (Kala Lagaw Ya, born 1975) is a renowned visual and performance artist, community leader, linguist, and regional advocate from Badu Island in Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait). His Elders named him Zugub, meaning Spiritual Ancestor, due to the spiritual encounters he experiences through his art. Tipoti’s contemporary artistic techniques are informed by spiritual patterns revealed to him by his Ancestors. These are left through oral histories, held within language and the environment and through observing cultural artefacts held in collecting institutions. His works use complex background designs, disguised among ritual objects and land and sea creatures. Using these representations, Tipoti reclaims the cultural history of his people and asserts their deep links to their marine environment. His approach to creating new work is based on not exploiting cultural information, as certain information remains sacred only to Zenadth Kes people. As a custodian and cultural ambassador, his innate desire to keep his cultural practices alive is at the heart of all his work.  

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A young boy with pink and tan-colored skin stands next to a seated woman with an ashen white face, and both look out at us in this vertical portrait painting. The scene is created with broad areas of mottled color in rust and coral red, pale pink, lilac purple, ivory white, and shades of tawny brown. The eyes of both people are heavily outlined with large, dark pupils. To our right, the woman’s pale, oval face is surrounded by a muted, mint-green cloth that covers her hair and wraps across her neck. Her eyes are outlined with charcoal gray, and her heavy lids shaded under arched brows with smoky, plum purple. She has a straight nose, and her burgundy-red lips are closed in a straight line. Her long, rose-pink dress is lavender purple below the knee, and is scrubbed with darker pink strokes across her lap. Her sleeves are tan on the upper arms and cream white on the forearm, over two blush-pink forms that represent her hands resting on her thighs. Along the top of her shoulders, her dress is terracotta red. A rectangular, fog-gray form behind her could be a chair or a half-wall, the top edge of which is higher to our right of her head. To our left, the boy has dark brown, short hair over putty pink, protruding ears. The area between his eyelid and arched brow is filled in with chocolate brown, giving his staring eyes a hooded look. His jawline, chin, and lips are outlined with dark brown. His khaki-brown, knee-length coat has pale, rose-pink sleeves and a black collar. An area of pale, ice blue could be a kerchief or high-collared shirt, and he wears fawn-brown pants. One of his slippers is coffee brown and the other, closer to the woman, is slate gray. He holds a loosely painted, pale, turquoise-blue object in one hand at his waist. The pair are situated against a background painted in areas of coral, ruby, crimson, and wine red. Two vertical, concrete-gray strips behind the boy and woman could be columns. The floor along the bottom edge of the painting is pale pink.

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