LINEAR: POWERHOUSE MUSEUM / HANDMADE UNIVERSE: STATE LIBRARY VIC

YILAALU CONT.

The experience of this work in the round is one way that its creator, Lucy Simpson, offers a feel for its materiality without the sensation of touch. Journeying around the sculpture, we can follow the play of shadow and light that reveals the texture of the unglazed earthenware. Lucy’s choice of material honours the white-dirt hills distinct to Yuwaalaraay country, her family lands, in north-western New South Wales and just over the Queensland border. The clay evokes her sensory memory of ‘the chalky texture of the earth’, so porous it seemed to ‘absorb all moisture from your skin upon its touch’.

Inviting us to walk in circles is also a way to encourage connection with the work’s symbolic representation of time as a fluid, unbroken story. Its title, Yilaaluu Cont, refers to a Yuwaalaraay concept of time embodied in the word Yilaaluu, meaning a long time ago and a long time to come. This title also reflects Lucy’s approach to making each object as a ‘tool to hold, remember and carry story’. She thinks of her creative process in terms of Yilaaluu and as a continuous journey balancing ancient technologies and those that point towards the future. - Excerpt, Handmade Universe Catalogue 2022.

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Exhibition / Powerhouse Museum: An exploration of the significance of line and lineage within Indigenous narratives and practices, Linear brought together the unique, diverse and personal voices of 12 leading Indigenous cultural practitioners from across Australia, alongside artworks and objects from the collection. Led by the Powerhouse’s Head of Indigenous Engagement and Strategy, Marcus Hughes, and with design by the award-winning Jacob Nash, the exhibition explores themes of songline, lineage and cultural legacy through the stories, content and work from artists including Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Maree Clarke, Mikaela Jade, Nicole Monks, Mr Ngallametta Snr, Mr Ngallametta Jnr, Glenda Nicholls, Wayne Quilliam, Allery Sandy, Lucy Simpson, Bernard Singleton, Lynette Wallworth, and Vicki West. Ngarinyin Elder David Mowaljarlai’s visual map of lines that tie this country together, culturally, spiritually and physically, was at the core of this exhibition. These lines hold meaning beyond a mark on a map; they describe everything - Land, People and Story.

Yilaalu Cont. has shown at the Powerhouse Museum 2020 (Linear), and at The State Library of VIC 2022 (Handmade Universe).

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Images Courtesy Powerhouse Museum, State Library of Victoria and Lucy Simpson.