Queensland artist Judy Watson explores ecological devastation, social injustice and Australia’s blood-soaked colonial past in her largest ever solo exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery. Her huge ethereal indigo and ochre prints, that she is best known for, are part of a comprehensive survey of four decades of work. A total of 130 prints, paintings and installations have been collected for the exhibition. Among the vast stunning canvases is Bloom, a powerful depiction of Queensland’s largest oil spill that took place just north of Moreton Bay in 2009, as well as her bronze stones, which were first exhibited in the 1997 Venice Biennale and mark sites of Frontier War massacres.
Watson’s most confronting pieces come from her time on her grandmother’s country at Boodjamulla, in the far north-west of the state. The beautiful spring-fed gorge – one of the most spectacular places in outback Queensland – features heavily in the exhibition, with sumptuous blues signifying the endless skies and the vital freshwater springs of Boodjamulla. (Read more about visiting Boodjamulla here.)
Blue is also the ‘colour of memory’ for Watson. While on her Waanyi homelands she uncovered stories of horrendous crimes against Indigenous people at Lawn Hill Station. The tragedies represented in the prints and installations are a stark reminder of Australia’s colonial violence.
Mudunama kundana wandaraba jarribirri, the title of the exhibition, comes from a poem written by Watson’s son Otis Carmichael. It means tomorrow the tree grows stronger. A flourishing sapling is used as a metaphor for reclaiming language to regenerate Indigenous culture.
Julie Fison catapults readers into the murky and contested waters of love, morality and justice from the first page of One Punch and holds them, transfixed, right till the end. It’s a story that exposes the consequences of unconditional love; the cost and burden this delivers parents, their children and anyone caught in its more nefarious orbit. One Punch is a raw, urgent and chilling portrait of family loyalty and the frightening repercussions of being blind to the faults in those we love. Read this book and your conviction about what is right and wrong will be changed forever. Sally Piper. Bone Memories
If you enjoy powerful art with a conscience, you won’t want to miss this one.
Mudunama kundana wandaraba jarribirri: Judy Watson is free. It runs at the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, until 11 August 2024.
Julie Fison 