THAMESMEAD TEXAS are proud to present:
FLOOD - DROUGHT - FOOD - DREAMING
This exhibition brings together three uncompromising, energetic and wholly unique painters – Nola Rogers, Daisy Japulija and Sonia Kurarra – all senior Walmajarri women from the Fitzroy Crossing region of Western Australia. The Northwest is thought to be the earliest settled part of Australia, with the earliest humans arriving at least 65,000 years ago.
The exhibiting artists are all compelled to share their stories and the stories of their ancestors through the universal language of paint. What may strike the Western eye as abstract is to these artists representational. Each mark is a detailed code for a journey or a place to catch food; each colour is a memory, a feeling, a signifier of the seasons. These canvases and works on paper show three women with a deep understanding and love of country. We must take heed of this respect for nature and its cycles if we are to survive in a rapidly changing planet.
Flood and Drought are two polar extreme that is met upon the peoples of Fitzroy Crossing each year. Food and Dreaming is about reading the signs in order to survive these extremes. During the wet season the great Martuwarra (Fitzroy River) breaks her banks and during the dry season, months of drought ensues. It is the traditional owners of these lands that know how to seek opportunity and survive in these extremes; where to hunt, where to take shelter and how to catch food. All three painters are of a diminishing generation that know firsthand how to live off the land; this knowledge is then passed down to younger generations, through story, through dance, through song, or encrypted in their colourful abstractions.
Liam Scully
Thamesmead Texas
BIO’S:
SONIA KURARRA
Sonia Kurarra (b. circa 1951) is a Walmajarri woman born in Nookanbah on the banks of Martuwarra (Fitzroy River). Kurarra paints Martuwarra and the billabongs that are created by the receding waters after the rainy season. Signifying the importance of this sacred river system, for more than 30 years, Kurarra has been unrestricted, layering thousands of surfaces with the story of her country. She paints gapi (fish), parrmarr (rocks) where the fish is cooked, ngurti (coolamon) and a karli (boomerang). She is known to work tirelessly without pause like the energy of the river itself flooding through her fingertips, pens, and brushes. Language: Walmajarri. Region: Fitzroy Crossing, West Kimberley, Western Australia.
DAISY JAPULIJA
Daisy Japulija (b. circa 1948) was born near Nookanbah under a Konkerberry tree and is the older sister of Sonia Kurarra. The work of Japulija, like that of her sister Sonia is about memories growing up by the Martuwarra (Fitzroy River) and its sacred life-giving properties. Yet she also paints her parents Jilji (sand hill) country, communicating through paint the stories told of her mother and fathers’ country and the sacred Jila (waterholes) and Jumu (soak waters) in the great Sandy Desert. Her painting practice conceptualises the coming together of the desert and the river people, mapping the waterholes, rocks, plant and animals that once sustained life in the desert but transitioning at ease to the stories of growing up by the mighty Martuwarra. Language Group: Nyikina/Walmajarri. Region: Fitzroy Crossing, West Kimberley, Western Australia.
NOLA ROGERS
Nola Rogers (b. 1963). It is fair to say art making is in Nola Roger’s blood, Nola Roger’s mother Walka Molly Rogers was a significant Walmajarri artist and cultural keeper. Picking up the paintbrush relatively recently the past few years has seen Nola working unrestrained on hundreds of surfaces. Her style is expressive, bold and like her contemporaries Sonia Kurarra and Daisy Japulija, her colours are put together with panache and confidence. Nola Rogers paints about growing up on the Gogo station and collecting coloured stones. “This is about Gogo station on the old road. When I was young we were living there. We used to collect the coloured rocks from the hills, all different colours... We would gift it to our teachers and people as a gift from our country.” Language Group: Walmajarri. Region: Fitzroy Crossing, West Kimberley, Western Australia.
MANGKAJA ARTS is a thriving Kimberley Art Centre in the township of Fitzroy Crossing, four hours east of Broome. The artists paint iconic images of Country that tell essential stories of heritage and identity. Their paintings are characterised by a colourful, contemporary style featuring an uninhibited immediacy and large brush strokes. The meeting of desert and river cultures has created a unique range of strengths and artistic expression. Many of the artists at Mangkaja have well-established careers and are represented both nationally and internationally.
THAMESMEAD TEXAS is a nomadic artist led project space, based in Thamesmead founded by artists and filmmakers Vanessa Scully & Liam Scully, who create events, exhibitions, residencies as well as the Thamesmead Travelling Cinema and bar. For 2023/24 Thamesmead Texas takes up residence in a vacant shop unit in Thamesmead, Cygnet Square. The gallery is an 8 minute walk from Abbey Wood station on the new Elizabeth Line. Follow @thamesmeadtexas @thamesmeadtravelleingcinema
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FLOOD - DROUGHT - FOOD - DREAMING
This exhibition brings together three uncompromising, energetic and wholly unique painters – Nola Rogers, Daisy Japulija and Sonia Kurarra – all senior Walmajarri women from the Fitzroy Crossing region of Western Australia. The Northwest is thought to be the earliest settled part of Australia, with the earliest humans arriving at least 65,000 years ago.
The exhibiting artists are all compelled to share their stories and the stories of their ancestors through the universal language of paint. What may strike the Western eye as abstract is to these artists representational. Each mark is a detailed code for a journey or a place to catch food; each colour is a memory, a feeling, a signifier of the seasons. These canvases and works on paper show three women with a deep understanding and love of country. We must take heed of this respect for nature and its cycles if we are to survive in a rapidly changing planet.
Flood and Drought are two polar extreme that is met upon the peoples of Fitzroy Crossing each year. Food and Dreaming is about reading the signs in order to survive these extremes. During the wet season the great Martuwarra (Fitzroy River) breaks her banks and during the dry season, months of drought ensues. It is the traditional owners of these lands that know how to seek opportunity and survive in these extremes; where to hunt, where to take shelter and how to catch food. All three painters are of a diminishing generation that know firsthand how to live off the land; this knowledge is then passed down to younger generations, through story, through dance, through song, or encrypted in their colourful abstractions.
Liam Scully
Thamesmead Texas
BIO’S:
SONIA KURARRA
Sonia Kurarra (b. circa 1951) is a Walmajarri woman born in Nookanbah on the banks of Martuwarra (Fitzroy River). Kurarra paints Martuwarra and the billabongs that are created by the receding waters after the rainy season. Signifying the importance of this sacred river system, for more than 30 years, Kurarra has been unrestricted, layering thousands of surfaces with the story of her country. She paints gapi (fish), parrmarr (rocks) where the fish is cooked, ngurti (coolamon) and a karli (boomerang). She is known to work tirelessly without pause like the energy of the river itself flooding through her fingertips, pens, and brushes. Language: Walmajarri. Region: Fitzroy Crossing, West Kimberley, Western Australia.
DAISY JAPULIJA
Daisy Japulija (b. circa 1948) was born near Nookanbah under a Konkerberry tree and is the older sister of Sonia Kurarra. The work of Japulija, like that of her sister Sonia is about memories growing up by the Martuwarra (Fitzroy River) and its sacred life-giving properties. Yet she also paints her parents Jilji (sand hill) country, communicating through paint the stories told of her mother and fathers’ country and the sacred Jila (waterholes) and Jumu (soak waters) in the great Sandy Desert. Her painting practice conceptualises the coming together of the desert and the river people, mapping the waterholes, rocks, plant and animals that once sustained life in the desert but transitioning at ease to the stories of growing up by the mighty Martuwarra. Language Group: Nyikina/Walmajarri. Region: Fitzroy Crossing, West Kimberley, Western Australia.
NOLA ROGERS
Nola Rogers (b. 1963). It is fair to say art making is in Nola Roger’s blood, Nola Roger’s mother Walka Molly Rogers was a significant Walmajarri artist and cultural keeper. Picking up the paintbrush relatively recently the past few years has seen Nola working unrestrained on hundreds of surfaces. Her style is expressive, bold and like her contemporaries Sonia Kurarra and Daisy Japulija, her colours are put together with panache and confidence. Nola Rogers paints about growing up on the Gogo station and collecting coloured stones. “This is about Gogo station on the old road. When I was young we were living there. We used to collect the coloured rocks from the hills, all different colours... We would gift it to our teachers and people as a gift from our country.” Language Group: Walmajarri. Region: Fitzroy Crossing, West Kimberley, Western Australia.
MANGKAJA ARTS is a thriving Kimberley Art Centre in the township of Fitzroy Crossing, four hours east of Broome. The artists paint iconic images of Country that tell essential stories of heritage and identity. Their paintings are characterised by a colourful, contemporary style featuring an uninhibited immediacy and large brush strokes. The meeting of desert and river cultures has created a unique range of strengths and artistic expression. Many of the artists at Mangkaja have well-established careers and are represented both nationally and internationally.
THAMESMEAD TEXAS is a nomadic artist led project space, based in Thamesmead founded by artists and filmmakers Vanessa Scully & Liam Scully, who create events, exhibitions, residencies as well as the Thamesmead Travelling Cinema and bar. For 2023/24 Thamesmead Texas takes up residence in a vacant shop unit in Thamesmead, Cygnet Square. The gallery is an 8 minute walk from Abbey Wood station on the new Elizabeth Line. Follow @thamesmeadtexas @thamesmeadtravelleingcinema
Gallery Images
Forthcoming Events
- BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED: A group exhibition of painting and sculpture featuring artists from the UK, Germany and Australia. Set in a dystopian future on the flood planes of Thamesmead, where lithium batteries have all run out of juice. What does this future look like with no power, a future where humanity must relearn how to hunt, fix, reuse, and reimagine.
- Featuring work by: ALESSIA GAMMAROTA – BHAJAN HUNJAN – ALFONSO PUAUTJIMI – HERMANN JOSEF HACK – DAISY JAPULIJA – SONYA KURARRA – RORY MACBETH – MIKE NELSON – TOMMY MAY (NGARRALJA) – LYNLEY NARGOODAH – NOLA ROGERS – LIAM SCULLY – VANESSA SCULLY – DAVID SURMAN – GEORGE TUCKERBOX – DANIEL TURNER
- Opens 1 - 23 December 2023. Fridays and Saturdays 12-5PM or by appointment.
