Concentric Unity: Jintaka- juku - NAIDOC Exhibition

The significant “Concentric Unity: Jintaka- juku” Art Exhibition is a reconciliation project and artistic collaboration between Alice Nelson Napurrurla and Julian Di Stefano to be presented in Melbourne during NAIDOC week in 2024 at Bayley Arts Gallery in Melbourne’s bayside suburbs.

Alice Nelson Napurrurla is a Warlpiri elder living in Yuendumu located in the Western Desert in the Northern Territory. She is a successful artist, youth educator, Warlpiri literacy expert and highly respected community leader. She works in the Yuendumu school in bilingual and bicultural programs including the “Learning in Country” program ensuring the longevity of her cultural heritage. She is grateful to have the opportunity to showcase her message of reconciliation in this unique NAIDOC week art exhibition.

Julian Di Stefano is an award-winning artist whose practise is in painting, photography and poetry. His art studio is located in the Shire of Yarra Ranges, south east of Melbourne. He is proudly from Italian descent and embraces his European artistic heritage in his art practice, while also respectively acknowledging the significant artistic cultural history of the first nations people of Australia.

The project's title and theme “Jintaka-juku” has been chosen specifically by Alice Nelson Napurrurla. It is a Warlpiri word of multi-layered significance meaning Unity. She is proud to have developed this series of dynamic paintings for Naidoc week with the express intention of sending out a message of hope and reconciliation. Alice feels privileged to be working with her fellow artist and adopted brother Julian Jungarrayi Di Stefano. She takes pride in her close friend’s “skin name,” so that he knows his place within Warlpiri society. He was given this “skin name” by the elder Darby Jampijinpa Ross. She believes it is through deeper connections and enduring friendships, such as theirs, that true reconciliation is possible.

The series “Jintaka-juku” began with a series of photographs taken by Julian Di Stefano in the Desert capturing the star traces, effectively a time lapse record of the movements of the stars in the night sky. These star traces became the foundation for the concentric compositional designs projected onto ten canvases.

Alice Nelson Napurrurla painted directly onto these projected star trace patterns. Each painting is strikingly individual, reflecting her strong connection to spirit and country. Napurrurla’s indigenous ancient dotting technique is intuitive interactive meditation. They were created over 3 years. The coloration creates unique mandalas. The dynamism employed activates optical pulsating vibrations. The works are not static, the dotting is posited energy and dominates the underlying geometry. Within the measured intervallic orbiting rings, the figures are active upon the ground’s passages of rest.

Alice has family and kinship connections to country throughout Warlpiri land, with much of her art revolving around the stories of her grandfather’s country, Yumurrpa, in the heart of the Tanami desert. She shares this Jukurrpa with her uncle, the highly renowned artist Michael Jakamarra Nelson.

The project is a conscious endeavour, articulated in the works, to express a unity and spirituality between two individuals and aiming to bridge two cultures. The undertaking reflects a desire, a longing for, reconciliation and unity in the Australian context, between indigenous and non-indigenous people. This has come to fruition over three years. The friendship has endured many more years, and is a testament of hope, unity and a small step towards Jintaka-juku: reconciliation.  

Enquiries please contact:
Daniela Baker - DB FINE ART CONSULTANCY
0400 511 356  db.fineart@outlook.com     Instagram @db.fine.art

Join us for the Reclaim The Void NAIDOC week workshops

Proudly supported by Bayley Arts and Bayside City Council.