How to appreciate Aboriginal Art

Working with established Art Centres, Didgeri Air Art Tours and Palya Art bring a powerful array of art and the means to visit artists in return, to Kimberley, Arnhem Land and Western Deserts.

12 midday - 6.30 pm every day until March 31st
'Palya Art at Mary Place Gallery 2009'
12 Mary Place (Off Brown Street)
Paddington NSW 2021
Quoting 'Time Out' Cover Story by Sarah McNeill of Post Newspapers in Perth:

Helen Read went to the remote community Kintore in 1985 as a young English nurse and was horrified to discover conditions were worse than she had encountered in West Africa. "Children were dying of malnutrition and trauma, sickness and disease were rampant," she said. Already armed with a pilots license and a surprising determination, Helen lived in the communities where locals "grew her up" in their culture, multiple languages, famiial skinship, and spiritual connectedness to their art ... As she flew between remote clinics she began to understand the aerial perspective of Aboriginal paintings and was, she said, "taught to see". ...  She recalls Balgo artist Johnny Mosquito saying of a painting: "Put him on the wall and let him look at you." It is an evocative image Helen clings to after years of tireless work in promoting and supporting Indigenous artists in Australia's central desert and North West communities.

Helen (who initially trained in fine art in England) has some of the country's finest Aboriginal artworks, not collected for their commercial viability or investment opportunities but because she has an abiding and passionate interest in the artists. Working only with established Art Centres where she says artists are less vulnerable to exploitation, she has filled the gallery, office and even store rooms with 500 paintings, sculptures and weavings from 16 communities around north, north-west and central Australia. Some are on display, others can be viewed only by appointment with Helen.

For 20 years (Helen) has been teaching people to see and understand something of the ancient Indigenous culture with her Didgeri Air Art Tours, flying small groups of people around community Art Centres from the pristine wetlands of Arnhem Land to Stone Country, estuary lands, central Australian Deserts and the Kimberley. They meet Traditional owners and "creators of sublime art" and "bring a degree of economic income as well as gaining respect for differences in language groups, societies and paintings styles, and taking the time to enjoy the cultural diversity of these fabulous, generous, knowing people".

Palya Art at Mary Place Gallery 2009. 12 Mary Place (off Brown Street), Paddington.

Every day to the end of March. 12 midday 6.30 pm and by appointment.

Phone Helen on 0418 137719
Email: palya.art@didgeri.com.au
http://www.didgeri.com.au/

Press release published by Seeking Media. http://www.seekingmedia.com.au/