Beginning this past December and continuing until June 1, the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection is hosting Milpa — a stop-motion animation exhibit named after the Anangu people’s traditional practice of sand drawing, an artistic and storytelling medium in Australian Indigenous art.
The namesake of the studio, inspired by the Anangu people’s sand drawing practice, is operated by the Spinifex Arts Project. Based in the Indigenous community of Tjuntjuntjara in Western Australia, the project highlights the creative and culturally significant work of local Spinifex artists.
Kluge-Ruhe is home to a vast number of art pieces and cultural objects acquired from Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders in Australia. The museum is a revolving door of paintings and exhibits, from showings of colorful print works to striking digital collections.
Jaimeson Daley, manager of education and programs at the Kluge-Ruhe, said that this art is important for the way in which it highlights Aboriginal culture.
“It’s a really great testament to the artwork itself because it shows Aboriginal folks’ culture, their content and brings a focus to an underrepresented group that really needs more exposure,” Daley said.
Because the Kluge-Ruhe focuses on showing works from Indigenous people in Australia, the Milpa exhibit fits in seamlessly with the museum as a whole, presenting a unique way that Indigenous Australians produce modern art. The use of stop-motion animation, which is photographed frame by frame to mimic movement of still objects, is particularly significant in this sense because it combines a variety of different artistic practices including clay sculpting and filmmaking.
Katina Davidson — curator of Indigenous Australian art at Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia — curated the Milpa exhibit at Kluge-Ruhe as part of her six-month curatorial residency. The exhibit displays five distinct stop-motion animations made by Spinifex artists from Tjuntjuntjara.
“Seatbelt Tjura: Put on Your Seatbelt” and “Walawuru Iti Katitja: An Eagle Story” will screen at the Kluge-Ruhe through March 2 before the exhibit shifts to show three new films on March 4 entitled “Putikutu Ananyi: Bush Trip,” “Milpa Movie” and “The Tjuntjuntjara_Nya Cooking Show Mai Wiru Palanya: Making Beautiful Food.” These short films cover everyday events in Indigenous Australian communities including the collecting of native plants, Indigenous cooking practices and hunting.
According to Kluge-Ruhe Curator Eleanor Neumann, the films are split into two separate installments so that museumgoers will be exposed to more films.
“If you are a frequent visitor to the museum, it might be nice to see something different after three months,” Neumann said. “We thought really carefully about what people's attention span is and how long someone would want to come and sit in the gallery to watch these films.”
All of the films are quick watches, between two and six minutes. In the exhibition room, patrons can sit or stand in front of a large screen which projects the films on a loop. With no pauses between the films besides a brief rolling of credits, the repetition allows viewers to pick up on different flourishes with each watch.
Made by combining real photos with polymer clay puppets and set pieces, each film is created by various artists from Spinifex Arts Project and is spoken in Pitjantjatjara — the native language of the Anangu people. English subtitles also accompany each film. These components come together to paint realistic scenes for the viewers to observe.
Neumann explained that the stop-motion films from the Milpa project bring about a different, yet complementary perspective to the artwork already on display at Kluge-Ruhe, showcasing the viewpoints of younger artists.
“Younger people from Tjuntjuntjara are more interested in digital media,” Neumann said. “It’s attracted younger people who are able to tell stories, sometimes even the same stories that are told in paintings, but through a different medium.”
The two films currently on display — “Seatbelt Tjura: Put on Your Seatbelt” and “Walawuru Iti Katitja: An Eagle Story” — were made in 2018 and 2019 respectively and shed light on everyday challenges faced by Indigenous communities in Australia.
“Seatbelt Tjura” focuses on the high fatality rates facing Indigenous individuals who get into car accidents in rural areas. The film depicts a clay man giving a public service announcement as the film switches between an interview-like scene and a reenactment of events depicting the importance of vehicle safety.
“Walawuru Iti Katitja” depicts another scene, following two brothers made out of clay as they roam the lands on which they live. Their journey takes a turn when they encounter a threatening clay bird soaring in front of a photo of a sunny sky.
By observing which movements and events film creators chose to highlight — such as the comfort that the younger sibling receives from his mother in “Walawuru Iti Katitja” — viewers can begin to understand key facets of Indigenous Australian culture such as familial relations.
Neumann emphasizes the impact of this specific exhibit, noting how it reinforces the vital and innovative work of the artists.
“The main point [of showing the exhibit] is just that these cultures are thriving contemporary cultures producing really exciting contemporary work,” Neumann said.
Neumann also encourages museumgoers to tune in to the languages being spoken in the films to better understand how the community interacts as a collective.
“Another really exciting part for us is that people can actually hear a First Nations Australian language being spoken and to think about the ways in which they are communicating their culture and their stories to one another,” Neumann said.
Just a fifteen-minute drive from central Grounds and free of charge, the Milpa exhibition is quite accessible to students and community members alike. All five films, plus an additional film not yet shown, will also be screened at the University as a part of the exhibition in the coming months.
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