We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art stands and recognise the creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country.
Judy Watson / Waanyi people / Australia b.1959 / passing from the edge of memory to the night sky 2007 / Pigment and pastel on canvas / 211 x 127cm / The James C Sourris, AM, Collection. Gift of James C Sourris through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2010. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Judy Watson/Licensed by Viscopy, 2013
Judy Watsonpassing from the edge of memory to the night sky 2007
Not Currently on Display
In passing from the edge of memory to the night sky 2007, successive waves of indigo overlap to form an intense colour field. This work depicts the night sky as seen from Waanyi country in north-west Queensland, the homeland of Judy Watson’s grandmother, who died while this work was being made.
The celestial blue is haunted by the transit of a misty veiled figure ascending into the sky. Watson often uses silhouetted figures in her paintings to recall those found in both painted and engraved rock art sites throughout Australia. This device refers to the continued Aboriginal presence, as well as suggesting a kind of spiritual power.
The painting is a tribute to Watson’s grandmother, and an evocation of how you must surrender a loved one to the wider universe.
Judy Watson was born in 1959 in Mundubbera, west of Maryborough, in south-east Queensland, and lives in Brisbane. The spirit and substance of her work can be found in the homeland of her grandmother and great-grandmother. A descendant of the Waanyi people of north-west Queensland, Watson completed a fine arts degree at the University of Tasmania in 1982.
While living in Sydney, Watson exhibited in the 1989 Artspace survey exhibition ‘A Koori Perspective’ and became associated with the Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative, which had been established to promote the work of urban Indigenous artists.
In 1995, she received the Moët & Chandon Australian Art Fellowship, and two years later was represented the country in the Australian Pavilion at the 47th Venice Biennale as part of ‘Fluent: Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Yvonne Koolmatrie, Judy Watson’. Watson’s work explores drawing, printmaking, painting and sculpture, all referencing an Indigenous connection to land and history.
Discussion Questions
1. Judy Watson’s paintings are conceptually layered responses combining a sense of place and history. How has the artist suggested the presence of her grandmother in this painting?
2. Have you ever been in the outback or camping in the bush and noticed how bright the night sky is compared to when you are in a town or city? Why do you think there is a difference?
Classroom Activities
Create a portrait — use old clothes, sheets or fabric remnants as the surface on which to draw or paint with coloured inks. Make the subject of your portrait a family member — but work from your memory rather than from an image. As a class, pin your finished (unstretched) works directly to the wall of the classroom.