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Rainforest people: Napolean Oui
Artist Napolean Oui, a Djabugay man, is focussed on his research about his cultural heritage. It is from this research and its findings that Napolean has developed his contemporary art practice and distinctive style of art making.
Alick Tipoti: Mask story
We join Alick in Cairns, North Queensland as he makes a series of masks used in performance. Like so much of the Torres Strait Islander culture the atmosphere in the studio is powerful. Alick speaks in his language Kalaw Lagaw Ya.
The master at work
The master at work is an intimate portrait of artist, Peter Churcher, as he becomes an Australian war artist and contemplates a move to Spain. Filmed in 2005 in his studio in Prahran, Melbourne.
Djambawa Marawili: Rock of the fire
In this film we join the great Yolngu leader and artist Djambawa Marawili in his homeland of Baniyala, nestled so beautifully on the shores of Blue Mud Bay in East Arnhem Land.
Courage: The art of William Eicholtz
In this film we join sculptor William Eicholtz on a journey of creativity. The journey is contemporary but reflecting ancient techniques as William creates an important and complex work, full of skill and meaning.
space * time * performance
space time performance is a film about the inflatable sculpture, A Sac of Rooms All Day Long, which was exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in an exhibition called Sensate: Bodies and Design.
Unpacking a wood kiln and selecting pots: Gwyn Hanssen Pigott
Now comes the nerve racking process of unpacking the kiln. Gwyn Hanssen Pigott unpacks the wood kiln and selects the final compositions of her works. Here the results confirm the joy of making.
Packing and firing a wood kiln: Gwyn Hanssen Pigott
Pots glazed and dry, Gwyn Hanssen Pigott undertakes the delicate and time consuming task of preparing the wood kiln for the firing.
Throwing, turning and altering: Gwyn Hanssen Pigott
Gwyn Hanssen Pigott demonstrates wheel throwing and turning and the altering of thrown forms.
Glazing: Gwyn Hanssen Pigott
This is a complex and delicate task of selecting forms and colours. Gwyn Hanssen Pigott demonstrates the way in which the pots are glazed.
The art of making: Gwyn Hanssen Pigott
In this series of films Gwyn Hanssen Pigott demonstrates each stage of the making process as she creates a series of porcelain wood-fired groupings of pots that are so highly regarded by collectors around the world.
Within art and nature with John Wolseley
If we look closely at John Wolseley’s paintings, we will begin to understand how nature works. Here laid out before us on the arches paper is the intricate weave of nature.
Maasai: Birds sing and lions roar
Birds sing and lions roar explores the relationship between the Maasai and the environment. As the drought deepens the men travel further and further in search of pastures.
Maasai: Keeping knowledge
Keeping knowledge explores the ways in which Maasai believe they can preserve their precious cultural heritage while at the same time considering new ways of community development.
Maasai: Food and celebration
Goats and cattle are a source of wealth in Maasai society and the animals are looked after with care.
Maasai: Changing times
We visit the house of Amos and Lilian and talk about the changing relationships between younger Maasai men and women.
Maasai: Enkang life
The women prepare a donkey transport, the men light a fire and a Maasai bride leaves the village.
Maasai: Women at work and women at home
Maasai women describe their way of life and we visit a Maasai hut, a medical dispensary and go shopping in a Maasai market.
Billy Missi
Billy Missi was inspired by his culture and concern for the environment, the sea and islands of the Torres Strait. The art making of a new generation of Torres Strait Islander artists inspired Billy, who was determined to make art his career.
A portrait in Barcelona
What is it like to have your portrait painted and why do people commission these paintings? How is the portrait constructed and how does the artist capture a likeness? How does history influence the art of portraiture?
Nyapanyapa: The constant artist
Each and every day Nyapanyapa worked at Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre, the internationally famous art centre at Yirrkala in East Arnhem Land. The country, the land and sea, deep in long held knowledge, in culture, in law, in nature and in creativity.
The weavers of Langarra
We meet at the Milingimbi airport at 9 am for our charter to the small community of Langarra. This is a very special invitation from community elder Ruth Ngalmakarra to take us back to her homeland.
Masterpiece: The work
The chrysanthemum design is more traditional and that already existed in Kyoto, but this plum flower design pattern is my original idea.
Masterpiece: The artist
I am the third generation for this bamboo craft and I have been involved since the time of my grandfather.
Two old artists looking for food: Living forms of the landscape
We tour John’s painting and learn more about the plants that now come to life on its surface.
Two old artists looking for food: Painting as if through a veil
In this film we learn about the food plants of East Arnhem Land through the eyes, pen and brush of two great artists.
The smokers have taken the gold
We meet John Wolseley in a pub in a town called Rainbow and travelled back to his camp in the middle of Wyperfeld National Park.
Knowledge, painting and country
Knowledge, painting and country, the third film in this series about the culture of Western Arnhem Land, takes us on a journey to meet the region’s most respected elders.
Rock art and Yingana
Since deep time, Aboriginal people have painted images on the rock escarpments of the Stone Country.
The brush sings
In this film we meet the artists as they work at Injalak Arts and Crafts and we find out why art centres are so important to Aboriginal communities.
The artist's journey
Robert Jacks is recognised as one of Australia’s most significant abstract artists. During his early career, Robert was influenced by the pioneer of British abstract art, Ben Nicholson.
Gifu: A place in our hearts
The Japanese summer of 2019 and we take you on a journey around Gifu, the beautiful and mountainous prefecture in Central Honshu.
Bardangarrh-Bardangarrh
In this film Frankie Kelly and Bob Burruwal tell the stories of Bardangarrh-Bardangarrh and the message stick and the fire stick.
Bongolinjbongolinj
In this film Bob Burruwal and Lena Yarinkura tell us the story of Bongolinjbongolinj and the gift of a song.
Ngalbenbe
In this film Bob Burruwal and Lena Yarinkura tell us the story of Ngalbenbe, the sun story and the Djarngno sacred site.
Wurun fish spirit and the trapping story
My father taught me. He told me never to forget this story. He said do not lose my story, hold on to it.
Telling stories as art
Just like those old people, they used to tell us those stories, we used to listen to them. The older generations passed it on to us.
Mono
In this film Bob Burruwal and Lena Yarinkura tell us the story of Mono, the bones of two people and their dogs who die of thirst.
We walked on a carpet of stars
Julie Gough creates the work Locus for The Biennale of Sydney, the tension builds as deadlines approach.
Bush plum: The contemporary art of Angelina Pwerle
Central Australia is a place of extraordinary power and beauty, the art from this place is a mirror, a spiritual reflection of beliefs, of culture, of country, of its plants and animals.
Zugub, the mask, the spirits and the stars
In this documentary Alick Tipoti describes his culture, recalling the legends of his land through music and dance and art making. We travel to his home island of Badu in the Torres Strait.
Ian Waldron: My mother’s country
For the past twenty years Ian Waldron has been creating a visual record of life on the Gulf of Carpentaria, in particular the life of people on his traditional Kurtjar country.
Arahmaiani: Between the mountain and the sea
A performance work in 3 acts filmed in Indonesia and India. In these performances the physical and metaphysical meet.
Stephen Benwell: An Art Life
The second of two films about the Australian artist potter Stephen Benwell, this film was released in May 2019.
Stephen Benwell: A Still Life
We begin at the installation of Stephen's latest exhibition at Niagara Galleries in Melbourne - Stephen Benwell: Ceramics and Paintings 2019.
The sea, the feather and the dance machine: Arrival song
Ken Thaiday takes us on a remarkable and personal journey to Erub in the Torres Strait.
The sea, the feather and the dance machine: Leaving song
Erub is a place where music and dance are important foundations to cultural practice and creativity, once more on the rise through a revival in artistic activity.
a potters film
An award winning documentary about ceramic artist Gwyn Hanssen Pigott.
Goobalathaldin: The moon man Gidigal
Bark paintings are remarkable works of art, they are also a page from the book of Aboriginal knowledge. Here we look at the back of a bark painting in the Creative cowboy films collection.
Rethinking tropical architecture: Yann Follain
We contemplate the ways in which architecture should contribute to the development of modern communities across the tropical world and particularly in South East Asia.
Humanity
We stand in this place with deep sadness in our hearts for this war and all wars. Sadness made worse because we know deep in our hearts that nothing has been learnt.
Hiroshima
The morning of the 6th of August 1945. It is 8.15 am and the world’s first atomic bomb to be used in war, explodes 600 metres above Hiroshima.
Stolen generations
In the bustling atmosphere of the art fair in Singapore the discussion turns to the stolen generations of Aboriginal children in Australia. Sandra was stolen when she was only seven years old.
Diversity and identity: The echo of the drum
In this film artists and leaders describe the importance of diversity and identity, keeping culture and cultural revival. These things are important because they underpin human health and wellbeing.
Eiffel Tower Dreaming: Lena Nyadbi
Peter Hylands asked Dr Stéphane Laurent (Professor and Director of Research at the Sorbonne University) to write this article in English to give us all a perspective on France's intellectual connection to the Indigenous people of Australia.
Kagoshima and other stories
Autumn days in Kyushu in the far west of Japan and we catch the train south to the City of Kagoshima. This is to be a journey of reflection.
A Saylor’s life
Bully Saylor and Peter Hylands are on Erub in the Torres Strait close to the corner of Australia’s north eastern boundary and close by the Great Barrier Reef and New Guinea.
Yamagata days: Ways of being
We gather at Governor Mieko Yoshimura’s welcoming reception for the UNWTO at the Bunshokan Former Assembly Building in Yamagata City, now beautifully restored. It is early February and the snow is all around us.
Visiting William
One of the most creative and technically brilliant sculptors in Australia, William Eicholtz, works from his studio nearby to Creative cowboy films’ base in Melbourne, we visit William’s studio to view a new body of work.
Into the light
This story was first published in May 2018 and pre COVID. In the first year of its opening the new museum received 2.3 million visitors. teamLab’s world is a world of endless possibilities, it is a world without boundaries and an art without end.
Reflections
Reflections of a Japanese life in a time before COVID.
The Prince and the message stick
When it comes to standing strong and connecting globally, the Yolŋu set the gold standard for us all. It is in this way and in April 2018 that Prince Charles visited Yirrkala in East Arnhem Land.
A certain injustice
In Alice Springs we ask Grandmother Against (child) Removal, Christine Palmer, to tell us about her latest thoughts on the matter of the removal of Indigenous Australian children from their families.
Knowledge is power: The Mulka Project
Among the very precious things in Australia is the cultural knowledge of its Indigenous people. Today and at the Mulka Project’s home in Yirrkala, this knowledge and the latest technology meet, two knowledge economies entwined.
Napuwarri: Hollow log
We join Napuwarri Marawili as we select a hollow log for the artist to create a larrakitj or memorial pole. The hollow log, bark removed, will be sanded and prepared and then painted using the traditional and sacred designs of Napuwarri’s clan.
Ishmael Marika: Knowledge flows
We look back to 2014 and the stunningly beautiful community of Yirrkala. It is also a place where a lot of very clever stuff happens and the world knows it.
Colour & design
The Women’s Centre in Maningrida is busy this morning. In a cluster of buildings that include the Djomi Museum and the former art centre building, the Women’s Centre is yet another hub of creativity in this historic place of art making.
Continental drift
Christopher Green received Creative cowboy films’ European web award in Piccadilly. The award was for our analysis of Brexit and its impact on the social and economic prospects of the UK. We were simply stating the obvious. It is not over yet.
Ruth Ngalmakarra: Milingimbi Art and Culture
Before taking us to her island homeland of Langarra, Ruth Ngalmakarra tells us about Milingimbi Art and Culture and the artistic traditions of the region.
Yidaki: Jacob Ganambarr
Jacob, from the Datawuy clan, has been playing Yidaki since he was three. In Milingimbi young people learn to play the Yidaki using leftover plastic plumber's pipe. When you are big enough to hold the Yidaki it is time to play the real thing.
Yerrdagarri: Messages from Peppi
Water lilies are many things, they are beautiful, they are numerous, around 70 species, water lilies live in the tropics and in temperate zones. Aquatic herbs, water lilies have been an important food source for Indigenous people since ancient time.
Joe Dhamanydji: Milingimbi Art and Culture
Joe Dhamanydji is a guardian of cultural knowledge, not all of this knowledge can be shared with non-Aboriginal people. He is the proud Chairman of Milingimbi Art and Culture.
How it works
East Arnhem Land and we join Laklak Burarrwanga and Djawundil Maymuru at Buku-Lanrrnggay Mulka Art Centre. This is Yolŋu country.
Watching Soe and finding freedom
Soe Naing (Myanmar) at Art Stage Singapore in January 2014. Powerful work and performance with greater resonance than ever, loaded with history, humanity, compassion and suffering. The Singapore audience thought so as well.
The Master Printer
As the rain hammers down on the streets and buildings of tropical Cairns it was once again time to visit master printer Theo Tremblay in his print workshop Editions Tremblay NFP (no fixed press) at Canopy Artspace.
National Gallery Singapore
Singapore’s built heritage and contemporary enterprise and achievement have come together to create a series of beautifully designed institutions, where history, culture and contemporary art are now exhibited.
Arahmaiani: The grey paintings
In this film we join Arahmaiani as she paints Grey by the Elo-Progo River in Central Java and in Singapore, Tony Godfrey, Equator Art Projects, talks to Arahmaiani about the grey paintings.
If the world changed
Art history, the fourth edition of the Singapore Biennale. 82 artists and artist collectives, 13 countries and 27 curators, multiple venues. Many of the works of art were commissioned for SB2013. Art from the region predominated.
A certain harvest
We leave the River Cam and go now to a very different body of water, the blue and turquoise sea with its coral cays and volcanic islands of the Torres Strait so many thousands of miles away.
Raj Ghat
Our thanks to George Bernard Shaw. Following their meeting in 1931, Gandhi said of Bernard Shaw “I think he is a very good man”. Bernard Shaw’s response on the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi is the quote used in this story.
Road works
The roads we are travelling on have also become trade routes of India. The roadsides are places of work. What happens by the roadside tells you a lot about a place here.
Kathakali of Kerala
We are here to look at something that also has deep roots in Kerala’s culture, a story dance performance, the highly stylised dance drama called Kathakali.
More marvellous machines
Sore hands and heavy work raising the catch skyward and increasingly so, and over the long years, the catch becomes lighter and there are fewer fish for our fishermen to sell.
The marvellous machines of Marina Beach
Chennai’s Marina Beach extends about 12 kilometers from Beasant Nagar in the south to Fort St. George in the north, it is here we find a sculpture garden and a place where children come to play on the marvellous machines of Marina Beach.
Paul Bong: Fragments
Then the white man came along and he shot, bang, bang, bang. And he put in these bullet holes in these objects and what happened next is he tried to pull the culture to pieces. What I am doing now is to put the pieces back together again.
Billy Doolan: New Territories
At the end of April 2014 Bwgcolman elder and artist Billy Doolan travelled to Hong Kong to begin a residency at the Hong Kong Institute of Education and so begins a journey of friendship and of sharing culture with Chinese friends.
Pitt Rivers Museum
Sitting in the upstairs bar at Paddington Station, the train to Oxford delayed, time for another pint to wash down the London air. Soon we were on the train, then out, beyond the London suburbs, looking at the rolling green countryside flashing by.
Wallace Rockhole
The flight from Darwin is descending, we bank and fly low over the MacDonnell Ranges. Alice Springs Airport is just ahead. Bags unloaded we jump into the car and head mostly west to Wallace Rockhole.
Joel Ngallametta: Saltwater
We take you back more than 400 years to 1606 and the Dutch East India Company vessel Duyfken as it dropped anchor at Cape Keerweer in the Gulf of Carpentaria all those centuries ago.
Twisted histories
In this film the founder of the Wallace Rockhole Community and Ilpurla Outstation in Central Australia, talks about what happened to the old people of the Finke River country.
Raymond Bulambula: The right colour
We join Raymond Bulambula to collect ochres which he will then use to create a new painting. Raymond, Zanette, Andrea and I head out of Milingimbi township in the morning light, along a small bush track and to a nearby coastal mangrove area.
Australian homelands are forever
We have always understood that it is a crime to remove Indigenous peoples from their land and that any such removal represents the worst kind of colonialism and exploitation.
Brian Robinson: men+GODS
Brian Robinson tells Peter Hylands about his men + GODS exhibition (KickArts, Cairns, North Queensland, 2012). Brian’s exhibition takes us on a visual journey through a world of mythology, a journey of tension between men and Gods.
And so to Xi’an
I want to take you to Xi’an, the home of the Chinese warriors. The discovery of the Chinese warriors by Mr Yang in 1974, while drilling for water and what Yang’s initial discovery will lead to, as excavations continue, are extraordinary.
Ching-Hui Chou: Animal farm
The Animal Farm series is composed of 36 complex tableaus and intimate portraits. The large works are just under two meters wide, the portraits just over a metre wide.
Hsu Yung-Hsu: Fine art
By any measure the ceramic sculptures created by Hsu Yung-Hsu are impressive. The works are very large in scale, hand built ceramic forms that are technically challenging to create.
Angela Yuen Ka Yee
Angela’s art practise focuses on urban culture as ‘a tangible expression of the disappearing city value and local cityscape’. Angela explores the correlation between urban development and city value via installation and photography.
An earlier portrait in Prahran (2005)
Traditional art school or studio practice is that you have a studio nude and you paint the figure quite anonymously and in a way that it does not really matter who the person is. They are just a body or a type that you are painting.
Courage
Australian sculptor William Eicholtz completes a major commission for the City of Yarra in Melbourne. The bronze casting techniques used here are similar to those of ancient Greece.
Memory of nature
A year or more has passed and we meet Arahmaiani again under a Javan sky to create the installation and performance once more, this time in a field on the banks of the Elo-Progo River in Central Java. Borobudur is close by this location.
Borobudur: Thinking Mandala
Borobudur lay hidden under volcanic ash and forest until Stamford Raffles, who was enthralled by Javanese history and collecting Java’s antiques, organised a dig to expose the long lost temple. The year was 1814. We are with Arahmaiani in Java.
Modernity and tradition
A journey through modernity and tradition from Tokyo to Kyoto on a Shinkansen to the heart of ancient Japanese culture and tradition.
Yamagata days: Ginzan Onsen
The snow is falling heavily as we arrive at Ginzan Onsen, there are metres of it everywhere. For me these are memories of an Alpine childhood all those years ago in Carinthia.
Yamagata days: Ceremony
This morning we are in Yamagata City and we have been invited to a tea ceremony at Seifuso, the Chashitsu (teahouse) yet another beautiful and purposeful building in its white snow landscape in a Maple park.
The art of Zen
Tokyo National Museum is a storehouse of treasures. The museum’s collection is made up of 114,000 items and includes 87 National Treasures and 634 Important Cultural Properties. Around 3,000 objects are exhibited at any one time.
Nara and Kyoto
First stop is Kyoto’s Nishiki Market 錦市場, a thriving shopping precinct, an undercover and narrow alley, which stretches for five blocks in the downtown district. Most of what is here is food related.
The National Museum of Art, Osaka
The National Museum of Art in Osaka was opened in late 1997 as the fourth national museum in Japan. The building was originally designed as the Exposition Museum of Fine Arts at Osaka’s Expo 70 and was then redeveloped to its current use.
Mino washi
It seems that all roads lead to Mino where the Nagara River flows. Mino steeped in ceramics, paper and light and some very beautiful Edo period houses.
Yamagata Days
In our lives there are days to remember. Our days in Yamagata will live long in our memories. We start our journey in a spiritual Shinto heartland as we visit Mount Haguro, the most accessible and one of three mountains.
Paper as art
Back in Mino and we work with traditional Japanese papermaker, Takeshi Kano. The creative cowboy films team clap when Takeshi-san finishes his morning’s work. You get the feeling he deserves the spontaneous applause.
Hermannsburg
Not that far from Wallace Rockhole in Tjoritja (the West MacDonnell Ranges country) is the community of Hermannsburg (the sacred site of Ntaria). The township is 130km to the west of Alice Springs.
The curious case of the Burrup Murujuga
The Burrup Peninsula, or in local language the Murujuga, in the remote North West of Western Australia, contains an extraordinary collection of ancient rock carvings created by many hundreds of generations of Aboriginal people across the millennia.
Media and the Murujuga
This extraordinarily significant site, the Murujuga, gives us vital insights into the pre-history of man, continues to be under significant pressure from even more commercial development in the form of industrial infrastructure.
Murujuga
Images which appear to depict mega fauna and other extinct species, such as the Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger), fat-tailed macropod and Tasmanian Devil, are evident in the petroglyphs.
Murujuga gets short shrift
In 2007 I was asked to read a statement by the RT. Hon. Malcolm Fraser AC, CH, Prime Minister of Australia (1975-1983) at Melbourne’s Federation Square. The statement was in support of the preservation of the ancient rock art of the Murujuga.
Mick Kubarkku
Margie West AM writes about Mick Kubarkku. Mick Kubarkku was an artist from the rugged escarpment region of western Arnhem Land renowned for its extensive galleries of rock art.
Bardayal Nadjamerrek
Margie West AM writes about Bardayal Nadjamerrek AO. Kunwinjku language (Kundedjnjenghmi dialect). Wamud Namok was one of most respected and well-known artists working in the Western Arnhem Land painting tradition.
The art and the dragonfly
As the day fades across the waters of the Liverpool River, the reddening sky with its polished marbled patterns reflect golden in the gently undulating waves. On Mangrove shore where giant crocodiles sleep something remarkable is happening.
A kind and thoughtful man
Sid and I go to sit by the beach of a million bleached shells, piled high along the tide's edge for as far as the eye can see. This too is Saltwater Crocodile territory. The Crocodiles sleep in the morning sun. It is here we stop to talk.
Namatjira’s front door
To the south west of Alice Springs we stand in a place where a remarkable individual lived and worked. And we enter through Albert Namatjira’s front door. We have not been to this place before.
Irankarapte
Irankarapte is Ainu and it means hello, well much more than hello – allow me to touch your heart gently.
creative-i 1: Vanishing worlds
In the article Silent country Alick Tipoti makes us think about the importance of language in preserving culture, in The world we make we look at the impact of our own actions on Indigenous cultures and we visit our Maasai friends in the Rift Valley.
creative-i 2: Around the world
At home once more and in London we visit Christopher Green in the scholar’s room of the British Library. Christopher is the British Library's first artist in residence.
creative-i 3: The Survival Issue
We visit the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair and head further north to see Sid Bruce Short Joe in Pormpuraaw, Cape York.
creative-i 4: The Singapore Issue
The rise and rise of contemporary art in Indonesia is reflected by the Indonesian Pavilion at Art Stage Singapore where the work is compelling and a demonstration of how contemporary art can be a powerful reflection of society and meaning.
Love and India in a time of Covid
So let’s step back and take a journey in pictures and stories through Southern India with the Creative cowboy films crew and think of our friends across this beautiful and incredibly complex country.
Qutb Minar
This time we visit the Mehrauli region, one of seven ancient cities that compose the State of Delhi, here we visit the Qutb complex. It is December and the days are still warm as the winter shadows lengthen.
Mahabalipuram: A temple by the sea
For more than one thousand years our temple by the sea, the Shore Temple, as it is known, has stood here resisting the lapping waves and the salty winds that have licked at and melted its precious masonry.
Brihadeeswarar Temple
It is mid January and we are in Tamil Nadu. The southern Indian light still bright, and its sun, still warm as we visit a favourite place for another story about the architecture and buildings of India.
A Taj Mahal Sunday
It is early on Sunday morning in New Delhi, the plan is to drive south to visit Agra and the Taj Mahal. The drive should take about four hours, so there is time to do the round trip in a day.
Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum
Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum is a fine example of Japanese museum design. This place of culture was designed by architects Kengo Kuma and Nihon Sekkei.
Ainu weaving and embroidery
Ainu craft traditions continue and of the great skills handed down to the current generation of women is the art of Nibutani-attus weaving and embroidery.
Meet Takeshi San
We visit Japanese papermaker, Takeshi Kano, in his studio in Mino City. In this story Takeshi san demonstrates how the kozo fibres are beaten and then how the fibres are sieved to make the individual sheets of paper.
The art of Hina Ningyo
In Japan, sometimes it is a good idea to go and check out what your neighbours are up to. Mitsuko Ando is the third generation to make Bonbori lights or lanterns for the formal display of Hina dolls.
Gifu, our land of memories
There is the natural world in Gifu, butterflies flutter by on the soft warm air, the mountains soar to the sky and forests, dressed in shades of green, march on every hillside.
Snowflakes fall as beetles do
First of all this is a story about Hon-minoshi, the beautiful hand-made paper from Gifu Prefecture. A parcel arrives from Gifu and we discover that snowflakes fall as beetles do.
Land song: A poem for the missing
We take you to Lake Tyrrell in northern Victoria, the country of the Boorong people under the night sky.
Stars over Tyrrell: The night sky of the Boorong
One hundred and fifty five years ago, a Boorong family at Lake Tyrrell told William Stanbridge something of their stories relating to the night sky.
Family with egg: Collected works
This story is part of a series which provides students and collectors with an image of a work by Andrea Hylands in the collection of museums or private collectors around the world.
21st Century Museum of Art
We were last in Kanazawa in the heat of the summer when we drove here via the mountains to the north of Gifu.
Meet the Maasai
During this period of drought the journeys for the Maasai men grew ever longer, as they searched for pastures to feed their animals.
Peppimenarti
Heading out of Darwin we drive south on the Stuart Highway to the small township of Adelaide River. It is here the highway crosses the river.
Shoutou-an
The building was moved to Kanazawa in 1979 when it was renamed Shoutou-an.
Gifu: The art of the potter
Today is a very special day as we are visiting the Koubei-gama Studio in Tajimi, founded by Koubei Kato in 1804.
Gwyn Hanssen Pigott
Gwyn Hanssen Pigott was a central figure in the history of contemporary ceramics in the 20th century and she retained a remarkable presence in the 21st century ceramic movement.
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creative-i 5: The First Nations Issue
Not only did these visitors not leave, but they broke the law. They killed animals and did not eat their flesh, they killed fish during their breeding season, their animals trampled across our yam gardens and they blocked the rivers and the creeks.
creative-i 6: The Art & Nature Issue
The Art and nature issue of creative-i takes us on a journey to Australia where we meet a very talented group of individuals, each making a significant contribution to art or science in Australia.
creative-i 7: The Bangladesh Issue
This is the seventh in the series of our international magazine creative-i. In this issue we travel to Bangladesh, to India and Tibet.
The Boorong night sky
I started out in 1993, found most of the creatures and the people within two years but took until last year to find Kulkunbulla. One of the Brothers Berm still eludes me.
Stars over Tyrrell: John’s story
Andrea and I met John and Kirsty Morieson in 2014 through an introduction by Niagara Galleries director Bill Nuttall.
Art and Culture Channel

Warning to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers that the content of the Art and Culture Channel may contain images and voices of Indigenous people now deceased. A selection of content is historic, reflecting Andrea and Peter Hylands’ long relationships and friendships, spanning decades, with Indigenous peoples around the world.

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“As we walked on the beach that first night, the wind blew, it was cold and the starlit sky was crystal clear. At our feet, the wet sand, like a mirror, reflected the night sky, and like the thousands of ancestors before us, we walked on a carpet of stars.” Peter Hylands

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Zugub, the mask, the spirits and the stars

Author
Peter and Andrea Hylands
Published on
September 7, 2023
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Zugub, the mask, the spirits and the stars

In this documentary Alick Tipoti describes his culture, recalling the legends of his land through music and dance and art making. We travel to his home island of Badu in the Torres Strait.

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Director
Andrea and Peter Hylands
Cinematography
Rob Pignolet and Andrea Hylands
Duration
60:29

In this documentary Alick Tipoti describes his culture, recalling the legends of his land through music and dance and art making. We travel to his home island of Badu in the Torres Strait.

The sea, the feather and the dance machine: Arrival song

Author
Andrea and Peter Hylands
Published on
August 4, 2023
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The sea, the feather and the dance machine: Arrival song

Ken Thaiday takes us on a remarkable and personal journey to Erub in the Torres Strait.

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Director
Andrea and Peter Hylands
Cinematography
Rob Pignolet and Andrea Hylands
Duration
29.30

Ken Thaiday takes us on a remarkable and personal journey to Erub in the Torres Strait.

Bush plum: The contemporary art of Angelina Pwerle

Author
Andrea and Peter Hylands
Published on
August 4, 2023
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Bush plum: The contemporary art of Angelina Pwerle

Central Australia is a place of extraordinary power and beauty, the art from this place is a mirror, a spiritual reflection of beliefs, of culture, of country, of its plants and animals.

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Director
Peter and Andrea Hylands
Cinematography
Rob Pignolet and Andrea Hylands
Duration
14.30

Central Australia is a place of extraordinary power and beauty, the art from this place is a mirror, a spiritual reflection of beliefs, of culture, of country, of its plants and animals.

We walked on a carpet of stars

Author
Andrea and Peter Hylands
Published on
December 16, 2024
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We walked on a carpet of stars

Julie Gough creates the work Locus for The Biennale of Sydney, the tension builds as deadlines approach.

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Director
Peter Hylands, Jean-Pierre Chabrol
Cinematography
Jean-Pierre Chabrol
Duration
26.10

Julie Gough creates the work Locus for The Biennale of Sydney, the tension builds as deadlines approach.

Arahmaiani: Between the mountain and the sea

Author
Andrea and Peter Hylands
Published on
April 10, 2024
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Arahmaiani: Between the mountain and the sea

A performance work in 3 acts filmed in Indonesia and India. In these performances the physical and metaphysical meet.

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Director
Peter and Andrea Hylands
Cinematography
Andrea Hylands
Duration
39.05

A performance work in 3 acts filmed in Indonesia and India. In these performances the physical and metaphysical meet.

a potters film

Author
Andrea and Peter Hylands
Published on
August 4, 2023
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a potters film

An award winning documentary about ceramic artist Gwyn Hanssen Pigott.

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Director
Peter and Andrea Hylands
Cinematography
Rob Pignolet and Andrea Hylands
Duration
30.13

An award winning documentary about ceramic artist Gwyn Hanssen Pigott.

Stephen Benwell: A Still Life

Author
Andrea and Peter Hylands
Published on
August 4, 2023
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Stephen Benwell: A Still Life

We begin at the installation of Stephen's latest exhibition at Niagara Galleries in Melbourne - Stephen Benwell: Ceramics and Paintings 2019.

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Director
Peter and Andrea Hylands
Cinematography
Andrea Hylands
Duration
12.39

We begin at the installation of Stephen's latest exhibition at Niagara Galleries in Melbourne - Stephen Benwell: Ceramics and Paintings 2019.

Two old artists looking for food: Living forms of the landscape

Author
These two films are dedicated to Mulkun Wirrpanda for her wisdom and leadership.
Published on
August 12, 2023
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Two old artists looking for food: Living forms of the landscape

We tour John’s painting and learn more about the plants that now come to life on its surface.

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Director
Peter and Andrea Hylands
Cinematography
Andrea Hylands
Duration
29.24

We tour John’s painting and learn more about the plants that now come to life on its surface.

Maasai: Enkang life

Author
Published on
September 2, 2023
No items found.

Maasai: Enkang life

The women prepare a donkey transport, the men light a fire and a Maasai bride leaves the village.

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Director
Andrea and Peter Hylands
Cinematography
Rob Pignolet and Andrea Hylands
Duration
26.38

The women prepare a donkey transport, the men light a fire and a Maasai bride leaves the village.

The weavers of Langarra

Author
Published on
August 14, 2023
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The weavers of Langarra

We meet at the Milingimbi airport at 9 am for our charter to the small community of Langarra. This is a very special invitation from community elder Ruth Ngalmakarra to take us back to her homeland.

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Director
Andrea and Peter Hylands
Cinematography
Andrea Hylands
Duration
22.05

We meet at the Milingimbi airport at 9 am for our charter to the small community of Langarra. This is a very special invitation from community elder Ruth Ngalmakarra to take us back to her homeland.

Telling stories as art

Author
Peter and Andrea Hylands
Published on
August 23, 2023
No items found.

Telling stories as art

Just like those old people, they used to tell us those stories, we used to listen to them. The older generations passed it on to us.

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Director
Peter and Andrea Hylands
Cinematography
Peter and Andrea Hylands
Duration
11.39

Just like those old people, they used to tell us those stories, we used to listen to them. The older generations passed it on to us.

Djambawa Marawili: Rock of the fire

Author
Published on
September 25, 2023
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Djambawa Marawili: Rock of the fire

In this film we join the great Yolngu leader and artist Djambawa Marawili in his homeland of Baniyala, nestled so beautifully on the shores of Blue Mud Bay in East Arnhem Land.

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Director
Andrea and Peter Hylands
Cinematography
Andrea Hylands
Duration
59.14

In this film we join the great Yolngu leader and artist Djambawa Marawili in his homeland of Baniyala, nestled so beautifully on the shores of Blue Mud Bay in East Arnhem Land.

Courage: The art of William Eicholtz

Author
Published on
September 2, 2023
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Courage: The art of William Eicholtz

In this film we join sculptor William Eicholtz on a journey of creativity. The journey is contemporary but reflecting ancient techniques as William creates an important and complex work, full of skill and meaning.

WATCH FULL VIDEO
Director
Andrea and Peter Hylands
Cinematography
Andrea Hylands
Duration
47.30

In this film we join sculptor William Eicholtz on a journey of creativity. The journey is contemporary but reflecting ancient techniques as William creates an important and complex work, full of skill and meaning.

The art of making: Gwyn Hanssen Pigott

Author
Published on
September 2, 2023
No items found.

The art of making: Gwyn Hanssen Pigott

In this series of films Gwyn Hanssen Pigott demonstrates each stage of the making process as she creates a series of porcelain wood-fired groupings of pots that are so highly regarded by collectors around the world.

WATCH FULL VIDEO
Director
Andrea Hylands
Cinematography
Rob Pignolet and Andrea Hylands
Duration
32.48

In this series of films Gwyn Hanssen Pigott demonstrates each stage of the making process as she creates a series of porcelain wood-fired groupings of pots that are so highly regarded by collectors around the world.

MORE DOCUMENTARIES

“Language stands in the middle, art branches off from that, performing art, dance, song, any practice in life from our Melanesian culture branches off of that”. Alick Tipoti

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