mudunama kundana wandaraba jarribirri: Judy Watson

The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) is pleased to present this exhibition that honours the work of one of Queensland's and Australia's most significant visual artists. Of her Country, Judy Watson once said, 'I listen and hear those words a hundred years away. That is my Grandmother's Mother's Country, it seeps down through blood and memory and soaks into the ground.' 2 Drawn out of the past, the sorrowful beauty of these works is simply part of their insistent search for enlightenment. 'mudunama kundana wandaraba jarribirri' — 'tomorrow the tree grows stronger' — offers us an elegiac message of hope for the future. In concert with the artist, Katina Davidson, QAGOMA's Curator of Indigenous Australian Art, has drawn this comprehensive career survey exhibition together with deep regard and sensitivity to its storytelling. She has furnished this publication with a substantial new essay that anchors its long view on a remarkable artistic career. This volume also includes stories transcribed from conversations with Watson's family members; an international perspective on Watson's work from Tarah Hogue, Curator, Indigenous Art, at Remai Modern, Saskatoon, Canada; and a creative response from poet and artist Jazz Money, from Gadigal Country. I would also like to acknowledge the State Library of Queensland's black&write! Indigenous Writing & Editing Editor Interns Georgia Anderson and Darby Jones for their work across these pages, supported by Publication Patron Vicki Brooke, through the QAGOMA Foundation, in a continuation of Judy Watson's unfailing spirit of collaboration. Gadens, one of QAGOMA's most steadfast partners, has joined us on several contemporary Australian and First Nations art projects to date, and they were immediately keen to support this exhibition. I thank Chairman Jim Demack, former Chairman Paul Spiro, Brisbane Office Partner Shantal Read and all at Gadens for their commitment to this important project. We are also grateful to Tourism and Media Partner JCDecaux for their generous sponsorship, and for the support of the Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund. Watson's distinguished career could not be so thoroughly represented without calling on the holdings of many generous colleagues around the country. I thank our lenders: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; National Museum of Australia, Canberra; State Library of Queensland, Brisbane; The University of Queensland, Brisbane; Wollongong Art Gallery; and the Janet Holmes à Court Collection, as well as the artist herself and many private collectors. Judy Watson has talked about her Waanyi people being known as 'running water people', for the dynamic nature of the water in their Country. 3 It is a quality that equally applies to her restless, searching practice. Her incisive and insightful work has contributed immeasurably to national and global awareness of some of the most crucial issues of our time. As a collecting institution, itself not immune to critique of our practices and history, QAGOMA welcomes her work, and is exceptionally proud to present this exhibition in Queensland. NOTES 1 Hetti Perkins, 'Judy Watson', The First Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art [exhibition catalogue], Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1993, p.110. 2 Judy Watson, artist statement, Wiyana/Perisferia (Periphery) [exhibition catalogue], Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative at The Performance Space, Sydney, 1992. 3 Judy Watson, artist statement, National Indigenous Art Triennial: Culture Warriors [exhibition catalogue], National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2007, p.167 moreton bay rivers, australian temperature chart, freshwater mussels, net, spectrogram (detail) 2022 30