Floating life: contemporary Aboriginal fibre art

102 Perhaps the allure of Lorraine Connelly-Northey’s works lies in the ‘inexplicable transference, the rhythmic resonance, between how things were and how they now are’. 5 While the works retain all the visual beauty of those Aboriginal weaving techniques they reference, they are also delightfully and unexpectedly transformed through the use of rough materials. Fencing wire is magically transmuted into a traditional carry bag; rusted iron sparkles with new wit. Created from such ingredients, these are works of startling originality and humour. Endnotes 1. Waradgerie is the artist’s preferred spelling of the name of this Aboriginal nation (usually spelled Wiradjuri), as this spelling was used by her maternal grandfather, the artist Alfred ‘Knocker’ Williams, to sign his work. 2. Julie Gough, ‘Being there then and now: Aspects of south-east Aboriginal art’, in Land Marks: Indigenous Art in the National Gallery of Victoria , National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2006, p.130. 3. Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Cross-Currents [exhibition catalogue], Linden — St Kilda Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne, 2005, unpaginated. 4. Gough, p.130. 5. Gough, p.130. Opposite Narrbong (String bag) 2008 Rusted mesh sheeting and fencing wire 53 x 29 x 12cm Acc. 2008.139 Purchased 2008. The Queensland Government’s Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund Left Narrbong (String bag) 2008 Rusted fly-wire gauze and fencing wire 63 x 88 x 3cm Acc. 2008.141 Right Narrbong (String bag) 2008 Rusted bed-base wire and tie wire 93 x 65 x 26cm Acc. 2008.140 Purchased 2008. The Queensland Government’s Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund