User:Sarshall/Robyn Djunginy

= Robyn Djunginy = Robyn Djunginy is an Australian Aboriginal artist from Ramingining known for her fiber art and painting.

Biography
Robyn Djunginy was born in 1947 in Ramingining in Central Arnhem Land. Djunginy is from the Gurrumba Gurrumba clan and part of the Ganalbingu language group. She comes from a family of artists, most notably including her father Ngulmarmar and brothers George Milpurrurru and Charlie Djurritjini.

Career
Though involved with several artistic mediums, Djunginy is best known for her weaving, specifically her woven bottles. The shape and style were largely inspired by Italian Chianti bottles and decorative covers made by Oenpelli women in the 1970s, while the weaving itself is imbued with references to the stories and culture of her mother group, the Marrangu Djinang. Most prominently, they represent specific water sites and the Honey Story. They can also been seen as representative of the alcohol abuse problems within several aboriginal communities. Her weaving techniques have varied over the years, but her more recent works seem to favor the more structural coiling technique introduced by missionaries.

The woven bottles were also part of a 1990s movement to elevate Aboriginal women's fibre work. Djunginy was one of the first Arnhem Land artists to "go sculptural" with her weaving, starting in the mid 1980s. "'Going sculptural' has helped reposition Aboriginal fibre art in the art market and its re-evaluation as fine art, an important step toward establishing a sustainable art practice within the wider art market." These artists maintained important techniques and traditions, while pushing boundaries with material and form. By highlighting the connection between fibre materials and the Dreamings, this new genre of art has opened a path for women to represent stories that cultural restrictions around painting might not have allowed. Other prominent artists in the movement include Lena Yarinkura, Bob Burruwal, and Marina Murdilnga.

Later in her career she also created acrylic paintings of bottles. "The painted bottles are representations of the swampland in Ramingining, with the bottles referencing bark canoes gliding through swamp water." The rarrk within her paintings conveys hidden meanings and spiritual powers, while the cross hatching itself, aligned at right angles rather than the usual slant, looks like weaving and connects her two mediums.

Djunginy has done a few projects with Djon Mundine, indigenous art curator and co-ordinator of the art center in Ramingining, including creating one of the dupun for the Aboriginal Memorial.

In 2011 Djunginy was named the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee's (NAIDOC) Artist of the Year and is currently a board member of the Bula'Bula Arts Aboriginal Corporation.

Collections

 * Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia
 * National Gallery of Australia
 * Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art
 * Bula'Bula Arts

1988 - present, originally at the Biennial of Sydney, now at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Djunginy created one of the over 200 Dupun (Hollow Logs) meant to commemorate the deaths of indigenous people since white occupation. Her pole was titled "Warrnyu and rarrk." Warrnyu means flying fox.

August 15 - October 27 2013 at Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), Sydney
String Theory showcased the works of over 30 artists and artist groups from all across the country focused on how textile and craft-based practices expand across time and space and connect all kinds of art and culture.

Feb 11 - March 19 2011 at The Cross Art Projects, King Cross, Sydney
This exhibition featured Djunginy along with Debra Dawes, Fiona MacDonald, and Karen Mills and focused on the ideas of weaving, abstraction, material, and form.

July 24 - September 30 2010 at The Cross Art Projects, King Cross, Sydney
Curated by Fiona MacDonald and featuring Robyn Djunginy and Karen Mills, this exhibit presented a "series of dialogues of between Australian Indigenous artists around the practice and meaning of weaving."