My Country 2011

Editor: Sally Gabori’s ‘My Country’ painted in 2011 with acrylic, just pulses with vibrant orange and stark white. It’s hard to look away. The shapes almost feel… molten? What do you make of its intense simplicity? Curator: Ah, Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori! She paints the feeling of place, not just its look. Think of a childhood painted late in life – pure memory unleashed, that bold colour speaking of heat, earth, maybe even ceremony. Does it feel almost topographic to you, perhaps, like a map of internal emotion rather than physical space? Editor: I see what you mean. The orange could be the dry earth and the white perhaps salt flats… It really makes you think about more than just a pretty picture. It makes you imagine the place. Is that what she was going for? Curator: Precisely! Remember, Gabori started painting quite late in life, carrying within her a whole universe of stories, of ancestral connections to Bentinck Island. The rawness, the urgency – it's her story exploding onto the canvas. Can’t you almost hear the wind, feel the sun? Editor: I can, now that you mention it. It is wild, untamed. It's funny how colours can speak louder than words sometimes, isn’t it? I initially saw just clashing colours and now I perceive something that is intensely moving. Curator: Absolutely, this shows you how true art really hits you; viscerally. Don't get bogged down with what you think you should see. Feel it! I think Sally would agree, trust that inner landscape first and foremost. Editor: What a great way to look at things, thanks for sharing. It will inform the way I view art from now on.