Musee Du Quai Branly

Musee Du Quai Branly is the museum featuring Australia's Indigenous artworks in Paris, France. Exhibiting works by 8 of the most important Australian Aboriginal artists today on the ceilings of the ground floor, 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors as well as on its facade:

• Paddy Nyunkuny Bedford
• John Mawurndjul
• Ningura Napurrula
• Lena Nyadbi
• Michael Riley
• Judy Watson
• Tommy Watson
• Gulumbu Yunupingu

Artists feature - Meseum Layout

John Mawurndjul was the only one of the eight artists who actually flew to Paris to create the artwork on site. It wasn't the painting on the ceiling that he was creating but it was the painting on large scale of lorrkon (hollow logs) which took him 3 weeks to finish. These two hollow logs are featuring on ground floor at the entrance connecting to his painting on the ceiling. Other artists' works were selected and giving permission to the artists on site to replicate their works onto the ceiling with the supervise of the curators. 

French connection film

By watching this documentary film, recording the process of transferring each significant art work onto the ceiling of each floor was quite inspiring. It is quite an extraordinary project not only in the visual world but also the political side of it. I found that this project has opened up so many pathways and opportunity for Australian Indigenous Arts to be recognised and familiarise by the world population. Ever since the day that I have discovered John Mawurndjul and his rarrk in Art+Soul Documentary, I have always been admiring his process and techniques of making rarrk. His cross hatching are very neat with perfection, it's very contemporary yet contains so much spirituality within.

To find out more about this commission: Australian Indigenous Art Commission