Toyota go anywhere, a Magic Lantern slide show

Articulate Project Space, Sydney, 2022

National Art Glass Gallery, Wagga Wagga 2007

New England Regional Art Gallery, Armidale 2006

These works explore my experiences living and working with Papunya Tula Artists in Indigenous communities in the Western Desert, NT.

I have engraved glass slides with images based upon my drawings of landscape, people and community life. Using an antique magic lantern, I project each slide as a shadow image on the wall. Visitors may slowly rotate a carousel housing these slides through the lantern.

In the 1930’s, Christian missionaries spread their gospel by presenting magic lantern shows to Aboriginal audiences. In Toyota go anywhere I have interspersed Christian images I found on posters and church pulpits in the Western Desert with images of female elders and the desert landscape. While questioning the motives of the church, these slides reflect the complex interweaving of Pintupi culture with Christian evangelism since the late 1800’s.

I received verbal permission from the community when I exhibited this work in 2006 and 2007 at both New England Regional Gallery and the National Art Glass Gallery, Wagga Wagga by the indigenous elders from Kintore NT.