Time and the Art of Gunybi Ganambarr: Re-defining Country through Found Objects
Gunybi Ganambarr (b. 1973), a Yolngu artist of northeast Arnhem Land in northern Australia, is innovative within a practice of Yolngu art that dates back 50,000 years. He adheres to Yolngu cultural restrictions yet also pushes boundaries to engage contemporary Yolngu and global audiences of contemporary art. Classical representations of Yolngu art utilize objects found in nature such as bark and natural ochre pigments to display public versions of clan designs. Ganambarr updates the definition of “found object” to incorporate mining industry detritus within his art. Departing from classical media, Ganambarr redefines the land to reflect the human impact on the environment as intrinsic to representations of country. As he incorporates industrial materials in his work, Ganambarr envelops present-day environmental concerns within a timeline that is ancestral and beyond a human scale. In this way, his work leans heavily on the metaphysical content of his materials, which includes a concept of time that is beyond mundane comprehension. My aim is to evaluate Ganambarr’s recent found industrial object works within the Yolngu context, and particularly through Yolngu metaphysical conceptions of time. I demonstrate how Ganambarr’s practice merges his deep knowledge of Yolngu ancestral culture with a contemporary landscape marred by industry.