Literature in our Collection
(M-Z)

Skeritt, Henry F. (Hg.): The Inside World. Contemporary Aboriginal Australian Memorial Poles. From the Debra and Dennis Scholl Collection, DelMonico Books - Prestel, Munich, London, New York 2019, Ausst. Kat., ISBN 9783791358161

Table of Contents        ¦         Cover Text        ¦         Review⁄Abstract

Table of Contents

David B. Walker. Director's Preface -7-

Dennis Scholl: Preface -9-

Henry F. Skeritt: The Inside World -11-

Howard Morphy: Larrakitj: Death and Memory -19-

Diana Nawi: A Longer Contemporary -27-

Map -38-

David Wickens: Kunbarrllanjnja (Gunbalanya), Nawarddeken Lorrkkon dja Injalak Arts, Stone Country Memorial Poles and Injalak Arts -44-

Murray Garde: Maningrida, Memories of a Lorrkkon Ceremony at Maningrida -62-

Louise Hamby; Milingimbi, Garrawurra Dupun -90-

Wukun Wanambi: Yirrkala, Our Destiny in the Larrakitj -106-

Notes -150-

Selected Bibliographies -153-

Author Biographies -156-

Acknowledgments -158-

Photo Credits -160-

Cover Text

The outside surface of things hides what is inside. I Want to share what is hidden ... Inside the larrakitj. Inside our destiny. Inside our hearts. - Wukun Wanambi The Inside World presents ninety-nine memorial poles by forty-nine artists from the remote Aboriginal Australian communities of Kunbarrllanjnja, Maningrida, Milingimbi, and Yirrkala. Traditionally, these poles - named lorrkoon, dupun or larrlitj - marked the final point in Aboriginal mortuary rites. They signified the moment when the spirit of the deceased had finally returned home - when they had left all vestiges of the mundane "ouside" world, and become one with the "inside" world of the ancestral realm. Today, these poles are made as works of art, becoming a powerful metaphor for the ability of Aboriginal art to cross cultures, to speak of the secret "inside" world within the mundane outside of the artworld. Drawn from the collection of Miami-based philanthropists Debra and Dennis Scholl. The Inside World is the first exhibition to attempt to map the production of contemporary memorial poles across the Arnhem Land region in northern Australia. It features some of the most respected contemporary artists working in Australia today, In this volume, lading art historians, anthropologists, curators, and artists shed light on the complex histories of memorial poles. The authors situate these enigmatic objects in both their traditional contexts in Aboriginal societies, as well as their changing position in the contemporary art world. Today, the larrakitj, dupun, and lorrkon that travel the world as art stand as the embodiment of the rich, living cultures of Arnhem Land. They are not ritual objects in themselves, but metaphors for the crossing of cultures: spirit vessels designed to hint at the existence of an elusive "inside" world. The result is not a picture of dying cultures, but a celebration of life. Walking in this forest of bones, we find ourself reborn. Faced with this joyous elucidation of a culture so distant and different to our own, the worlk is made more alive.