BROOME ARTIST MAKES WORK TO INSPIRE AT SYDNEY

At Sydney university, a major art work by a Jugun Yawuru man has been reproduced on the outside of the Law Faculty building.

Michael Jalaru Torres said he aimed to inspire national and international students with the work.

“The whole idea was for students and visitors to look at the art work and get inspired to see what was there before,” he said. “And to research themselves the history of the region and Australia. And hopefully then inspire other First Nations artists to dream big and to dream big to a large scale canvas like public art.”

Torres said the work was printed directly onto the building’s aluminium cladding, and illustrated the junction between old and new law.

“They wanted to create something that showed the existence of the area that the Uni now resides on which were the large hills that used to be kangaroo grounds,” he said. “The design has Kangaroo foot prints weaving across the landscape. On the landscape is a large Gadi tree or Grass Tree which is very significant for the Gadigal people in that area. And from that tree it’s showing the tree on fire.

“And from those fires the embers then float across the country and then turn into the eel. So the eel story along that region is quite strong as well. And so the eel then swings and floats into a loop. A circular loop which is present in Aboriginal Law, where learning is circular. And so the loop then comes around into an infinite loop that’s about the process of knowledge and handing down knowledge is infinite.”

As a Kimberley man Torres said it felt strange at first being asked to create an art work on Gadigal country, but when he was told the university was a national and international institution he felt more comfortable.