Cover – Tennant Creek Brio ‘Artist Studio’ (2020)

Statement

‘We are the creatives and the culture men, we can travel in our dreams – Winkarra. We’ve got to go back to country for those dreams. Our country has spirits – its alive – and it needs us: ‘our spirits and country are crying for us,’ because we are not practising on our grounds. We need strong resolve.

Our Art
It’s a new cultural art for us mob where we can express our stories – it’s not inside our culture – it’s on the edge, coming in. Some of our dreams have different kinds of effects that come in the night, in our head, and we create something stranger. They’ve got meaning and it’s part of healing. The healing is also found in our ceremonies and our expression, it keeps people together and strong – if we lost that it would harm us and it would harm our future – if we lose it now what will we have for our future generations, they’ll never know anything, they’ll miss out on what we know. — Kamarnta wilyanka pakamarra (we are holding it strong)1

The Italian word brio means mettle, fire, or vivacity of style or performance. It expresses the energetic, experimental and transformative spirit of the Tennant Creek Brio, whose collective work is a dynamic interplay of influences including Aboriginal desert traditions, abstract expressionism, action painting, found or junk art, street art and art activism.

The Tennant Creek Brio is an artist collective based in the Barkly regional town of Tennant Creek, (population 3,200) which is located in Warumungu country in the Northern Territory. The collective began in 2016 as an Aboriginal men’s art therapy program through Anyinginyi Aboriginal Health Organisation to help men with issues of alcohol and substance misuse. Under the direction of artist Rupert Betheras and supported by fellow artist Fabian Brown, Joseph Williams and the more senior David Duggie, the collective quickly gained traction amongst local men. The collective soon grew its core membership to include Marcus Camphoo, Simon Wilson, Lindsay Nelson, Clifford Thompson, Matthew Ladd and Joseph Williams alongside several occasional members and fellow travellers. By 2018, the art therapy program had moved out of Anyinginyi and under Nyinkka Nyunyu, the Tennant Creek’s art and culture centre, where the collective was joined by artist Jimmy Frank.

Each artist had been exposed to various traditional forms of cultural expression, i.e. sand, rock and body painting, along with canvas, print, TV, film, social media and religious and protest imagery before joining the Brio. The seeds of Brown’s iconic figurative style, for instance, were planted when he was young, producing sketches on the walls of his childhood dwellings. As a teenager, Williams learnt to carve from his grandfather, while Wilson also developed an interest in painting during his teens. Additionally, Betheras’ early teenage years were marked by Melbourne 1980s graffiti subculture. The artists share a rebellious streak and commitment to unsettling the status quo born from a shared experience of outsider status.

Working collectively, the artists are also challenged to reinvigorate their individual practices through exposure to new materials and mediums, and through new approaches that are collaborative and dialogical. No individual’s authorship necessarily takes priority over the others. At times one artist might finish the work of another through reimagining the intentions and possibilities of their art in the act of both making and presenting their work. While the collective remains true to its art therapy origins, it has also developed a significant social and cultural voice reflecting on the rigours of life in a frontier town that remains marred by the ongoing impacts of colonisation and the unending struggle to maintain cultural identity.

Some of the collective’s ‘found’ materials – such as disused metal, plan drawings from a nearby abandoned mine site, and disused poker machines – potently feed into the force of this commentary and outsider status.

(Artist Statement by Tennant Creek Brio and Nyinkka Nyunyu Arts and Culture Centre)

Cover Image: Installation view from Tennant Creek Brio artist studio, including works by: Lindsay Nelson, Clifford Thompson, Fabian Brown, Marcus Camphoo, Joseph Williams, Jimmy Frank, Simon Wilson and Rupert Betheras, left to right: Pot of Gold, 2 Woman 5 Dragons, Country/Swagman, Indian Dreaming, Titan, and One-eyed Man. Image courtsey of Nyinkka Nyunyu Arts and Culture Centre.

Left to right: Lindsay Nelson, Marcus Camphoo (Double-O), Clifford Thompson, Fabian Brown and Rupert Betheras. Image courtsey of Nyinkka Nyunyu Arts and Culture Centre.

Studio view, works by various artists, central works by Fabian Brown and Rupert Betheras. Image courtsey of Nyinkka Nyunyu Arts and Culture Centre.

Fabian Brown and Rupert Betheras, 2019, Ancestor Boards series: Blue-bird and Trump, She-Wolf, Enamel and mixed media on board. Image courtsey of Nyinkka Nyunyu Arts and Culture Centre.

1. Jimmy Frank and Joseph Williams, in consultation with Michael Jones, Norman Frank and Fabian Brown, ‘Minngalangala Anyula Wilyangka Pakkamarra, From the Edge We’re Holding it Strong, Living on the Edge’, in NIRIN NGAAY, Jessyca Hutchens, Brook Andrew, Stuart Geddes and Trent Walter (eds.), published by the Biennale of Sydney Ltd, Sydney, 2020, available online: https://nirin-ngaay.net.