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86 Earth and Elsewhere | Contemporary Works from the Collection
Earth and Elsewhere | Contemporary Works from the Collection 87
Judy Watson
/ Waanyi people, Australia b.1959 /
passing from the edge of memory to the night sky
2007 / Pigment and pastel on canvas / 211 x 127cm / Acc. 2010.192 /
The James C Sourris,
AM
, Collection. Gift of James C Sourris through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2010. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural
Gifts Program
Judy Watson
passing from the edge of memory to the night sky
2007
In
passing from the edge of memory to the night sky
, successive
waves of indigo overlap to form an intense field of blue. It depicts
the night sky as seen from Waanyi country in far north‑western
Queensland, the homeland of Watson’s grandmother,
who passed away as the work was being made. The celestial
blue is haunted by the transit of a misty veiled figure ascending
into the sky. Watson has often used silhouetted figures in her
paintings, recalling those found in both painted and engraved
rock art in many parts of Indigenous Australia; this device
signals the persistence of Aboriginal presence as well as
suggesting a kind of spiritual power. The painting is a tribute to
Watson’s grandmother’s passing, and an evocation of the way
in which someone can surrender the presence of a loved one
to the wider universe.