ABSTRACT
Miyarrka Media formed in 2009 to create a new kind of shared art practice. For Yolngu, Christmas preparations start in October when the first wulma thunder clouds form, heralding the approach of the wet season and the impending birth of Christ. The Christmas Birrimbirr installation experiments with generating this field of sensation and sentiment in a gallery space. A 39-minute, three-channel video provides the installation’s central focus. Symbolically structured around the graves of three Dhalwangu clan leaders, it opens with full-frame images of the massing of wulma clouds. In the text below, recorded fragments of conversations have been cut and pasted in an effort to sidestep the rupturing potential of difference laid bare. In the spirit of the project itself, the text is arranged as assemblage rather than conventional critical analysis.
