The Gate is Singing, 2017, Ishmael Marika
Digital, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Provenance: Salon de Refusés, Darwin.
‘I was born in Nhulunbuy but spent my youth in Yilpara.’ Ishmael Marika is an award-winning filmmaker and artist. He currently works as a director, editor and production officer at The Mulka Project in Yirrkala. His work has within the Yolngu community has produced cultural documentations of dhapi, bapurru, and other ceremonial events, as well as sporting, community and meeting activities. He has a specific interest in documenting land rights within the Yolngu community (1).
This digital work was Ishmael Marika's entry in the 2017 NATSIAA. The text he supplied to accompany the entry is: ‘The Yirrkala children made the designs for an aluminium gate on the Roy Dadayna Stage at the Buku-Larrngay Mulka Centre. When the North-West wine, Barra, blew through, it made this sound.’ (2).