Policeman stop the car policeman said what your name my name is Maureen. Policeman said your sitting no belt, you get $500 fine.
Name: Sally M Nangala Mulda
Language: Arrernte, Pitjantjatjara, Luritja, Yankunytjatjara
Community: Alice Springs
Biography:
Born at Erldunda Cattle Station, then moving to Maryvale Station, now Titjikala, Sally Mulda's parents were from Erldunda and Aputula [formerly known as Finke] regions. She went to school at Amoonguna when her family moved there. Sally married and had her only child as a young woman, but lost both her husband and her baby daughter. After losing the use of her left arm in a childhood accident, Sally later faced the challenge of losing her sight in one eye. Widowed and without children, Sally lived with friends and extended family in Alice Springs for many years. Having never painted before joining Tangentyere Artists in 2008, from the outset Sally sought to record those interactions that constitute life for so many Aboriginal people today.
Initially Sally struggled with painting because of her compromised vision, but following surgery on her good eye, Sally grew in confidence to create her own rich and fluid figurative style that celebrates her place in the world. Sally loosely applies layers of colour in broad brush strokes to depict the world around her.
Of Sally’s domestic environment, a tap drips into a bowl for the dogs, children play, men and women sit in the shade occasionally playing cards, making punu and seed jewellery, playing with babies, celebrating important events, occasionally drinking, while ranges in the background pulse with the heat, or the stars shine in clear skies. Further afield, Sally explores life since the Intervention: camping in the riverbed in swags, Council rangers moving people on, police pouring out grog, or taking people off to sober up. Sally observes minutiae, such as the navy blue Northern Territory police uniform introduced in early 2012.
Sally records events she witnesses and experiences without any particular judgement. Her oeuvre represents a journalistic approach to local situations. This is especially pertinent in that many of her paintings include text that explains each scene in strong and simple language. This form of social commentary on the daily lives of Town Camp residents in Alice Springs represents an important catalogue of lived experiences. As Sally explained about her many years living at Little Sisters Town Camp, located at the base of Mt Gillen, just south of Heavitree Gap, 'Us grownups sitting one side, all’a kids playing and making noise on the other, all’a dogs - big - little - all running round, making noise, all feeling good for home, you know?'
In 2011, Sally moved to Abbott’s Town Camp, located by the Todd River. Life is slightly different for her there, and as a result of the move, Sally’s paintings, some including text, continue to reveal more fascinating insights about life today in Central Australia. Sally was a finalist in the Telstra 2012, 2018 and 2019 National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, and was the winner of the 2011 'Rights on Show' Annual Human Rights Art Award. She was shortlistedt in the 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023 Sulman Prize. In 2020, 2022 and 2024, Mulda was shortlisted for the Alice Prize. Her work has been acquired by many private collections and several public institutions.
In 2018 Sally was invited to exhibit at the Art Gallery of New South Wales as part of The National 2019: new Australian art. She has had several solo exhibitions at Edwina Corlette Gallery in Brisbane. Sally has exhibited in Tarnanthi at Art Gallery South Australia across three incarnations.
Family Bush Trip Family stopping, on their way back to Alice Springs, make a fire and cook some lunch. Dimensions: 305 x 305 mm
Ceremony at M’Bunghara Ceremony on M’Bunghara Creek. The country of M’Bunghara is depicted as a combination of creek and open desert. Maryanne’s ‘landscape’ is scattered with humpies, with people [indicated by U shapes] sitting down Read more…