Warlpiri law man Henry Jackamarra Cook and Judith Crispin
Photo: supplied
Since 2011, Australian poet, writer and photographer Judith Nangala Crispin has spent part of each year living and working with Warlpiri people in the Northern Australian Tanami desert.
Her work centres on the concept of connection with "Country" and includes themes of displacement and reflection on her own lost Aboriginal ancestry.
Her exhibition "Unseen - The Dingo's Noctuary", features at this year's Auckland Festival of Photography. It will be outside on lightboxes near the Ellen Melville Centre.
It includes images of roadkill and other dead animals made using a camera-less technique she calls "Lumachrome glass printing".
She'll also be giving two talks via Zoom at 5pm Thursday 28 May, and 11am Sunday 31 May. 'Talking Culture: Judith Crispin'
"Peter Lapin, looking for Wittgenstein in the afterlife - for Jan Harry"
Lumen Print. Roadkill rabbit, blood, sticks and grass on two pieces of fibre paper. 32 hours under marked glass, back of the ute in winter light and moonlight.
"When Richard was ready, magpies sang at his hospital window until he remembered wings"
Lumachrome glass print, cliche-verre, chemigram. Roadkill Magpie, painted with mineral salts, with ochre, grass seeds, blood and waxed netting, on fibre paper, 36 hours in shade and autumn light.
"On a rainy afternoon, the Lorikeet of Transcendence"
Lumen Print. Roadkill Lorikeet and fennel seeds on Fibre paper. Developed 30 hours under marked glass in heavy rain. Stormlight.
"Zoe descends to comfort her daughters, in a burning country"
Lumachrome glass print, cliche-verre, chemigram. Smoke killed baby tiger snake on fibre paper with seeds and honey (for the stars – constellation lines drawn on with pencil) and glass plate. Exposed 32 hours in rain and bushfire smoke, then rubbed with charcoal from the burned trees.
"Malcolm, knocked to ground by monsoonal storms, waited - feather and bone, stones, grass - until fire lifted him".
Lumachrome glass print, cliche-verre. Fallen baby Myna, stamens of Rainforest flowers, copper II chloride, Tumeric and salt on Ilford paper. 22 hours under marked perspex in variegated summer light.
"There are strange ones among us, with fragile eyes and wild hair, just transiting the world. Try not to love them. Steven, wrapped in night, already stars by the time we find his body."
Lumachrome glass print, cliche-verre, chemigram (with current). Roadkill blind joey, sesame seeds, blood, acids and chlorides under current, on fibre paper, 32 hours under marked perspex.
"Olibart had not been in a body long, so when he dropped his form, in a blaze of oncoming traffic, he stretched himself gloriously across the night sky in Vulpecula, sacred constellation of foxes."
Lumachrome glass print, cliche-verre, chemigram. Road-killed adolescent red fox, dandelion seeds and sand on fibre paper. Exposed 36 hours under marked perspex in a geodesic dome.
"Map of Country. Aboriginal Protected Land in the Tanami and Northern Great Sandy Deserts."
Digital Drawing.
"Herbarium pressing 1 (Bloodwood)
scan from original
Herbarium pressing 2 (Yinirnti)
scan from original
