Week 4: Nici Cumpston

 

Nici Cumpston is an artist of Aboriginal, Afghan, English and Irish descent and draws strength from her ancestry when creating her artworks. The strong connection with her Indigenous forebears and their culture has instilled a great spirituality into her work.

 

Nici says "Much of my work is photographic but I create black and white images and then hand colour them with water colours and pencils. Currently I am working on large scale pieces that I create on film, and then have scanned and printed digitally onto canvas.Being involved in exhibitions nationally, as well as locally is important for me to maintain an active arts practice. Last year I was honoured to be one of 10 finalists from a national pool of emerging Indigenous artists in the inaugural Xstrata Coal Emerging Indigenous Art Award held at the Queensland Art Gallery. My great desire is to see more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people attending university and I am especially passionate about getting students interested in UniSA’s visual arts program."

 

Nici has a strong background in Photography, working once for the Police force developing photos from forensic evidence. She has also stated that her fathers work as a Radiographer, had a strong influence on her interest in photography as she was always exposed to dark rooms and the process of developing film.

 

2011: "Having-Been-There"

In 2011 Cumpston created the series "Having-Been-There" which featured the Barkindji and Paakantji Country.

'Scar Tree, Fowler's Creek'
2011, print on canvas, hand coloured with pencil and water colour, 100x177cm

The artist says she spent a lot of time looking, listening, thinking, feeling and trying to get a sense of what was left as evidence of Aboriginal occupation on these sites. She travelled over 30 km over which she found shards of rock left over from stone making tool practices and fossils with fish scales imprinted into the rock. During this time she sensed like she shouldn't be there alone. This intuition was correct. She later found out from one of the elders of the land that it was a mans sight where hunting and ceremonies would have taken place.

'Fossil Waterhole'
2011, print on canvas, hand coloured with pencil and watercolour, 65x177cm

 

'Settlement View'
2011, print on canvas, hand coloured with synthetic polymer paint, 65x177cm

 

Nici Cumpston uses reference photographs to help her transcend back to the environment and create the feeling she experienced when there. However she doesn't hand colour to the exact colours that she saw. She likes to make an emphasis on the way the light changed during the time she spent on the land. These works are 1x2 metres in scale so the colouring process can be time consuming but one that she enjoys and finds rewarding.

'Shelter I & II' Quartzite Ridge
2011, print on canvas, hand coloured with synthetic polymer paint, 98x98cm

Above is an image of a work which original was born out of an accident where the image was printed the wrong way around. It is of a rock shelter on top of a ridge. Cumpston found it challenging photographing this because she didn't feel it gave a sense of shelter and protection against the elements. However when it was printed back to front and then layed beside its mirror image she felt this was achieved.

2007-2012: "Attesting"

This series was created in response to the Federal Government which stopped the flow of fresh water into Lake Bonney in 2007. The lake became stagnant and putrid and the water dramatically receded and salinity levels rose. Cumpston created these works because she felt it was important to document the event and raise awareness.

'Nookamka Lake'
2008-11, inkjet print on canvas, hand coloured with pencil and watercolour

Cumpston says that it was a local turtle breeder took her around and showed her amazing sights. He showed her a Ring Tree with branches were joined together which were symbolic for different clans travelling through as a sign for a place of abundance. It signified that there was fresh fish and water in that area. She also found spears, spear heads and fire sticks. Cumpston is passionate about the cultural heritage protection of this sight. She is also fighting to have it listed as significant place which needs a proper archaeological search conducted.

'Cultural Landscape II'
2008, inkjet print on canvas, 65x177cm

 

'Tree Stumps'
2008-10, inkjet print on canvas, hand coloured with pencil and watercolour

 

2005: Eckert's Creek

In 2005 Cumpston created a commission piece for the Dame Roma-Commonwealth Law Court in Adelaide. It featured a flooded gum at Katarapko Creek. This was the first time the artist had shifted from paper to canvas. The brief was that they didn't want a piece with any dead trees because they wanted the work to be uplifting due to the environment it would be displayed in.

Below is a series of images which show the process involved in creating the work. First is a black and white image, followed by the original colour image and then the final reworked and hand coloured piece.

Cumpston said she felt the space was panoramic. So when she took the images she wanted to create a piece which was more interactive which led her to alter the horizon line and display the image over several panels vertically. She then went over the image with transparent watercolour paints to allow the original image to show and then highlighted with pencils.

2004-2006: "Holy Holy Holy"
Curated by Vivonne Thwaites
Flinders University Art Museum
National Tour

'Abandoned'
2004

'Abandoned' was Nici Cumpston's interpretation of her own personal interaction with Christianity. The image is of a church  which she saw during her travels between Echuka and Swan Hill. This abandoned old church resonated with her because of personal experiences with religion which have been mixed. She also says she feels most comfortable and spiritual with her country. Nici believes that her spirituality comes from learning from the community and from her elders and that where this takes place is also an important part of her culture which is why it is so frequently the main setting for her works.