Sally Gabori's 'All The Fish' Animated Adaptation

“Danda ngijinda dulk, danda ngijinda malaa, danda ngad.”

(This is my Land, this is my Sea, this is who I am).

– Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori

In consultation with the family and estate of Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori, Fed Square have commissioned an interpretive digital artwork evoking the artistic practice and visual storytelling techniques displayed in leading Australian Indigenous artist Sally Gabori’s painting ‘All The Fish’.

This work responds to the way in which Gabori viewed and depicted her world, highlighting the way ‘All The Fish’, with its numerous conjoined circular forms, conjure a large school of fish erupting from the reef-laden waters of Bentinck Island in Kaiadilt Country. The digital interpretation seeks to maintain the original qualities that stem from Gabori’s connection to land and culture and artistic approach, while adding the dimension of movement in time, while Fed Square’s digital platform brings the work of one of Australia’s foremost artists into the public realm for all to see and experience.

The animation of ‘All The Fish’ will be shown from 8:00pm – 9:00pm from 9 May to 9 June as part of YIRRAMBOI festival.

Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori

© The Estate of Sally Gabori. Photo courtesy of Anita Ruthling Klaussen

Sally Gabori was one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists of this century. Throughout her ten year career, Gabori’s love of paint and the full spectrum of colours triggered an outpouring of artistic expression. Her works reflect the way in which Gabori viewed and depicted her world, the stories of her ancestors and her country, Kaiadilt Country of Bentinck Island in the south of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland. Born c.1924, Bentinck Island, Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland. She lived and worked Mornington Island community of Gununa, Gulf of Carpentaria, and passed away in 2015. She was of the Kaiadilt people.

The animated interpretation of All The Fish, uses three methods of animation; traditional frame by frame animation, digital key-frame animation, and  ‘generative’ or ‘programmatic’ animation. It is not a video that normally consists of a sequence of frames, but rather a continually generated sequence. The programmatic animation has two components: firstly a thread running throughout that determines the overall progression over a 1-hour session and features seeming randomness within finely tuned sets of rules. These rules ensure that every session is different but still adhere to the original composition. More specifically, the size, position, movement, rotation, duration and selection of each ring is resolved in real-time. The second component allows the rings to deform as they push up against each other.

Credits:

All The Fish
2005
Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Jim Cousins AO and Libby Cousins through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2013
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas (original)
2018 Animation: Ramus // Pablo Tochez Anderson
Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori, All the fish © Mir didingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori /Copyright Agency, 2018.

Above photograph courtesy of Brisbane Festival 2011 and the Estate of Sally Gabori

Digital Interpretation Creative Direction: Ramus
Lead Animator: Pablo Tochez Anderson

In consultation with Sally Gabori’s family Ramus developed this dynamic, interpretive artwork to evoke the artistic practice and visual storytelling techniques displayed in Gabori’s painting ‘All The Fish’. We would like to acknowledge and thank Sally Gabori’s family, Beverly Knight as Agent for art for the Estate of Sally Gabori, Alcaston Gallery, the National Gallery of Victoria for their valuable guidance, support and insight during the creation of this work, created in celebration and memory of Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnd Sally Gabori. We also wish to thank Jim Cousins AO and Libby Cousins who generously gifted ‘All the fish’ to the National Gallery of Victoria the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program in 2013.

Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori, All The Fish © Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori / Copyright Agency, 2019.