"Narelle Jubelin sees Timeframe, Timelapse, Timeline (2013), as 'highly speculative in grappling with the repercussions of primitivism' following decades of discouse and debate. In the face of a disturbingly confused world of global art and of separatist retreats, Jubelin offers possibilities of imaginative negotiation across sites of contradiction. Here Jubelin salvages narratives of contact, literally in her petit-point rendition citing the documentary Contact, with its conflicting parallel testimonies of the Martu people of the Western Desert and officers from the Weapons Research Establishment in 1964. At the same time she draws together chromatic, formal, political and spatial links between cloths, catalogues, paintings and packages and landscapes.
In a risky sleight of hand she makes comparison with the idea of visual affinity from the 1984 MoMA exhibition, 'Primitivism' in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern, mimicking the catalogue cover that blithely paired a face from Picasso's Girl Before a Mirror (1932) with an undated Kwakiutl mask from British Columbia of similar colour and form.
Bookended by two references to that exhibition, Jubelin's multi-part installation sits within the frame of modernist primitivism, but its provisional nature, scrupulous documentation of each inclusion, references to unfinished histories and projects, and overlapping places and times, unravel fixed cultural identifications."
Linda Michael, extract from 'Future Primitive', Linda Michael (ed.), Future Primitive, 2013, exh. cat. Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, p. 26.
Artworks and objects that comprise Narelle Jubelin's installation, Timeframe, Timelapse, Timeline, include:
Trade Delivers People #3 1989-97
cotton petit point, glass, bone, copper, silver, amber, natural pigments, coins, linen, wood, natural fibres, string installation dimensions variable, private collection, Sydney
Timeframe, Timelapse, Timeline 2013
watercolours, bronzes, paper pulp packing buffers, cotton petit points, crochet and patchwork cloths, exhibition catalogues, video, as listed below installation dimensions variable, courtesy of the artist
painting 1: Kevin Namatjira; skin name: Jungarrayi; language; Western Arrernte; catalogue no: 159-12; 12 x 17 cm; watercolour with backing board; date created: 21/02/2012; title: In the West MacDonnell Ranges Distance, NT
painting 2: Marie Abbott; skin name: Nampinjimpa; language: Luritja; catalogue no: 247-10; 17 x 26 cm; watercolour with backing board; date created: 09/08/2010; title: Fink Gorge, NT
painting 3: Peter Tjutjatja Taylor; skin name: Japaltjarri; language: Western Arrernte; catalogue no: ngur08pta7593; 26 x 36 cm; watercolour on 100% acid free cotton rag board; date created: 3/10/2008; untitled
Paintings purchased Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide, 2013.
Permissions sourced from the artists and Ngurrathuta Iltja Ntjarra, Alice Springs
bronze from 5a, 5b, 5c and 5d: cast from paper pulp packing buffers for colour ink printer cartridges; Melbourne, 2013, each 17 x 11 x 8 cm
future bronze forms 6a and 6b: paper pulp packing buffers for colour printer, each 8 x 34 x 18 cm
future bronze forms 7a and 7b: painted paper pulp packing buffer ‘palettes’ from French kindergarten, Madrid, 2013, each 49 x 27 x 5 cm
cloth 1: test cotton on linen petit point, rendition from José Ramos Horta, ‘Chronology’, Funu: the Unfinished Saga of East Timor, pp. 200-201; Narelle Jubelin, Madrid, 1997, 10 x 17.5 cm, unframed
cloth 2: patchwork cloth bundle with print Bamboo and Flowers by Elizabeth Kandabuma, produced at Babbarra Women’s Centre, Maningrida, NT; purchased from Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, NT, 2012
cloth 3: cotton on linen petit point rendition after Picasso Girl Before A Mirror, 1932; Narelle Jubelin, Madrid, 2013, 35.5 x 25.5 cm, unframed
cloth 4: unfinished wool Crochet for Community lap rug; Narelle Jubelin, Sydney, 1975, 100 x 100 cm, 27 x 50 x 30 cm, folded
cloth 5: cotton on linen petit point, rendition from photograph at Chega!, Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in Timor-Leste (CAVR), in Dili’s former Balide Prison; Narelle Jubelin, Madrid, 2013, 27 x 37 cm, unframed
cloth 6: cotton on linen petit point rendition from José Ramos Horta, ‘Chronology’, Fumu: The Unfinished Saga of East Timor, pp. 200-201; Narelle Jubelin, Madrid, 1997, 35.5 x 25.5 cm, unframed
cloth 7: cotton on linen petit point rendition from Bentley Dean and Martin Butler documentary, Contact (2002) on DVD, 2011; Narelle Jubelin, Madrid, 2013, 35.5 x 25.5 cm, unframed
catalogue 1: Ann Stephen, Narelle Jubelin: Cannibal Tours, exhibition catalogue, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2009, 20.5 x 16.5 cm
catalogue 2: Kendrah Morgan (ed.), Sidney Nolan: Early Experiments with Narelle Jubelin: Coda, exhibition catalogue, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2013, 20.5 x 16.5 cm
catalogue 3: Narelle Jubelin: Specific Objects, Common Parts, exhibition catalogue, Marlborough Contemporary, London, 2013, 24 x 16 cm
catalogue 4: Narelle Jubelin: A landscape is not something you look at but something you look through, Contemporary Collection Benefactors, proposed acquisition fold-out, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2006, 11 x 7 x 0.7 cm folded or 11 x 97 cm unfolded
catalogue 5: James R. Barkley, Eames House: An Appreciation of the Work of Charles and Ray Eames, American Vessel, Seattle, WA, 2000, 48 x 32 cm
catalogue 6: Richard Mosse, It Ain’t Me Babe, 2012.
An M23 rebel photographs the photographer, Virunga National Park, North Kivu, eastern DRC, published in The Enclave (Aperture, 2013) and hand out poster, Irish Pavilion, 55th International Exhibition, Venice Biennale 2013, 61 x 46.5 cm
video: Daniel Wozniak, Girl Before A Mirror — Time Lapse Painting — After Picasso.