Case Study:
Munupi Arts & Crafts
Munupi Arts and Crafts Association was established in 1990, when the two flourishing organisations, Yikikini Women’s Centre, which had opened in 1978 and Pirlangimpi Pottery, set up in 1983, were incorporated. The potter Eddie Puruntatameri, who worked at Tiwi Pottery at Nguiu for many years until he moved to Pirlangimpi, was the first president. The first art advisers were printmaker Marie McMahon and ceramicist Susan Ostling who were instrumental in setting the direction and structure of Munupi. They encouraged the existing diverse range of media, which includes painting, tunga, tutini and other carving, weaving, printmaking and ceramics. They encouraged artists to create bight flamboyant murals around the community, including the airport, the Council office, Pirlangimpi Pottery and at the Women’s Centre.
Munupi artists have returned to more natural colours, with ochres, gouache and acrylic paint. The majority of the works currently produced are painting (including for the fine art market), traditional carving and occasional print-making with a small but famous pottery output.
Aerial view of Pirlangimpi. Courtesy Artback NT; Photographer Stefan Carrillo
I flew from Milikapiti to Pirlangimpi on 15 June, 2022 and was barely in the air before we landed again. My evening was spent at the Clear Water Lodge where I was the only guest other than mosquitos. The setting was beautiful and wild. I was served a large plate of delicious fish and vegetables, in a verandah room, surrounded by Tiwi art and artefacts along with fishing paraphernalia and photos of giant catches held by grinning tourists.
I spent the next day at Munupi Arts where there was a quiet consistent buzz, with Elders and community stopping by and artists working throughout the day. They moved their locations but women generally painted on the verandas around the buildings, a man painted inside the new workshop and a father and son painted carvings suspended from a frame in the shade beneath a tree. I felt free to explore and wander across the site. Reppie Papajua (Orsto), proudly showed me her painting of the white cockatoo, her skin group, on the facade of the original shed. The art centre manager who had overseen the build process showed me what had been done and described the briefing, design and construction stages.
Architecture
The art centre had been operating out of a fairly rudimentary shed which had incrementally grown with an enclosed verandah and brightly painted extensions. In 2020 Munupi went through a site and building upgrade by Kaunitz Yeung Architecture. The art centre now comprises the upgraded existing building, a new workshop that sits alongside with covered outdoor working spaces between and a carving shed further across the site. The pottery shed sits on a site nearby but was non-operational on my visit.
The original corrugated metal-clad building has been rationalised inside and painted a deep ochre red that complements the roof of the new workshop. New murals have been painted by artists in a band around the outside that give the building unity, scale and visual cohesion.
The art centre is entered through large barn doors into an open central space that operates as a combined entrance, gallery, packing and gathering area with a roller garage door to the far side. The shed-building is over 3.5m tall internally with high windows. To one side there are two offices – the art centre manager’s with a window to the street, the assistant with a window looking at the new workshop. The proportional volume of these spaces feels relatively large. To the other side are storage, photography and archive spaces, and a room for canvas stretching and priming that is also accessible to the rear so canvases can be taken directly out for drying then painting.
The new workshop building, wrapped in a perforated metal screen, sits parallel. Two-thirds is an open space for working, the other third contains a kitchenette, art preparation and storage space, with men and women’s toilet accessed externally on either side of the building.
A large roof reaches out over the concrete slab a further 2.8 metres from the enclosure on each side and 4 metres at one end, providing covered outdoor working spaces. The roof of the old building has a canopy extension to meet the new.
The canopy from the new workshop (right) mimics those placed on the original building (above left) and acts as a framing device. Artists sat at the table in the photograph below and the passage between it and the building seemed to be used by artists and community as a point of entry.
The pottery shed, not in operation on my visit, occupies an old repurposed WWII Sidney Williams Hut. A fig tree has firmly taken a grip on one end of the building.
The new workshop designed by Kaunitz Yeung Architecture
The lower portion of the workshop is wrapped in a perforated metal screen with a design by Natalie Puantulura. Her distinctive Jilamara (design) have been transposed onto a series of hand-drawn, laser-cut metal panels that wrap around the new building. As Lisa Slate, of the Art Gallery of South Australia says, “these dynamic perforated panels protect the body of the building just as Jilamara protects the body in Tiwi ceremony. Like skin, they also enable the body to breathe”. The relatively young artist passed before the buildings’ opening, which became a ceremonial testimony to her.
1. Gallery, art prepping, packing
2. Store
3. Archive and store
4. Canvas stretching room
5. Managers office
6. Administration office
7. Open-covered verandah
8. Open verandah
9. Workshop
10. Art preparation
11. Amenities
12. Carving Shed
13. Pottery Shed
The covered spaces between and around the buildings are used by artists to work at tables or on the ground. It was reported to me that the artists deemed the space under the front prow of the roof to be the prime and most sought after space (shown on photograph on the right).
Large barns doors with roller shutters for security, open to create a light filled welcoming multi-use space. There are clear sightlines and spatial connections across the site. From the entrance you can see the main verandah in front of the workshop and the large tree in the centre of the site.