Art / Kulata Tjuta: Tirkilpa, spear installation. At the National Gallery of Australia. Reviewed by BARRINA SOUTH. 

Great art moves you, mentally and physically, and that is exactly what the latest installation at the National Gallery achieves.

The installation, Kulata Tjuta (Many Spears): Tirkilpa (rattlings spears) is the largest installation of the Kulata Tjuta project to date and is comprised of 2500 handmade spears suspended from the gallery ceiling. The viewer can start by focusing on a single spear, and as your eyes moves across the installation, you feel the impact of the cloud of spears hovering, and it takes your breath away.

The volume of spears on show cause the viewer to become slightly disoriented. This is enhanced by the floor, a mirrored surface that distorts the reverse image of the hanging spears. Combined with the shadows on the gallery walls, all of these creative elements gives the viewer a sensation of motion, flight or fright, despite being a static installation.

Finally, the installation is further enhanced by sound with a short audio recording by Kulata Tjuta: Tirkilpa lead Frank Young singing a Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) song titled Kulata Inma (Song of the Spear).

I spent the time, sitting with the installation, letting its magic seep in.

Kulata Tjuta is an ongoing cultural maintenance project that shares the skills of carving and making spears across generations. It started as a project involving a small group of men in Amata and has grown to include over 100 Aṉangu men across the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands.

I have viewed many exhibitions featuring spears and, I found this approach in the Kulata Tjuta (Many Spears): Tirkilpa (rattlings spears) refreshing, clever and thought provoking.

In the words of project founder, the late Willy Kaika Burton:“We (Aṉangu) have a word for the rattle of the spears, that word is Tirkilpa. We have a technique where we roll spears over each other to make this noise. A long time ago this noise would be heard before a battle begins. Sometimes I hear the Tirkilpa today, it is a different battle today, but the fight is real for us. Aṉangu are fighting for a chance at a better life and for a better future; we are fighting for our grandchildren.”