NGV Triennial- Victoria Amazonica

2017 

Victoria Amazonica was created by Brazilian designers Fernando and Humberto Campana in collaboration with Yarrenyty Arltere Artists, designers Elliat Rich and James Young and the Centre for Appropriate Technology – all based in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Based initially on a sketch Humberto Campana made in Alice Springs of a giant South American lily, this exuberant, large- scale soft domed structure features intricate embroidery by the Yarrenyty Arltere Artists that tells stories of rain, rivers and water.

In the words of the Yarrenyty Arltere Artists, ‘It’s a new way to work, big and flat. We can make a whole story over the surface. When we work we keep thinking of water about the desert and the water here. We keep thinking about how the desert gets so thirsty for water, it’s just calling out for the rain to come and fill it up. Then it rains, and all the life that comes, you can see the waterholes. You can see bush tucker and bush medicine, flowers of all colours, grasses. It is so beautiful. Day and night. We love this desert. Everything that kept coming into our heads, well we just kept on sewing it onto these panels. Even a windmill’.