Tjurkurpa: Handle It

Robert Fielding is an artist, a storyteller and a keeper of Tjukurpa (ceremony and culture). Descendant of the first Afghan cameleers, and the Yankunytjatjara and Western Arrenda people of the central desert, Fielding lives and works in Mimili Community on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. Over the past decade, he has built an eclectic and vast catalogue of works spanning and expanding the fields of paint, print, photography, poetry, drawing, film and sculpture, much of which is now housed in national and international institutions and collections. In 2022, Fielding drew on the ideas and powerful storytelling in this diverse backstory of work and produced a unique state print portfolio. This portfolio due for exhibition at Maitland Regional Art Gallery in 2024 is a considered articulation of his practice, bringing together threads of his past and present to create a new conversation between times, places and cultures.