Curator Hetti Perkins once described Judy Watson’s work as a “tender trap”, for its “seductive beauty” and ability to transmit powerful, often painful messages. This is in full evidence at Queensland Art Gallery (QAG), which is showcasing four decades of practice across more than 120 works by the Mundubbera-born, Meeanjin/Magandjin/Brisbane-based artist. It is the most expansive survey of Watson’s work to date.
Even the exhibition’s title, mudunama kundana wandaraba jarribirri, has a poetic beauty that belies its bite: in the language of Watsons’ Waanyi ancestors, it translates as “tomorrow the tree grows stronger”. The line is taken from a poem by her son, Otis Carmichael: “now the tree is cut. tomorrow the tree grows stronger, fighting the axe that cut it. our people bite back.”
