Fashionable take on Yamaji art

A lucky few will now be able to wear a piece of Yamaji Art’s latest exhibition, as the indigenous art centre releases a set of scarves and leggings for the winter season.

The “Walking with the Stars” collection will be part of the “Shared Sky” exhibit to be displayed in Manchester, UK later this year.

Project co-ordinator Charmaine Green said the centre used high resolution images of the original Yamaji artwork, working with a Melbourne manufacturer to create the set of one-off pieces.

“They have a play with it, send back a mock to us and I’ll say ‘oh, I don’t like where that shape is because it might be provocative, or offend someone because it’s on the crotch or the bum’ until we get it right,” she said.

“It’s been a year-and-a-half long process to get all the leggings and scarves done and we wanted them all Australian made.

“We could’ve had them done in Vietnam or China or something but that’s not what we wanted, we wanted to be local.”

Ms Green said art centres now had to look at ways of diversifying their products for a more public audience.

“This way we wanted (our new products) to be part of the Ilgarijiri project as not everyone can afford the paintings, but anybody can wear some of the art,” she said.

Another one of the project’s artists, Barbara Merritt, said bringing art and fashion together allowed more people to share and engage with the work — and they had seen great interest in similar products from tourist shops in Fremantle.

“Some young people, they’re not interested in art, but this they’ll do — because they think art is for old people,” she said.

“We got young mothers here modelling, and it helps them as well, to bring them out.

“Usually they’re back at home where they’re not seen, so all this helps their personal journey.”

City of Greater Geraldton mayor Shane Van Styn was also at the unveiling of the project by the foreshore Emu Eggs recently. .

“I think it’s great here today to see such beautiful young girls looking the part, looking like a million bucks and exuding the kind of confidence that we so look to see in Aboriginal people as we come together as a nation and move forward to the path of reconciliation,” he said.

“The City takes great seriousness in trying to work together and develop a better society in which we can come together.

“Through art, which we see very often in collaborative efforts like this, we can start working together to achieve these goals.”