Albert (Digby) Moran in conversation with Brett Adlington
11am Thurs 20 Sept 2018
Digby Moran will speak with Lismore Regional Gallery director, Brett Adlington, about his exhibition, Growing Up on the Island.
Digby Moran is a prolific and talented artist of national significance with a unique voice and vision. He is a revered artist and a proud Bundalung man. His diverse practice draws on memories, and in particular, his early years growing up at Cabbage Tree Island. Painting has become a medium to hold and draw on memories.
Digby says “In this exhibition is some new work I painted this year and after the flood and some older works. Some are fine works where I use brushes and sticks to paint. There are the older dot works and the swirling lines and dots that are water patterns, and the works with diamond shapes like on the Bundjalung clubs. I use a fine brush and cut the hairs back. Lately I’ve been using my hands swirling in the wet paint, like playing in the water and mud as a kid. The next ones could be something different, I never know.”
The work is strongly linked to Digby’s childhood and mostly happy memories and traditional knowledge. He remembers times with his close and loving family: playing in the sand and on the river banks, swimming, fishing and being close to the land. Digby also remembers the old people’s warnings around sites where bad things happened. He says “places where the old ones would tell you ‘don't go there”. They knew what happened there but it was too much for them, too sad to talk about.” Now Digby realises these were massacre sites.
Moran studied art at Ballina TAFE in 1991. He began exhibiting in 1995 when his work was selected for inclusion in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. His work was also included in the 1999 and 2000 Telstra Awards. Digby has held solo exhibitions at Museum Hameln, Germany (2004); Lismore Regional Gallery (2005); Duisburg, Germany (2009); Emmerich, Germany (2009); NSW Parliament (2010); and Northern Rivers Community Gallery (2014). His work has been has been featured in many group exhibitions including shows at Berlin Aboriginal Art Gallery, Germany; Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative, Sydney; Fireworks Art Gallery, Brisbane and regional galleries in the Northern Rivers.
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