EDGE OF GLORY

At the end of another turbulent year, as planet, pandemic and disenfranchised peoples continue to nuke all concept of ‘normal’, confusion over the what, who and where of culture is becoming the new culture. Gone is the group-think of a privileged few framing an ascendant view, and growing in its place is the furtive want for revolution from within and without the system. It’s a major conundrum for the modern museum, which must deal with the widening gap between old taxonomies and new art territories without disaffecting a donor elite or audience base.

But here’s the thing: the chasms created by seismic shifts in current thinking, the National Gallery of Victoria’s front-and-centre showing of works by Yolngu women artists from Yirrkala’s community-controlled Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre (Buku) at the tip of the Northern Territory.