Salon des Refusés – Babbarra Texta
Ended — at Gallery 5
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Every August, Salon Art Projects presents the Salon des Refusés, an exhibition of works submitted but not accepted into the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA). Its quality demonstrates the superb standard of art being created by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists nationwide, and it also provides valuable insight into where the movement has come from, and where it is heading.
People may think Babbarra texta works are a new thing for Babbarra Designs. However, we have been using coloured fibre-tipped pens, pencils and crayons as part of our textile design process for a long time.
Elizabeth Wullunmingu’s mother D. Gingingara’s texta drawings were used by Desert Designs in the early 1990s. Elizabeth shared her mother’s texta drawings with Babbarra Designs artists, and we are learning from those drawings. So, it is an old idea that we are making new again.
During COVID-19 lockdowns our studio was closed. We wanted to have something to do so, we started drawing instead. Our drawings and fabric are coming from the same ideas. Our culture and traditional stories. 
