Vincent Namatjira's King Dingo exhibition reaches new heights in Vivid projection

Australia Broadcast Center

22-05-2025

Acclaimed artist Vincent Namatjira steps into the bright light, and for the first time he sees his paintings come to life on the façade of Sydney's six-storey art deco Museum of Contemporary Art.
"It's massive … I'm speechless," the Western Aranda man says with a big grin.
"I have the whole building to myself. It is pretty cool. It gives me chills."
Namatjira is speaking to the ABC's Indigenous Affairs Team and News Breakfast exclusively ahead of Vivid Sydney's launch on Friday evening.
The museum on Gadigal land in Circular Quay is a centrepiece for the annual festival that illuminates the city's major buildings.
Namitjira's 2D painting exhibition from last year, King Dingo, has been transformed for the festival into animated caricatures of dingoes wearing royal regalia and riding horseback.
A dingo dressed in Captain Cook's attire, holding the Aboriginal flag, stands tall on the ochre landscape synonymous with the artist's homeland in the remote South Australian APY lands.
The dingo "symbolises the colonial captain James Cook and the first invasion of Australia," Namatjira explains.
The museum is located where the First Fleet landed in 1788, and that fact is not lost on the artist.
Over the speakers in the heart of Circular Quay, Vincent Namatjira's words reverberate: "King Dingo represents strength, pride, and resilience."
As part of this year's Vivid theme 'Dream', the award-winning artist has imagined his totem dingo ruling over the land.
"This is my dream. The dream of me having King Dingo for all Indigenous and Torres Strait people of this country," Namatjira says.
"It is a totem for all of us Aboriginal people."
He says he hopes respect and recognition for Aboriginal Country, culture and leadership will "not just be a dream".
The artist explains the artwork is aimed to "level" the stage.
"King Dingo to me represents protector of the land. And the King, it's a reversal … where I put my perspective of Indigenous to the colonial perspective."
The museum's statement elaborates that "the work highlights how collective memory is a shared process, reshaping how we perceive history and reminding us that remembrance is dynamic and inclusive."
Since the paintings were first exhibited in Sydney last year, former prince Charles has been crowned King.
In this projection, the monarch can be seen waving from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
At times, dingoes appear playing electric guitars to adoring fans, as Vincent's voice — "King Dingo: long live the King" — booms from the speakers.
The score has been composed by Namitjira's nephew Jeremy Whiskey, who also travelled from Indulkana in APY Lands to get his first look at the project.
"I was just listening to their emotions," the Pitjantjatjara musician explains about the creative process.
"It just comes with an idea and music just comes into my idea, like the drum, the base, keyboard, the sound, how it is going to go, which sound is going to change," he says.
"That's what I do, just by listening and observing.
"The genre that Vincent wanted to play was a bit heavy, so I came up with a combination and it just came from the music I learnt when I was young."
Namitjira's style of landscapes painting that adorn the building also draws on the works of his great-grandfather, the revered artist Albert Namatjira.
His legacy is something that remains front-of-mind for this modern artist.
"I always wanted to be like my great grandfather Albert Namatjira, to receive the coronation medal."
Now taking his artwork to the next level, the Iwantja artist hopes the younger generation will see that they can achieve their dreams.
"My artwork is powerful, and it is an influence for the young generation to see my work shine up on this kind of scale — it's impressive.
"Anything is possible when you pick up the brush."