MCA Collection: Artists in Focus

20 March - 20 July 2026
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Level 2
Tallawoladah, Sydney, Gadigal Country

Artists in Focus is a changing presentation of works from the MCA Collection. Each room in the exhibition is dedicated to a different artist or community, showcasing Collection highlights alongside recent acquisitions and works that have never previously been displayed.

Held in the MCA Collection, Ngankkari Tjukurpa (Traditional Healer Tjukurpa) features alongside Minyma Punu Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters Tree Women).

Minyma Punu Kungkarangkalpa was made by seven Tjanpi artists during a weaving bush camp. Led by Ilawanti Ungkutjuru Ken, who decided who would make which sister, they coiled and bound grass, raffia, fencing wire, feathers and wool into figures that are part-tree, part-woman. Their sculptures manifest the story of the Seven Sisters, an important songline in the central and western deserts.

In this story, the seven sisters of the Pleiades star cluster are chased by a man, the morning star, who is pursuing the eldest sister. But he is of the wrong skin group, so she is protected from him by her younger sisters. In central Australia, where these woven sculptures were made, the Pleiades star cluster rises soon after sunset and keeps a low trajectory on the horizon. This proximity between sky and earth is reflected in the work to create forms which appear both rooted in the red soil and reaching for the heavens.

We like working with the grasses that grow on our land. The land inspires us to make things. We have been making trees and we loved them so much, but we also had set our hearts on creating the Seven Sisters. Because the Seven Sisters came from the land itself, we decided that we wanted them to resemble trees because they are so closely associated with the land. They have breasts, though, these tree-like women.

- Ilawanti Ungkutjuru Ken, 2013