Context (Other owners)
(Bio) Taken from https://www.mup.com.au/items/9780522856583
Judy Watson was born in Mundubbera, Queensland, in 1959. An inveterate traveler, she has lived in many parts of Australia and undertaken numerous overseas residencies. Watson has had solo exhibitions all over Australia and internationally. In 1997 she represented Australia at the Venice Biennale. She is a recipient of several major contemporary art awards including the Moet & Chandon Fellowship in 1995, the National Gallery of Victoria's Clemenger Award in 2006 and, in the same year, the Work on Paper Award at the 23rd National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. Major public art projects on high-profile sites have been undertaken by Watson, and in 2006 two of her works were permanently installed within the architectural fabric of the Musee du quai Branly in Paris.
Judy Watson is one of Australia's leading contemporary artists. Her art explores territory that includes the dispossessed Indigenous Australians with whom she shares a family history and heritage. Judy Watson's art is intense and sublime in its physicality. Blood language is a beautifully illustrated pictorial exploration of some of Judy Watson's seminal canvases, works on paper, sculptural projects and artists books. Judy Watson imparts the artists ideas and writer Louise Martin-Chew gives another insight into the artists practice. Water, skin, poison, dust & blood, ochre, bones and driftnet are defining themes in an empathetic art that seeks to find a broader geography of belonging. Watson creates highly sophisticated works of beauty that are subtly political and intensely personal.
Event Date
Author: Remke van der Velden

Description (Inscription)
Handwritten in pencil in the bottom left hand corner of the print is 'a/p', followed by 'our bones in you collections' in the centre and 'Judy Watson 97' in the bottom right hand corner. A watermark 'Hahnemuhle' is visible in the bottom right hand corner.
Event Date
Author: Guey-Mei Hsu

Context (References)
With reference to the following works, 'our skin in your collections' [2012.99], 'our hair in your collections' [2012.100] and 'our bones in your collections' [2012.101]. Watson writes, 'In these images, I am critiquing the collection and placement of Aboriginal objects and skeletal material in overseas museums. I made drawings of Aboriginal cultural material from the Gulf of Carpentaria from as close to my country as I could find, in the collections of various British museums. These included the Museum of Mankind (part of the British Museum), the Science Museum and the Horniman Museum. These objects had a latent power, and I couldn't touch them- I was just looking at and drawing them.'

'These are not just objects, but pieces of our people, in museums all around the world. I put these original drawings under a layer of chine collé because I was reticent about exposing them as baldy as in my drawings. The chine collé is like a skin, and sets them back a bit, so they are not able to be too obviously 'feasted' upon by the viewer.'

'After the Venice Biennale in 1997 I went to the Pitt Rivers Museum Oxford, and the Cambridge University Museum [MAA] to draw other objects. I have deliberately woven the objects together to that it is difficult to visually locate the individual pieces'.

Judy Watson & Louise Martin-Chew, Judy Watson: Blood language (Melbourne, Miegunyah Press, 2009:172).
Event Date 2009
Author: maa

Context (Field collection)
Presented by The Art Fund and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. An acquisition project to build a collection of modern and contemporary work on paper from Australia, Canada and South Africa was undertaken over 2011-13 with the support of a grant under The Art Fund's RENEW programme. The collection was developed with the expert advice and generous assistance of Annie Coombes and Norman Vorano in relation to South African and Inuit artists respectively. Khadija Carroll, Anita Herle and Diana Wood Conroy also contributed to the selection process. Obtained from grahame galleries + editions. Gallery address: 1 Fernberg Road, Milton, QLD 4064, Brisbane, Australia
PO Box 515, Paddington, QLD 4064, Brisbane, Australia
P: +61(0)7 3369 3288
M: +61 (0)7 412 286264
E: info@grahamegalleries.com
www.grahamegalleries.com
Printed by Basil Hall from
Northern Editions Printmaking Studio & Gallery. Address: Charles Darwin University, Building Orange 9 Darwin NT 0909 - Australia, p: +61 (0)889466325 F: +61 (0)889466599. E: northern.editions@cdu.edu.au www.northerneditions.com.au. Shipped to the UK on 10/11/2012.
Event Date 2011
Author: Remke van der Velden

Description (CMS Description)
Etching with chine colle by Judy Watson, titled 'our bones in your collections', 1997. Edition Artist's Proof
Condition: Very Good.
Event Date 7/5/2013
Author: maa

Context (Display)
Exhibited at Tate Britain for 'Artist and Empire', 23 November 2015- 10 April 2016. Print framed for exhibition purposes.
Event Date 23/11/2015
Author: Remke Velden

Conservation (Assessment Only)
CON.2015.1874 | Assessment Only
Event Date 14/7/2015
Author: rah99

Description (CMS Description)
'Our bones in your collections, 1997' by Judy Watson.
Print, etching with chine colle.
Event Date 7/12/2016
Author: maa

Loan (Exhibition)
Museu Etnològic i de Cultures del Món, Barcelona, 14/12/2021 to 15/05/2021, Australian Aboriginal Painting: Tradition and Contemporaneity
Event Date 14/12/2021
Author: rachel hand

Context (References)
Museum Etnològic i de Cultures del Mon (2022) Traços. Pintura Aborigen Australiana: tradició i contemporaneïtat. p.95. 1st edn. Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona.
Event Date 2022
Author: Guey-Mei Hsu