It’s been nearly a year since the ACMI announced prominent First Nations artists Sally M Nangala Mulda and Marlene Rubuntja as joint recipients of the third and final $70,000 Artbank + ACMI Commission for their proposed new animation Two Girls.
Bluey creators Ludo Studio were brought in to produce the six-minute short film, which has become the centerpiece of Two Girls from Amoonguna, an ACMI exhibition focusing on the friendship between the artistic pair who grew up together at Amoonguna Settlement outside of Mparntwe/Alice Springs in the early 1960s, before reconnecting later in life.
The collaboration between the artists and the award-winning studio is made all the more remarkable given the two parties have never formally met.
According to Ludo production manager Rhiannon Steffensen, who will join animation director Claire Renton for an in-conversation session with exhibition curator Jenna Rain next week, the studio’s point of contact was Tangentyere Artists, one of two Alice Springs centres that support the pair alongside Yarrenyty Arltere Artists.
That’s not to say that Rubuntja and Mulda’s initial reactions to Ludo’s work did not reach the Brisbane-based production team, with Tangentyere managing director Ruth McMillan and producer Ellanor Webb relaying their approval.
“El said when they saw it they were just amazed,” Steffenson told IF.
“They just said it was beyond what they expected which is really heartwarming for us to hear because the whole time our whole purpose was to make sure their art shone and that we were doing justice to their art because at the end of the day, it’s their story to tell and their creations – we are just facilitating the movement of them.”
The relationship between Ludo and Tangentyere Artists goes back to 2018 when Dylan River, who worked with the former on dramedy Robbie Hood while also completing a commercial project with the latter, suggested they should come together, given a piece from one of the artists at the centre had been used for set dressing on the series.
After contributing to a project from another one of the centre’s artists and keeping in contact with McMillan, Renton was brought on to assist with Two Girls, working with scriptwriter Courtney Collins, Left of Elephant Sound, and Webb.
In coming up with the animation, which features Rubuntja’s soft sculptures and Mulda’s acrylic on linen paintings star in the animation, embedded on top of Rubuntja’s ink on paper works of the Central Australian landscape, Renton using 2D animation software program CelAction to create moving assets based on layers of different artworks.
Steffensen said the main challenge came from working out how to create working rigs and characters from the 2D paintings without making the animation look “too collagy”.
“Claire really studied the artwork of Sally and Marlene and created a storyboard based on that with a script so that she was able to knowingly put pieces of their art in there without creating things that didn’t exist already,” she said.
“She really wanted to use a lot of the iconic pieces of art from Sally and Marlene that already existed because we were already telling a story that Sally had already painted in work.
“It was really important to us that it looked really seamless and didn’t look like we were taking different bits and pieces from here and there.”
Despite it being “very different” from their other animation work, Steffenson said Ludo “loved the process” of making the short film and was open to another collaboration with Tangentyere Artists.
“It’s just such a unique and fulfilling project to be a part of; to be able to do something that’s not commercially driven and is a creative and beautiful story,” she said.
“I think we are very keen to continue on that relationship with ACMI and Tangentyere but also artists and independent artists in Australia more generally.”
In Conversation with Ludo Studio will be held at the ACMI on Thursday, July 13. Find out more information here.
Two Girls From Amoonguna is running at the ACMI’s Gallery 3 until Sunday, August 20.