Place, personal memories and shared experiences are embedded in materials that come together in the multimedia practices of Sydney artist Nell and the video animations by Milpa, a collective formed in 2018 within the Spinifex Arts Project in Tjuntjuntjara. Collaboration with makers, the land and materials are vital to both Milpa and Nell’s processes of making, exploring and expressing. Throughout 2025 Nell travelled from Sydney to Nepal for her new cross-cultural collaborative project Awake She Sleeps: निदारमा छिन्, जागृत । (2025) developed with Nepali repoussé master Rabindra Shakya from studio Image Ateliers. And deep in the Great Victoria Desert of Western Australia, Milpa collectively uses clay, recycled objects and natural materials to tell the stories of their people. Milpa, Pitjantjatjara word for ‘describing the art of drawing in sand to tell stories’, has forged an innovative practice for cultural conservation and the passing down of oral histories.¹ Along with other members, the group’s core artists—Kendrea Hogan, Shonna Jamieson, Maureen Donegan and Gregory ‘FM’ Donaldson—tell stories that are inspired by community elders or narrate shared experiences. In both Milpa and Nell’s practices, we can see how artists foster cultural collaboration through processes of making and working with materials.  

Nell is often drawn to the corporeal properties of domestic objects. Her signature motif of the smiley face can be found on items like shovels, earthenware and even on a cement mixer titled Meeting the Day (2025). Similarly, discarded materials find their way into the playful stop-motion animations of Milpa. The Milpa Project is almost a thousand kilometres inland from the nearest city, Perth/Boorloo, and their work tells stories of the Tjuntjuntjara Aṉangu. Tjuntjuntjara Aṉangu, also referred to as Spinifex People or Pila Nguru, is a community whose anecdotes of collectivity flow into the work of Milpa. Everyday activities are observed with humour in works like The Tjuntjuntjara Nya Cooking Show / Mai Wiru Palanya (2023) where clay, sponge and wire characters act out a cooking show for a butter chicken recipe. Other works like Nguraku (returning home) (2025) include contemporary critiques of displacement, homeland and returning to Country. Captured through line illustrations, digital collage and video footage, this recent digital artwork recalls the return of the Spinifex people to Tjuntjuntjara following atomic testing in the 1950s and 60s.² At the core of their practice is the commitment to preserving community knowledge and craft.

In a three-storey high studio placed in the bustling city of Kathmandu, Nell sits cross-legged, knee-to-knee next to Shakya, the Nepali repoussé master, hammering निदारमा छिन्, जागृत । Awake She Sleeps onto her brass sculpture, a reclining female figure that is inspired by the statue of Sleeping Vishnu in Kathmandu. Her collaborator Shakya is a fifth-generation artisan who creates statues for Hindu temples and Buddhist monasteries using the technique of Thodya Majha in Newari, or repoussé as it is known in the West. Used widely for decorating gold and silver, this technique has been found in Nepali metalwork as far back as the seventh century.³ After the brass sculpture is cast, the sculpture’s title and its Nepali translation will be ‘chased’ onto the surface, meaning the metal will be hammered and shaped from its front. The text is embossed across her body as if her dreams have risen to the surface of her skin. Composed of copper, zinc and nickel alloy, Awake She Sleeps is life-size. Apart from Shakya, Nell also works with artisans Niranjan Shrestha, Amrit Tuladhar and translator Kriti Adhikari.

A maquette of this sculpture is housed further afield back in Heide Modern at the Heide Museum of Modern Art on the outskirts of Melbourne/Naarm as part of her survey exhibition, Face Everything. Here, Nell deftly transformed the former Reed house into an abode for ghosts and creatures of rock and roll, pop culture, and spiritual practice. The spiritual element of her practice is expanded as she sits with Shakya. As her woman takes form, Nell stays grounded and in tune with the rhythmic taps and hums that echo within the concrete walls of the atelier that is lined with towering copper sculptures. These sculptures serve as sacred focal points for devotion and worship in Hinduism. In Buddhism, they embody Buddha’s teachings and philosophy. In multi-faith Nepal, the two have coexisted and developed in harmony due to shared cultural concepts and historical roots, and it is not uncommon for Hindus to visit Buddhist shrines, to celebrate holidays and vice versa.⁴

Nell’s new sculpture was initially conceived to sit in the courtyard of the Patan Museum in Lalitpur, Kathmandu—ten kilometres south of Vishnu, who lies cradled in the body of cosmic serpent Anantasesh at the sacred Budhanilkantha Temple. When Vishnu wakes up on Devuthani Ekadashi, people gather as the renewed divine energy harnesses love, strength and fresh beginnings. Responding to this story of sleeping Vishnu, Nell’s figure is also planned to wake from her slumber. Rested and replenished she had taken a moment of respite, as women who have been fighting tirelessly for their rights should but cannot afford to. Thinking about the fatigue that comes with navigating the world as a woman, Nell references American artist and activist Tricia Hersey, who declares that ‘rest is resistance’ as a slogan for her organisation The Nap Ministry. The Nap Ministry was founded in 2016 to advocate for community healing through creating safe spaces for napping. Sleep deprivation is both a ‘racial and social justice issue’, Hersey articulates.⁵ Nell agrees and acknowledges that this collective exhaustion extends to that of Mother Earth.⁶ As her figure sleeps, her right hand is held over her heart while her left arm extends across the ground with an upturned palm, like the root of a tree. She is ready to spring into action when she awakens. Her pose is cleverly considered to tread the threshold between tranquil repose and hypervigilance. Of course, Nell’s signature smiley makes its way into her sculpture—it is merged with the sun motif that is carved onto the sole of the figure’s left foot, next to a crescent moon on its right foot.

The recent youth-led anti-corruption demonstrations in Nepal’s capital against underhanded practices of politicians and the growing disparity between the poor and wealthy has created an uncertain social, cultural and political climate for the nation.⁷ An uncertainty that has also impacted the future of Nell’s artwork. For the time being Nell’s clay maquette at Heide is a comparatively tiny figure who lay on top of Phaidon Press’ 1949 book on Auguste Rodin—a nod to modernist craftmanship and radicality. The sleeping woman is positioned in dialogue with Self-Nature is Subtle and Mysterious—Tree Woman / Woman Tree (2023), Nell’s meditating bronze figure that similarly explores femininity and our symbiotic relationship with Mother Nature. Surrounded by various ghostly faces that adorn each nook and corner of the house, the balance between Nell’s playful energy and contemplative spirit is considered.

Nell faces everything with optimism and spirit. Feeling spiritually connected to her surroundings is an important part of Nell’s practice. ‘I love working on the floor,’ Nell says, ‘we all sit in a circle, which is natural practice in Nepal but less common in Australia’.⁸ Being close to the ground allows Nell to feel more present. Since being introduced to Zen Buddhism during her time working as a studio assistant for artist Lindy Lee in the mid-90s, Nell’s creative and spiritual selves are inseparable.⁹ Attention to meditation and mindfulness are important to both Buddhist and Hindu practice, along with beliefs of rebirth and reincarnation.¹⁰ It is through these commonalities that Nell became inspired to reference Budhanilkantha’s Vishnu  for this project.

When I asked about her experience with working cross-culturally, Nell responds, ‘makers recognise makers. It’s like we’re speaking the same language.’¹¹ The language and cultural barrier seem unimportant as Nell and Shakya bond over their shared values and expertise in their respective art forms. Over hours in the studio, Nell and Shakya share their favourite music with each other as they witness their creative practices converge whereby the artisan works with the artist. For Nell, rock and roll was her ‘first love’ as a young teen. It was through listening to the radio that she felt connected to the world outside of her regional hometown Maitland in New South Wales.¹² This gratitude to music carries on in her practice today, with motifs associated with bands like AC/DC woven into many of her works. 

Just as rock and roll is the soundtrack for Nell’s practice, members of Milpa take pleasure in creating acoustic guitar tracks to accompany the humorous character voices for their animations. Accompaniment music is usually written and performed by guitarist Derek Coleman. Many of Milpa’s films centre around daily activities such as hunting and cooking mai (food). Their 2023 video Boulder Camp takes a comical approach to raise attention to the repercussions of drinking wama (alcohol), while The Tjuntjuntjara Nya Cooking Show / Mai Wiru Palanya (cooking beautiful food) (2023) is a stop-motion animation tutorial for the previously mentioned butter chicken recipe, acted out in a miniature replica of the Tjuntjuntjara Women Centre’s kitchen. Although most of the Spinifex community has not travelled internationally, the Indian dish has made its impact. Easy to source ingredients and convenient to make in bulk for large groups, butter chicken is loved by all. The recipe’s multiple components also mean that it could be prepared by multiple people—a joyful ritual for collaboration, kinship and hospitality.

In the Great Victoria Desert where dunefields and playa lakes populate its landscape, purchasing new material like clay and hardware requires planning months in advance. Therefore, Milpa artists work with what they have. Creating a Milpa film usually starts at the local depot, where artists identify objects that could be useful for making props. Puppets are built from wire, newspaper and old clothes, while sets are painted on cardboard and salvaged wood. In Walawuru Iti Kaititka (eagle) (2021), a story told by elder Kunmanara Fred Grant about being snatched by an eagle as a baby, the eagle is an assemblage of aluminium foil, plastic bottle, wire and cardboard. ‘We try and use recycled parts and make things with it,’ says Hogan, ‘like toilet roll or paper pipes, rolled paper and then paper around the edge,’ adds Jamieson. She goes on to describe the process further, ‘we pour old paint on paint bucket lids, let it dry, and cut it into shapes to stick on things.’¹³ Puppets are often reused, too, across different film projects, to minimise waste and create continuity across stories. On collective artmaking, ‘everyone makes bits of something’, says Jamieson, ‘it’s like bringing back culture for the young generation. When you make art, you know you’re making it about community culture. It’s on Country.’¹⁴ The significance of Land is exhibited in Milpa’s choice to blend real landscapes and communal sites with model sets.

In their most recent series of films that were commissioned by the Western Australian Museum, Milpa key leader Gregory ‘FM’ Donaldson drew on his knowledge of spear-making to craft props that were included in Nguraku (returning home) (2025), a video work that lined the Western Australia Museum’s 24-metre façade throughout 2025. The video depicts the artist walking across Country with weapons crafted from found materials. Donaldson’s accuracy in crafting the film’s props and his attention to process insert an element of cultural authority to Milpa’s practice, reflecting the weight of intergenerational collaboration in preserving shared histories.

Narrated in a Pitjantjatjara dialect with English subtitles, Milpa’s films have a frisson that lies within the artists’ humour and tongue-in-cheek portrayal of mundane daily activities through stop motion animation. As a digital multimedia project collective, the young artists experiment with sculpture, animation, videography, photography and music. Importantly, their inventive approach also acts to archive local Aṉangu history while inspiring, educating and connecting with community. It is an opportunity for younger artists to receive guidance from Elders, share narratives and explore new ways of creating.

Nell and Milpa are two practices with distinctly different personalities, but both utilise material as a meeting point for cultural collaboration. Through processes of collective artmaking, these artists draw on shared memories that extend the continuity of cultural stories. The manipulation of material attests to the significant rituals of making, exploring and creative expression. As Nell points out, when process and material become the focus of practice, artmaking holds capacity to transcend cultural and language barriers.¹⁵ It is also through Milpa’s active process of bringing multiple generations together that critical histories and everyday stories of the Tjuntjuntjara people are continually told. Whether it is through the ancient technique of repoussé or Milpa’s unique process of model-making and animation, the exchange of cross-cultural and intergenerational knowledge allows shared memories to be passed on.