These new works describe the artist's traditional Tjukurrpa, the story cycle tracks that traverse the western desert regions. They are the possession of her particular sub-section, the Nampitjinpa , and...
These new works describe the artist's traditional Tjukurrpa, the story cycle tracks that traverse the western desert regions. They are the possession of her particular sub-section, the Nampitjinpa , and connect with the masculine Tjangala sub-section. As the general documents on the artist held by and available from Short St Gallery explain, her two ancestral Tjukurrpa cycles are the fire and water dreamings. These are deliberately presented in equipoise in these new paintings. Broadly, the water dreaming story cycle centres on the rockhole of Mikanji, which lies in distant desert country west of Yuendumu. The fire dreaming cycle is well known from the work of early desert artist: its chief landmark is the Warlikurlangu waterhole: it is associated with the two ancestral men who explore their way through the landscape of the desert, signing it into being and naming its features. Their track [asses through the artist's own homeland in the desert, and reaches as far south as the ultra-remote community of Watarru, deep in the Great Victoria Desert of South Australia. The length of this story track is of great importance ti the artist; she regards it as a symbol of the interconnected nature of desert Aboriginal society, which is held in place by such stories, and by their re-enactment in yearly ceremonials that bring together men and women from far flung places. The style of the works is innovative; the themes are age-old. but the style actually highlights aspects of desert religion. The great black voids are intended to convey the secrecy that surrounds all the sacred stories. As the artist says, in these paintings she depicts "merely the front page." of a lengthy book, the remainder of which stays in the shadows. The surface emblems are enough to guide any initiated desert person through the story - but they also refer to the resonances that lie in the depths. The smaller voids shown in the paintings are more than gaps - they are alos places if special religious significance in the terrain of the desert through which the song -lines run: rockholes, for the most part, or caves, that cannot themselves be shown without risk of sacrilege. The square elements in the canvases are intended also to highlight this partial showing and partial concealment, by suggesting "windows' into the dreaming glimpse that are communicated by the art of painting. They symbolic elements of the painting trace out the ancient visual components of desert tradition. The symbols can be read: also, in a sense, heard. They point to the subtle, poetic songs the paintings encode. For a desert women like the artist, on seeing paintings like these, will spontaneously burst into song, and be able to sing the various verses of the story cycle that relate to the features recorded in each work.