Artiste : Rerrkirrwaŋa Munuŋgurr

Titre de l'œuvre : Gumatj

Pigments naturels sur écorce

Format : 56 x 23 cm

Provenance et certificat original : centre d'art aborigène de Yirrkala

Référence de la peinture : 4096H

© Photo : Aboriginal signature with the courtesy of the artist & Buku-Larrngay Mulka.

Explication de l’œuvre :

This bark painting by Rerrkirrwaŋa Munuŋgurr (1971) has painted her husband’s clan minytji - that of the Gumatj clan. The totemic significance of fire to the Yunupiŋu

family of the Gumatj clan is paramount. It is said that the Gumatj clan language, Dhuwalandja, is itself the tongue of flame.

This language, or tongue, like the flame, cuts through all artifice. It incinerates dishonesty leaving only the bones of the truth. In the initial interface between Yolŋu sacred art and the Western art world an early decision was made on the Yolŋu side to use figurative imagery to cover the miny’tji in paintings. This ‘miny’tji’ is the source and record of the sacred identity of the law and the land portrayed.

The Gumatj clan design associated with these events, a diamond design, represents fire; the red flames, the white smoke and ash, the black charcoal and the yellow dust. Clans owning connected parts of this sequence of ancestral events share variations of this diamond design.

Collections :
2009 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Darwin NT Winner Best Bark Painting.
Private collections.

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