Charlie Nangukwirrk Nanguwerr, Ngaldadmurrng, 95x33cm
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- Artwork
- Artist
- Art Centre
- Aboriginal Artist - Charlie Nangukwirrk Nanguwerr
- Community - Maningrida
- Homeland - Mandedjkadjang
- Aboriginal Art Centre - Maningrida Arts
- Catalogue number - 1433-23
- Materials - Earth pigments on stringybark
- Size(cm) - H95 W33 D1 (irregular)
- Orientation - As displayed
- Postage variant - Delivered ready to hang with a metal mount on the reverse
This is a painting of Ngaldadmurrng (Saratoga fish, Scleropages jardini), sometimes also called the Northern Spotted Barramundi. Saratoga are commonly found in creeks, rivers, and billabongs around the artist's clan estate.
At one level, the animal depicted is easy to recognise, and its meaning is accessible. On a deeper level, the animal is rendered with intense rarrk (cross-hatched infill), creating a reference to Mardayin ceremonial mysticism.
Saratoga make their nests on the bottoms of riverbeds by digging depressions in the sand with their tails and fins, where they lay their eggs. During mortuary rituals, the Kuninjku people imitate these nests through sand sculpture. At the end of funerals, all attendees are required to stand in the "Saratoga's nests," where they are doused with water to cleanse them of the polluting effects of the deceased.
A large meteorite crater near Mumeka in the Liverpool River district is said to be the nest of the Saratoga, which now stands in the landscape as djang (a sacred site).
In painting this image, Marawarr continues a long tradition of figurative artistic practice from Arnhem Land.
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An art movement that is striking, political and enduring: this is what contemporary artists in Maningrida and the surrounding homelands have built, powered by their ancestral connections to country and djang.
Ways of learning and schools of art in Arnhem Land are based around a system of passing knowledge and information on to others. The art here has its genesis in body design, rock art and cultural practices, in concert with more than 50 years of collaborations, travel and political action to retain ownership of country. Values and law are expressed through language, imagery, manikay (song), bunggul (dance), doloppo bim (bark painting), sculptures, and kun-madj (weaving) – the arts.
The artists’ transformation of djang into contemporary artistic expression has intrigued people around the world: art curators and collectors, and stars including Yoko Ono, Jane Campion, David Attenborough and Elton John. Pablo Picasso said of Yirawala’s paintings, ‘This is what I’ve been trying to achieve all my life.’
Yirawala (c.1897–1976) was a legendary Kuninjku leader, artist, land-rights activist and teacher, and his artwork was the first of any Indigenous artist to be collected by the National Gallery of Australia as part of a policy to represent in depth the most significant figures in Australian art.
Maningrida Arts & Culture is based on Kunibídji country in Arnhem Land in Australia’s Northern Territory. The area where artists live encompasses 7,000 square kilometres of land and sea, and over 100 clan estates, where people speak more than 12 distinct languages. Aboriginal people in this region are still on country, surviving and resilient because their country is the centre of their epistemology, their belief system, culture – djang.
Artists’ works from the larger Maningrida region can be seen in collections and institutions around the world. We work with museums, contemporary galleries and high-end retailers both nationally and internationally on projects throughout the year.
Text courtesy: Maningrida Arts and Culture
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