Catalog Number : 838036
Size : 90cm x 60cm
Medium : Acrylic On Canvas
For Sale : Contact Short St Gallery
This painting accompanies the fire dreaming cycle at Warlukurlangu, AA's paternal Tjukurrpa. The 2 arcs are two Tjangala men, the main protagonists in the long song cycle journey from Warlukurlangu south by sinuous route stages as far as Watarru in the sand-dune country of the Great Victoria desert in South Australia, and back again, the journey south taking them through the Mereenie region, the route back passing just to the east of Mt Liebig. The decorative background of the painting is suggestive of the spreading of a bushfire; the colours are the hues of the blaze, and AA has developed this visual code as a means to suggest the speed of the fire front, this pulsing, mobile edge of flame. Fire, "Warlu" in Warlpiri, leaves behind white ashes ("Ilpminyi") suggested by the whitish and creamy hues in the lee of the flame patterns on the canvas.' All her paintings are associated with Tjukurrpa ceremonial dances. This one's is especially potent. AA could stand before the canvas and sing and dance the entire cycle. "We come from that story and song and so we must know the dance and the song for it before we can paint it." The ceremonial cycle belongs to the Nangala/Tjangala and Tjampitjinpa/Nampitjinpa subsections.