Untitled, 2022
$300.00
“When Martu paint, it’s like a map. Martu draw story on the ground and on the canvas, and all the circle and line there are the hunting areas and different waters and tracks where people used to walk, and [some you] can’t cross, like boundaries. So nowadays you see a colourful painting and wonder what it is, but that’s how Martu tell story long ago. It’s not just a lovely painting, it’s a story and a songline and a history and everything that goes with it.” – Ngalangka Nola Taylor and Joshua BoothThis work portrays an area of Country that can be interpreted in multiple ways. Firstly, the image may be read as an aerial representation of a particular location known to the artist- either land that they or their family travelled, from the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) era to now. During the pujiman period, Martu would traverse very large distances annually in small family groups, moving seasonally from water source to water source, and hunting and gathering bush tucker as they went. At this time, one’s survival depended on their intimate knowledge of the location of resources; thus physical elements of Country, such as sources of kapi (water), tali (sandhills), different varieties of warta (trees, vegetation), ngarrini (camps), and jina (tracks) are typically recorded with the use of a use of a system of iconographic forms universally shared across the desert. An additional layer of meaning in the work relates to more intangible concepts; life cycles based around kalyu (rain, water) and waru (fire) are also often evident. A thousands of year old practice, fire burning continues to be carried out as both an aid for hunting and a means of land management today. As the Martu travelled and hunted they would burn tracts of land, ensuring plant and animal biodiversity and reducing the risk of unmanageable, spontaneous bush fires. The patchwork nature of regrowth is evident in many landscape works, with each of the five distinctive phases of fire burning visually described with respect to the cycle of burning and regrowth. Finally, metaphysical information relating to a location may also be recorded; Jukurrpa (Dreaming) narratives chronicle the creation of physical landmarks, and can be referenced through depictions of ceremonial sites, songlines, and markers left in the land. Very often, however, information relating to Jukurrpa is censored by omission, or alternatively painted over with dotted patterns.
Available
Prices include shipping in Australia, please contact us for international shipping.
Related Artworks
Artwork enquiry form
Martumili Artists Shipping policy
- Tarnanthi Art fair & Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Foundation takes no responsibility for the negotiation, coordination or distribution of freight and shipping of purchases made at the 2023 online Tarnanthi Art fair. Items customers wish to purchase may require an additional quote from the Art Centre/Vendor for freight which will be charged separately.
- Shipping and freight costs are not included in the advertised purchase price unless this is stipulated at the point of purchase of the item by the Art Centre/Vendor.
- If shipping and freight costs are not stipulated at point of purchase, all shipping and freight costs must be arranged directly with the Art Centre/Vendor from where the purchase was made.
- If multiple items are purchased from different Art Centres/Vendors in the same transaction, customers must arrange shipping with each Art Centre/Vendor.
Martumili Artists Refund policy
- Tarnanthi Art fair & Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Foundation takes no responsibility for the negotiation, coordination or distribution of freight and shipping of purchases made at the 2023 online Tarnanthi Art fair. Items customers wish to purchase may require an additional quote from the Art Centre/Vendor for freight which will be charged separately.
- Shipping and freight costs are not included in the advertised purchase price unless this is stipulated at the point of purchase of the item by the Art Centre/Vendor.
- If shipping and freight costs are not stipulated at point of purchase, all shipping and freight costs must be arranged directly with the Art Centre/Vendor from where the purchase was made.
- If multiple items are purchased from different Art Centres/Vendors in the same transaction, customers must arrange shipping with each Art Centre/Vendor.
Martumili Artists Return policy
- Tarnanthi Art fair & Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Foundation takes no responsibility for the negotiation, coordination or distribution of freight and shipping of purchases made at the 2023 online Tarnanthi Art fair. Items customers wish to purchase may require an additional quote from the Art Centre/Vendor for freight which will be charged separately.
- Shipping and freight costs are not included in the advertised purchase price unless this is stipulated at the point of purchase of the item by the Art Centre/Vendor.
- If shipping and freight costs are not stipulated at point of purchase, all shipping and freight costs must be arranged directly with the Art Centre/Vendor from where the purchase was made.
- If multiple items are purchased from different Art Centres/Vendors in the same transaction, customers must arrange shipping with each Art Centre/Vendor.
