Artiste : Garawan Wanambi

Titre de l'œuvre : Marraŋu

Pigments naturels sur écorce

Format : 92 x 60 cm

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

Référence de la peinture : 3946S

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

Explication de l’œuvre :

This bark painting by Garawan Wanambi (1965) depicts country close to Raymangirr, on the coast of Arnhem Bay. It is a sacred and restricted area where freshwater is known to spring to the surface of the beach at the low tide region. Garawan a Marrakulu clansman says that “Wayuŋga brought me up so I’m also adopted to the Marraŋu clan” The Marrakulu and Marraŋu are closely related clans through madayin (sacred clan mythologies and law). Both tell of the felling of monumental trees by the honey ancestor Wuyal, the scouring out of a river course by the fallen log on its way to sea, deluge of honey, floods and other apocalyptic events.

For the Marraŋu at a site close to coastal Raymangirr is the mouth of this river and places of non secular danger where freshwater fonts spring up into this tidal region.

The designs represent the different character of the waters moving from anger and turbulence to the calm of resolution, bathed in the warmth of the sun’s rays. Manifest and central to the painting is the fallen trunk, this sacred larrakitj a manifestation of the same.

Collections :
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney NSW. Kerry Stokes Larrakitj Collection, WA. The Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia. USA

Vendue