Spinifex Arts Project — 25th Anniversary Exhibition
18.05.2022—
18.06.2022
When you visit the airy and bright studio at Tjuntjuntjara you are overcome by a sense of awe when confronted by the diversity of these artists’ paintings en masse. You are in fact star struck, over-whelmed by their celebrity, and their collective, yet fiercely independent genius.”
— Vivien Anderson
Patju Presley paints the country associated with Minyma Kaanka Tjukurpa (Crow Women creation Line). At Kurutjara, Minyma Kaanka is blinded and cannot see to pick up any food scraps. In vain she cries out for help, ‘Kaar Kaar’ and miraculously her eyes are able to see again. She quickly departs the site and heads south. These characters that Patju depicts cannot be separated for Patju and is what gives his work the transcendent quality we experience from it.”
— spinifex arts project
Dora Parker paints with a freedom of expression for the sites she depicts and claims her own idenity in her painterly compositions. She depicts with confidence the significant site of Pukara situated to the north of traditional Spinifex Lands. It is here that Wati Kutjara Tjukurpa (Two Men Creation) manifests. These characters that she depicts are creation beings, the first beings who shaped the landscape as they moved through it leaving indelible reminders of their power and presence.”
— SPINIFEX ARTS PROJECT
They depict, with concentrated creativity, the journey of the first beings, the leaders, the teachers, the ones who came before and shaped the landscape into what you see today. With ease, they recall the movements of the first beings to significant sites and recreate them in a harmonious composition with equal reverence.”
— SPINIFEX ARTS PROJECT
This country is to the north of Tjuntjuntjara, ngura pulka many different sites where the kulypurpa an edible fruit grows. This plant grows in the rocky country, the mountains that travel from east to west from Indulkana to Wingellina along the northern border of South Australia. Plant foods and water sources have sacred and spiritual dimensions which are readily appreciated by Anangu knowledgeable in the Law.”
— SPINIFEX ARTS PROJECT
Byron depicts Wat Kipara Tjukurpa (Bush Turkey Man Creation Line) with breadth of scale involving a large expanse of Spinifex Country. It is Wati Kipara who steals the peoples last firestick and attempts to extinguish in the Southern Ocean but is prevented at the last moment and fire is returned and celebrated. These are creation beings who left indelible physical reminders of their power and presence.”
— SPINIFEX ARTS PROJECT
Here Tjinpun paints the significant site of Katala, a permanent water source that consists of three soakage’s that must be dug for the water to be collected. Katala holds the Tjulpu Tjuta Tjukurpa (Many Birds Creation Line) and is a highly sensitive narrative that sees a group of Wati Nyii-Nyii (Zebra Finch Men) travel to the southern coast and the Great Australian Bight, to save the world from rising seas.”
— SPINIFEX ARTS PROJECT
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