Caterpillar Dreaming, 1998

synthetic polymer paint on linen

121 x 121 cm, 123.5 x 123.5 cm frame

$5,000

Provenance: Tingari Arts, NT, Cat No. TJP518 Private Collection Vic Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Tingari Arts and 3 photographs of the artist with the artwork
Artwork story: Lorna Fencer, was the custodian of inherited land Yumurrpa situated near Chilla Well, south of the Granites Mine in the Tanami Desert. She was the custodian of many Dreamings including the Yarla (bush potato), Luju (caterpillar), Bush Tomato, Onion and Plum Dreamings, as well as many different seeds and, importantly, spring water for the Napurrurla-Jupurrurla and Jakamarra-Nakamarra skin groups. She also had ancestral rights over the Water Snake, which become numerous when the country is in flood, and the riverbeds and claypans fill with water. Her paintings reflected the traditional stories of Ancestral women journeying through the bush, singing and dancing as they collected food. Sometimes her female ancestors would come upon a caterpillar, 'that cheeky one' that bites them while they are picking fruit, making them itchy. In other works Lorna would paint the digging sticks they used to find the bush potato or yam that spread underground in a meandering complex of roots and bulbs, a primary source of food in their arid homeland.

Click to enlarge

c.1924–1925 – 2006

synthetic polymer paint on linen

121 x 121 cm, 123.5 x 123.5 cm frame

$5,000

Provenance: Tingari Arts, NT, Cat No. TJP518 Private Collection Vic Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Tingari Arts and 3 photographs of the artist with the artwork
Artwork story: Lorna Fencer, was the custodian of inherited land Yumurrpa situated near Chilla Well, south of the Granites Mine in the Tanami Desert. She was the custodian of many Dreamings including the Yarla (bush potato), Luju (caterpillar), Bush Tomato, Onion and Plum Dreamings, as well as many different seeds and, importantly, spring water for the Napurrurla-Jupurrurla and Jakamarra-Nakamarra skin groups. She also had ancestral rights over the Water Snake, which become numerous when the country is in flood, and the riverbeds and claypans fill with water. Her paintings reflected the traditional stories of Ancestral women journeying through the bush, singing and dancing as they collected food. Sometimes her female ancestors would come upon a caterpillar, 'that cheeky one' that bites them while they are picking fruit, making them itchy. In other works Lorna would paint the digging sticks they used to find the bush potato or yam that spread underground in a meandering complex of roots and bulbs, a primary source of food in their arid homeland.