Untitled, 1995

synthetic polymer paint on canvas

90 x 124 cm

$3,500

Provenance: Commissioned by psychologist for WA education department in Derby Private Collection SA
Artwork story: The Karadada family (named after their totem, the butcherbird) have been key artists in the small remote township of Kalumburu at the northern tip of the Western Australian coast. Jack and his wife Lily, as well as Jack's brother Louis and his wife Rosie, provided artworks for the first exhibition of Wandjina paintings in Perth during the late 1970s. The Wandjina, are exclusive to areas of the Kimberley in Western Australia, said to exercise power over the rains. For custodians, such as members of the Djanghara and Karadada families, portable images of the Wandjina are viewed as purely reproductions of the ‘real’ spirits adorning the cave walls at their most important Dreaming sites. Wandjina images on bark, board, canvas, slate, or paper were first produced for trade with missionaries travelling by lugger along the Kimberley coastline prior to mid 1970s. However, the primary artistic inspiration and purpose in creating these works lies in the artist's responsibility for maintaining the ancestral sites, and repainting them to ‘keep them strong’.

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synthetic polymer paint on canvas

90 x 124 cm

$3,500

Provenance: Commissioned by psychologist for WA education department in Derby Private Collection SA
Artwork story: The Karadada family (named after their totem, the butcherbird) have been key artists in the small remote township of Kalumburu at the northern tip of the Western Australian coast. Jack and his wife Lily, as well as Jack's brother Louis and his wife Rosie, provided artworks for the first exhibition of Wandjina paintings in Perth during the late 1970s. The Wandjina, are exclusive to areas of the Kimberley in Western Australia, said to exercise power over the rains. For custodians, such as members of the Djanghara and Karadada families, portable images of the Wandjina are viewed as purely reproductions of the ‘real’ spirits adorning the cave walls at their most important Dreaming sites. Wandjina images on bark, board, canvas, slate, or paper were first produced for trade with missionaries travelling by lugger along the Kimberley coastline prior to mid 1970s. However, the primary artistic inspiration and purpose in creating these works lies in the artist's responsibility for maintaining the ancestral sites, and repainting them to ‘keep them strong’.