Outback Art – inner centre of centre.

Art from the centre.

Goanna at Yuramayi,- 1973

Kaapa Tjampitjinpa

The Palka Karrinya ( ‘beyond Karrinya’ ) monolith at Central Mount Wedge.

The Palka Karrinya is situated at the entrance to a large gorge which is a sacred site that has been a focal point for ancient Aboriginal ceremony, still practised to this day. Central Mount Wedge is situated in the arid Western Desert of the Northern Territory and is approximately plum centre in the middle of Australia. The white explorer Peter Warburton came here in 1873 and his camels refused to enter the gorge to drink water. The site is only used for female rituals ( ‘womens business’ )and the woman sing a Bush Plum dreaming song to invoke sustenance for the country and it is communicative in that work is being here performed to keep the site active with everyday life and time.

On entering the Palka Karrinya gorge it is tradition to touch the monolith stone representing the Jungarrayi ancestor with a branch of eucalyptus – first timers have to throw a stone in a rock pool nearby.

From a Taoist perspective, all the horizontal strata of the rocks in the gorge and the red colour would create a very potent masculine Yang chi. Conversely the sole vertical shard, due to its Yin orientation and the water in the rock pool next to it, would concentrate, by virtue of polarity, a powerful Yin feminine force.

Ainslie Roberts – Owl Dreaming – Palka Karrinya

Ainslie Roberts visited Palka Karrinya in 1956 on a tour of the sacred sites of Central Australia with Charles Mountford, who had an deep interest in Aboriginal art and culture. Charles was recording the rock art while Ainslie wished to retell the Aboriginal myths in painting, drawing and photography. Of all the sacred places that Ainslie Roberts visited in Central Australia, Palka Karrinya had the most profound influence. He believed that Universal archetypes manifested through myths and could be channelled by the artist. Mountford felt the original spirit of the land could be accessed through the ceremonies, art and myths of the Aborigines and glimpses of ancient powers and histories as old as time itself could be experienced. They used the services of an Aboriginal guide called One Pound Jimmy who currently features on the Aussie $2 coin

Ainslie went on to take up full time painting and the first book of his paintings of traditional indigenous beliefs and practises called The Dreaming was published in 1965 and it helped to fill the abyss that existed between the general Australian public and the rich and ancient cultural heritage of Australia.

Woman’s Story 1973 - Kaapa Tjampitjinpa

Pupunya, NT ( Northern Territory ) – 37.9 km south of Central Mount Wedge

Kaapa is widely credited as a founder, and sometimes the pivotal figure, in the establishment of contemporary Indigenous Australian art. Geoffrey Bardon came to Papunya in the early 1970s and encouraged the Aboriginal people to put their dreaming stories on canvas, which had mainly been previously drawn on the ground or tree bark. Some natural features at particular sites are said to embody a particular dreaming or ancestral figure. The continued presence and influence of the dreamings is acknowledged and the connection between dreamings, people and country is maintained through ceremony and song.

The artists at Pupunya quickly adapted to the use of acrylic paints and a striking new art style emerged which by the 1980s began to attract national and then international attention as a significant art movement.The artistic movement unleashed at Papunya spread over Central Australia and beyond.

Napperby Lakes Mount Wedge - Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri

Old Walter Tjampitjinpa & Squeaky Mick Tjakamarra at Pupunya.

Photo; Geoff Bardon

Budgerigar Dreaming – Aboriginal art – 1972

Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, Pupunya

This painting is composed as a template for ritual, a schematic depiction of the placement of ritual objects and participants in the ceremony.

By painting the designs and stories that represent their particular Dreaming places, Papunya artists assert their rights and obligations as Central and Western Desert landowners, entrusted with the ritual re-enactment of the events that occurred at these sites. The symbols they use are part of a unique visual language which is also used in designs painted on the skin and in elaborate ceremonial ground paintings.

Wild Potato - Kaapa Tjampitjinpa

Pupunya – 1975

Other images of the land and Aboriginal inspired art.

Mt Borradaile rock art – Arnhem Land

Kata Tjuta ( The Olgas )

Glen Helen Gorge

( wildjunket.com )

Decorative vessel with kangaroo motifs.

Woman, Child and Goanna by sculptor Mark Egan.

Aileron Roadhouse - Anmatjere Country, NT

( the scale of this sculpture can be gauged from the woman with a red top standing at the base )

Carl Cooper hand painted plate.

Love Story - Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri

Son of One Pound Jimmy and first cousin of Kaapa Tjampitjinpa. Clifford was one of the founding fathers of the Pupunya art movement.

Charlie Egalie Tjapaltjarri

Pupunya, NT

Epitaph to Fossil Fuels by Shane Gehlert

Utes in the paddock – Condobolin

Storytelling - ceramic tiled mural by Thanakupie

John Perceval -goblet

Karijini National Park

Guy Boyd – Aboriginal Art Vase

Painted Coolamon carved beanwood – Kaapa Tjampitjinpa

1975

Angela Abbott

Wallace Rockhole studio

Pot with koala – Merric Boyd

Ben and Rupert - Ernabella Arts , NT

( Tales of a Red Clay Rambler - http://carterpottery.blogspot.com.au )

Tharnakupi Ceramic Vessel, QLD

Salt of the Earth – Paul Roget

Aboriginal dot painting squat waisted vase.

( Flickr Sammik69 )

The Birthing – Paul Roget

The Origin of the Platypus - Ainslie Roberts

Col Levy, Bizen style blossom

Tribute Ute by Lewis Burns

Utes in the paddock – Condobolin

Vase Decoration by Doris Boyd 1938

Kaapa Tjampitjinpa

Carlene Turkey Before Firing - Ernabella Arts

( Tales of a Red Clay Rambler - http://carterpottery.blogspot.com.au )

Angela Abbott.

William Ricketts - Large Unglazed Earthenware Sculpture, c. 1978

Yarrabah Pottery

Janet De Boos

Karijini National Park

Photo – Ignacio Palacios

Keringke Aboriginal Art Centre, Santa Teresa, NT

Carl Cooper. Beaker

Matt Johnson sculpture in the Flinders Ranges.

Large ceramic charger - Vande

Womans Sgrafitto Anangu Pottery -Ernabella Arts , NT

( Tales of a Red Clay Rambler - http://carterpottery.blogspot.com.au )

Big Albert Croker - Pig Totem

Salt Of The Earth – Paul Roget

Kaapa Tjampitjinpa-c.-1975

I was intrigued to notice that quite a few of the Pupunya artworks including the painting above, when viewed in Photoshop, had levels ( balance of light and dark in an image ) that were similar to the appearance of Central Mount Wedge.