ochre dot gallery

Contemporary Australian Aboriginal art is at once the most ancient and the very newest of artistic traditions, drawing on 40,000 years of unbroken cultural tradition that still conceives of Land, Spirit and Man as a connected and balanced whole. The spectacular flourishing of Australian Aboriginal painting after the mid-1970's is among the most important developments of twentieth century art. Using modern acrylic paints, a limited repertoire of symbols and a distinctive aerial perspective, Australia's indigenous artists create paintings of unique power, managing to be both organic and geometric at the same time. Aboriginal paintings are generally done outdoors, with the painting lying on the ground. The artists work their way around the canvas, applying paint from more than one direction, giving the paintings their distinctly non-western perspective. Their works are still based today on historical images and ideas; maps of waterholes and ancestral activities, the re-telling of Dreamings (the spiritual basis of Aboriginal culture) or ceremonial body painting designs. Each painting is a re-enactment of connection to country and every painting also contains its own song, as everything in this world was sung into existence by the ancestors.The songs given to the people by the ancestors have always been used to used to remember and teach all of the intellectual, cultural and spiritual knowledge of the people. The paintings today are the modern expression of this ancient and valuable knowledge. The aim of this blog is to showcase the deep variety and dynamism of this fantastic art movement. Come back often and ENJOY!! (We have another Tumblr called Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art) You may also visit www.ochredotgallery.com to learn more and see paintings available for purchase or rental. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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about Dennis Nona (view his work below)

Dennis Nona is widely acknowledged as one the most important Torres Strait Islander artists.

Born on Badu Island in 1973 he was taught as a young boy the traditional craft of woodcarving. This skill has been developed and translated into the incredibly intricate and beautiful linocuts, etchings and sculptures created by the artist since the commencement of his art practice in 1989. 

His work can be seen in the collections of most of the major Australian art institutions and in several important overseas collections. These include the National Gallery of Australia; Queensland Art Gallery; National Gallery of Victoria; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of South Australia; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Cambridge University Museum UK and the Museum of American Indian Arts, USA. 

Within Nona's work there is a celebration of island myths and legends, of how humans, animals, plants and landscape took their meaning from epic or magical events in the past. It was a culture where fighting was glorified and warriors were held in high esteem. Legendary heroes wore distinctive local headdress and masks. They played drums and used objects associated with their ritual ceremonies and dances. It was a culture of head hunters, cannibalism and raiding parties that attacked homes built in tree tops. It was a society where men, women, sorcerers and witches came to their final grief by being transformed into sea creatures or cast into the sea to become the islands and rocky outcrops evident throughout the Western Torres Strait Islands today. 

The attraction of Nona's work lies in the way he has drawn on the rich traditions of Torres Strait Islander carving which he has transferred to linocut and more recently etchings and sculpture. Each work expresses a powerful materiality that comes from exquisitely crafted hand-made surfaces, a complex of finely chiselled hand made lines which are then coloured before printing. 

 He is inspired by coastal life, family, traditional medicines and the myths and legends of the Torres Strait.

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Dennis Nona

Dokeran  2008

etching/edition of 45

120 x 80 cm

Dokeran is one of the ancient legends belonging to the people of Badu Island. It is the story of a man who catches a turtle and travels around the shores of the island, finally manifesting himself as a rocky outcrop that can be seen on the Island today. It is Dokeran's indecisiveness about where he is to butcher the turtle that takes him to many beaches and places that are known to today's inhabitants of Badu. Dokeran lived on the south side of Badu at a place called Yaza. Yaza is the place where another legendary figure, Bia, created one of the Island's sacred sites. Dokeran caught a turtle using a Gapu or suckerfish which was one of the traditional ways of hunting turtle and dugong. The Gapu is depicted on the back of the turtle at the bottom of the print. Dokeran carried the turtle along to Delalbibi and several other beaches in the tribal area of Argan. He then walked to Womar then on to Gaubut, Dugorr , Kotaid, Kotinab and Sesseraen Gagait, the place of another traditional story.  At each place Dokeran visited he contemplated butchering the turtle but always changed his mind. He finally butchered the turtle at Mayan Kula before returning to Yaza. At Yasar, Dokeran was transformed into two large rocks that can be seen today on the hillside at the place called Dokeran Kakurr. Dokeran is seen in the print carrying the turtle on his head and looking behind him which is an expression of his indecisiveness. 

www.ochredotgallery.com

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Dennis Nona 

etchings/both in editions of 99

66 x 35 cm each

(DO click on the images for better detail)

On the left: Uzu Pui (stone fish medicine)  2005

This work relates to occasions when islanders were stung on the reef by Stone Fish, a deadly and venomous creature, and the medicines available to manage pain and cure the wound. A medicine is derived from the Del Pui tree, a plant that grows in certain shorelines. It is picked and then boiled on hot coals in Alups [shell containers]. Once cooked, the leaves are removed and allowed to dry, leaving syrupy green juices in the Alup. The juices are used to then soak the bite and relieve pain. In the image, one of the victim's legs is depicted going into the Stone Fish's mouth, indicating that the inside of the fish itself also holds a key to a cure. The fish contains its own antidote for stings, and islanders are aware that within the liver of the fish another green substance, known as 'ILL', can be used to fix the pain. On the bottom of the plate, the wavy lines indicate a rising tide, and further represent the element of time it takes to address a sting before it is too late. If the sting is not treated immediately, it is said that as the tide rises through the night, so will the levels of pain. Islanders know that that the poison lasts for roughly the same time as a tide cycle, and as the tide turns and begins to go down, the pain will also begin to subside.

On the right: Warti Dhogal (witch)  2005

This print is based on a bedtime story told to naughty children on Badu Island. The central figure is a witch (dhogai) who steals babies from the village in the middle of the night. When it's dark she leaves her cave and heads for the village. She listens out for little babies who won't stop crying. The cries lead her closer and closer, and when the parents have turned their heads, she snatches the baby and takes it back to her cave. One baby is crying in the left hand corner of the image, while the others in her basket have already been captured. She also has one on her tongue. Back inside her cave, she pops their eyes out with her long fingernails. When the parents notice their baby is gone, they go after the dhogai and throw hot rocks at her. You can see the rocks are red, and that the witch herself is in red-hot trouble! When a child starts crying on Badu Island we tell them "the Dhogai is going to get you". And they go quiet

www.ochredotgallery.com/

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Dennis Nona

Margul Urab 2007

etching/edition of 45

The title of this print describes a healthy coconut that is full of milk and flesh.

There is a custom that was practiced in the Torres Strait Islands that guaranteed coconuts would mature on the tree to produce this prized fruit. The tree produces prong like stems from which the coconuts grow. Before the fruit starts to form a person would scale the tree and thrust turtle eggs onto these prongs thereby guaranteeing that they would develop to yield abundant milk and good eating flesh. This practice is no longer maintained, but the artist does recall in the early 80's helping his father undertake this ritual in the family coconut grove on Badu Island.

The print depicts the turtle eggs on the prongs prior to the formation of the coconut fruit.

www.ochredotgallery.com

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Dennis Nona

Kanara (death adder) 2006  

etching/edition of 45

70 x 100 cm

Kanara is the death adder, the poisonous one. There's a customary belief when you kill the snake or you see it dead - mostly on the island, on Badu, the elder people will take it down to the beach and bury it horizontally across the beach, or parallel, that way. It is the customary belief that it will grow the beach longer or in language it's called, Surum - to make the sandbank bigger on the island to prevent erosion. That practice was kind of a protection or belief that the snake would protect the sand from eroding and it would attract more sand on to the beach which makes the beach bigger and longer. That particular snake is buried everywhere on the island but mainly on the beach. 

www.ochredotgallery.com

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MINYMAKU TJUKURPA - WOMEN’S STORIES

26 OCTOBER – 26 NOVEMBER 2011

selected works from TJUNGU PALYA below:  

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Angkaliya Curtis Cave Hill   2011

47 x 78 inches

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Beryl Jimmy Kapi Tjukula   2011

80 x 50 inches

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Teresa Baker Kalaya   2011

59 x 78 inches

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Iyawi Wikilyiri

Pukara Tjukurpa   2011

59 x 47 inches

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Watarru Collaborative Artists

Ngura Tjuta  2011

78 x 78 inches

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Yinarupa NANGALA   Mukula   2011

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Tilau Nangala   Mikantji   2010

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Dorothy Napangardi      Mina Mina  c.2007

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Graham Gordon Tjupurrula     Tingari  2007

www.ochredotgallery.com

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Emily Kame Kngwarreye   Big Yam Dreaming  1995   (single canvas 9ft tall and 26 ft long)

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Like a number of other Aboriginal artists, Emily painted on black rather than the usual white canvases. The black surface replicates the familiar surface of black skin upon which the artists engage in body painting.

Her name Kame, comes from the name of the seeds and flowers of the pencil yam plant. Emily's profound identification with Kame, the Yam story, expresses itself in this exuberant painting. 

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Mary Roberts Nakamarra   Yalka Tjukurrpa (Bush Onion)  2011