Contemporary Aboriginal Art by Tjugurpa
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Click on image to Enlarge Ochre Natural Pigment on Canvas $1800 The Lightning Brothers travelled from the Warlpiri lands of the Northern Territory, stopping at Yirindale Springs before coming to camp at their site known as Yiwalalay. During their travels, the younger brother, Yabiringi, began lusting for Gulidang, wife of his older brother, Yagjabula, which ended in a fight between the two brothers. In the Dreamtime story The Lightning Brothers live in the sky-world, the dwelling place of many ancestral spirits. |
Click on image to Enlarge Ochre Natural Pigment on Canvas $1800 "The Seven Sisters," tells of a journey that begins in the deserts in Western Australia and extends through several different language areas to the South Australian Pitjantjatjara country. The travels of the seven sisters are sung at inma ceremonies, which extend into the night. The story tells of seven young women being pursued on a cross-country trek by a sly, lustful man named Wati Nyiru. In order to remain close to them, he adopted various disguises, such as a tree or a bird. When the sisters hid in a cave, Wati Nyiru appeared at the entrance, but the women were able to escape through a tunnel. As the pursuit continued, Wati Nyiru's anger grew, and finally he decided to make one of the sisters sick through sorcery. When she died, the other sisters took her up to the sky, and they all became stars. |
Click on image to Enlarge Ochre Natural Pigment on Canvas $1800 Kangaroo man once made a didgeridoo which was so secret that no woman or uninitiated youth was even allowed to hear its sound, much less to see it. At the same time as Kangaroo man made the didgeridoo, he arranged a ceremony called the "Ubara", which he decreed must always be performed whenever the didgeridoo was sounded. The painting shows the Kangaroo Man holding between his paws a didgeridoo with which he blows the Ubara. |
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Click on image to Enlarge Ochre on Canvas $1800 The Wandjina is the Rain Spirit of the Wunambul, Wororra and Ngarinyin language people – the controller of the "Seasons", the bringer of rain which equals water which equals "life". He is the Woongurr – the Leader – he commands respect and he has great powers. To please him is to thrive – to insult or do wrong is to bring wrath and recompense to the offenders. This is very apparent in the contemporary Wandjina artwork which is painted today from stories which have been handed down from generation to generation. |
Click on image to Enlarge Ochre on Canvas $1800 The Bradshaw figures are symmetrical, mystical, beautifully depicted – at times with elaborate headwear of conical shape with intricate "knotted" trails giving an almost sophisticated and elegant picture. Others appear in hunting scenes, festive dancing positions with a great deal of movement, contrasting with some rock art features creating a "shiver down one’s spine" as the viewer imagines an offensive aura which perhaps could be hunting, perhaps could be warning, perhaps could be threatening. Everyone who has been fortunate enough to view these magical images will draw their own conclusions – and at the end of the day, still be amazed, perplexed, hypnotised. |
Click on image to Enlarge Ochre on Canvas $1800 Tjamu is grandfather of the mimi spirit. |
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Click on image to Enlarge Ochre on Canvas $900
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Click on image to Enlarge Acryclic on Canvas $1800 The Mummals were both evil and benign and came from the westernArnhem lands. |
Click on image to Enlarge Ochre on Canvas $900
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About Tjugurpa
Tjugurpa explodes with passion and confidence when engaged in talking about his painting, his influences and his vision. Like many Aboriginal artists, he has lived an extraordinarily varied life in a range of changing circumstances. Born in 1979 at Finke Creek (Apatula), Simpson Desert in the Northern Territory, he is the son of a full blooded Aboriginal mother, a descendant of the Pitjanjatjara tribe and a white father.
His mother's family still live in the Simpson Desert. He was cared for by the Yangkuntjara tribe to the north with whom he spent his early years before being handed to The Sisters of The Bush outside of Alice Springs. Time with his father in Geraldton, Western Australia during his early teens showed him ways quite different to the Northern Territory life with which he was familiar. He had developed an early interest in art, painting in acrylics, with inspiration stimulated by his own ancestral dreaming paths and the many forms of "totemic" beings. Brought up with an innate sense of his aboriginality, at about 18 years of age, he was drawn back to Alice Springs where he was keen to immerse himself in the teachings of the Elders.
With the utmost respect for these mentors, Tjugurpa wanted to receive the permission of the Elders and understand what was possible for him to paint. The ownership of Dreaming stories is determined by complex social and kinship structures and paintings can only be produced by those who are acknowledged to have the right to do so. But this does not mean that artists are rigidly bound by convention in their expressions of these stories -as a contemporary artist he has resisted full initiation as this allows him more freedom and innovation to paint his own expressions of Dreaming stories.
Traditionally ochre was the most important painting material used by the Aboriginal people. A crumbly to hard rock heavily coloured by iron oxide it comes in various colours, from pale yellow to dark reddish brown. Tjugurpa is now fully immersed in painting with the ochres, a difficult but rewarding medium that gives his paintings quite luminous depth .The colours represent the hues of the human body and have a strong spiritual connection to the land. His large canvases are an ideal background for Tjugurpa's contemporary stories. His work has been displayed at select galleries in the Northern Territory. He has held a successful solo exhibition in Germany and fulfilled commissions for the South Australian Government Tourism Department. His work is currently on exhibition at berardo's restaurant and bar, Hastings Street, Noosa Heads, Queensland, Australia.
Tjugurpa is putting the finishing touches to a new series of paintings which will be featured at the Audi Noosa Food & Wine Festival 2010 in The Courier-Mail Lifestyle Annexe.
Tjugurpa is registered as a contemporary ochre artist with the Aborginal Arts Council of Australia.
Enquiries Telephone +617(0)409 268 802 | Email info@noosafoodandwine.com.au