Title
Bilwoyinj site
2004
Artist
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Details
- Other Title
- Wind dreaming
- Place where the work was made
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Mankorlod
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Central Arnhem Land
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Northern Territory
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Australia
- Date
- 2004
- Media category
- Bark painting
- Materials used
- natural pigments on eucalyptus bark
- Dimensions
- 143.0 x 75.0 cm
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Mollie Gowing Acquisition fund for Contemporary Aboriginal art 2004
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 286.2004
- Copyright
- © Estate of Samuel Namunjdja/Copyright Agency
- Artist information
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Samuel Namunjdja
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
The artist has painted kunkurra, the spiralling wind associated with several sites in the Kardbam clan estate. On one level, this painting can be interpreted as a depiction of the mini-cyclones common during the wet season in Arnhem Land, where the artist lives. Kunkurra also relates specifically to a site called Bilwoyinj, near Mankorlod, on Namunjdja's clan estate. At this site, two of the most important Kuninjku creation beings, a father and son, known as the Nakorrkko, hunted and ate a goanna. They left some of the goanna fat behind, which turned into the rock that still stands there today.
The word 'Bilwoyinj' - the name of this site - also refers to the goanna fat. The Bilwoyinj site is also a ceremonial ground for Yabbadurruwa, a major ceremony owned by the Yirridjdja patrimoiety. The Yabbadurruwa ceremony is primarily concerned with initiation, land ownership and promoting the cyclical regeneration of the human and natural worlds.
from Hetti Perkins et al., 'Crossing country: the alchemy of Western Arnhem Land art', Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2004
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Exhibition history
Shown in 2 exhibitions
Crossing country: the alchemy of Western Arnhem Land art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 24 Sep 2004–12 Dec 2004
One sun, one moon, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 03 Jul 2007–02 Dec 2007
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Bibliography
Referenced in 3 publications
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Hetti Perkins and Margie West, One sun one moon: Aboriginal art in Australia, Sydney, 2007, 15 (colour illus.).
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Hetti Perkins, Crossing country: the alchemy of western Arnhem Land art, Sydney, 2004, 87 (colour illus.), 228-229.
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Jill Sykes (Editor), Look, 'Yiribana: a facelift and a new show', pg. 28-31, Sydney, Jul 2005, 31 (colour illus.).
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