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PADDY JAPALJARRI SIMS, PADDY JAPALJARRI STEWART,
LARRY JUNGARRAYI SPENCER, PADDY JUPURRURLA NELSON
AND TOWSWER JAKAMARRA WALKER
Toyota Dreamings 1984
In 1982 Dr Eric Michaels from the United States
took up a three-year Institute fellowship to study
the 'impact and implications of the introduction
of television on remote Aboriginal communities.'
In the course of his field work at the Warlpiri
settlement of Yuendumu, north west of Alice Springs,
Michaels witnessed the painting of the doors of
the local school. The project involved the painting
of the doors with kuruwarri, traditional men's
designs, to emphasise traditional values and law
in a place of European learning. Michaels saw
the painted doors as a major accomplishment 'for
contemporary international art as well as an achievement
in Indigenous culture ... these doors seemed to
strike a chord with issues and images that were
being negotiated in the art galleries of Sydney,
Parkis and New York.'
The educational significance of the doors in
situ was recognised by the Warlpiri who were
now confronted with the notion of producing such
large paintings, in terms of significance as well
as physical size, for the art market. The Warlpiri
had been keenly aware of the developments at nearby
Papunya where for more than a decade artists had
been producing portable paintings for the market
with a degree of success in terms of critical
reception and financial return. Until now many
Warlpiri, especially the women, had been selling
paintings which were usually small in scale and
painted on canvasboard. Senior Warlpiri men had
been reticent to enter the market, unsure of the
cultural consequences of dispersing images of
their cosmology to an uninitiated audience. The
success of the School Door project engendered
in the men the confidence to tackle the market.
As it was not feasible nor desirable to sell the
painted doors, a decision was made to paint two
large collaborative works which reiterated the
themes represented on the doors.
Four of the five artists who painted these canvases
also worked on the doors; Paddy Sims, Paddy Stewart,
Larry Spencer and Paddy Nelson. They did not get
far, however, in terms of sending the works to
southern markets; Michaels' admiration for the
artists and what they had produced induced him
to acquire the two paintings for the Institute.
The cost: two Toyotas. The Toyota - a gloss for
a four-wheel drive vehicle - represented the ability
for the men to visit their ancestrally endowed
country, some of which lies up to 400 kilometres
from Yuendumu. Thus, this exchange helped the
artists fulfil one of their primary responsibilities,
that of caring for country.
The two canvases depict men's ceremonial sites
- those they could drive to in their Toyotas -
in country belonging to the Jungarrayi and Japaljarri
section. The ceremonies concern the creation of
the Milky Way (Yiwarra) where, in the ritual,
men lift the stars into the heavens by means of
witi, long ceremonial poles. The Milky
Way itself appears as the large white roundel
of concentric circles surrounded by large red
dots at the top of one canvas; the red dots indicate
the stars at sunrise. The Milky Way is repeated
in a similar configuration along the left margin
of the canvas where the yellow surrounding dots
represent the sunset. 'Number 7' boomerangs, snake
vines, trees (watiya) and birds' tracks
appear across the canvases.
These large works heralded the arrival of the
artists of Yuendumu on the world of art. In 1986
the even larger Yanjilypiri Jukurrpa
(Star Dreaming), painted in 1985 by Paddy
Sims, Paddy Nelson and Larry Spencer, entered
the collection of the National Gallery of Australia. |
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