Fine Art Gallery

Artist Profile

Born c.1925, at Yarturlu Yarturlu, a Yam Dreaming site, Lorna Fencer was the custodian of inherited land Yumurrpa situated near Chilla Well, south of the Granites Mine in the Tanami Desert. Her father’s country was Wapurtali. She spent her early years living a traditional life, until in 1949 she, along with many of her Warlpiri countrymen, were forcibly transported to the government settlement of Lajamanu at Hooker Creek, situated in the country of the Gurindji people. Lajamanu lay 380 km north of the traditional Warlpiri homelands and it became a disconsolate community, as its governance during the 1950’s was militant and suppressive. Many Walrpiri walked the 800 km back to Yuendumu only to be forcibly returned once more, thereby creating a deep sense of disempowerment and loss. Despite this, the Warlpiri elders kept their customs and ceremonies alive with a fierce determination. Lorna Napurrula in particular maintained and strengthened her cultural identity through ceremonial activity, thereby asserting her position as a prominent elder and teacher in the community.

Aware of the growing popularity of painting amongst the Pintupi and other groups in the Western Desert, the Warlpiri men of Lajamanu were deeply concerned and determined to safeguard secret and sacred knowledge. In 1983, 12 Warlpiri men from Lajamanu and Yuendumu traveled to Paris to create a traditional sand-painting and dance at the Musee d’Art Moderne. Nevertheless, they remained strongly opposed to committing these designs to any permanent medium. However, three years later the Warlpiri position changed as a result of an adult education course run by John Quinn, during which western art materials were introduced at the local school. As this artistic activity strengthened, the women in particular were encouraged by the much-needed income that painting could provide and the role art could play as a means of preserving and maintaining their culture. Due perhaps to their dislocation from their own country to the south, the way that income from art had enabled the Pintupi, who initially lived at Papunya to re-establish their links to country closer to Lake MacKay, resonated strongly with their own hopes and desires for a better future. The women of Lajamanu were anxious to see their children provided with some source of spiritual grounding in the face of so many modern influences and distractions. However, Lajamanu's isolation, due to its great distance from the urban art centres and the difficulty of communication with the outside world, slowed the public emergence of Lajamanu art significantly. As late as 1989, there were still no telephones to connect the inhabitants of the community with the outside world. However, the arrival of a satellite dish from Yuendumu resulted in a teleconference link up with the director of Coo-ee Gallery, Curator Christine Watson and Allan Warrie of the Aboriginal Arts Board, during which Abie Jangala, Lorna Fencer and other Lajamanu artists presented their work and arranged to participate in an exhibition the following year.

Soon after the women started painting in 1986, they began to outnumber their male counterparts. The ‘hitherto sleeping giants of the Aboriginal Art world' ( Ryan 2004: 104), produced works that were astoundingly inventive and bold. Amongst them, Lorna Fencer stood out. Her powerful, gestural brushstrokes and uninhibited, bold, and intuitive application of colour produced haptic effects in works characterized by fluidity and movement. The classical dotted infill never suited her whimsical nature and unique vision of Warlpiri culture. She adored colour and would sit solidly on the ground, painting with urgency until her pot of paint was depleted. Then, in the middle of this storm of creativity, she would pick up the empty pot. ‘Orangy Orangy’ she would insist as if she could wait not a second longer for a refill of that sensuous liquid yellow paint. Her completed paintings executed in vivid yellows, pinks, purples, lime greens and brilliant reds pick up on the bursts of thousands of tiny blooms that fill the desert after rain, emphasising them in an exuberant ‘celebration of pure painting’. Her more expressive, modernist style has an impulsive, organic logic, mirroring the plant or root structures of desert bush tucker.