ANGELINA PWERLE NGAL - UNTITLED ( BUSH RAISIN MAN)
ANGELINA PWERLE NGAL
UNTITLED ( BUSH RAISIN MAN), c. 1995
80 x 14 x 13 cm
acrylic on carved softwood
REGION
Utopia, NT
PROVENANCE
Gallery Australis, Tarntanya (Adelaide), SA
Lawson~Menzies, Sydney, 25 May 2004, lot 230, as ‘Artist Unknown’
The Gillespie Collection, Gadigal (Sydney), NSW
Bonhams, Notable Collections: Australian and Aboriginal Art, 27 August 2025, Sydney, Lot 6
Private collection, Gadigal (Sydney), NSW
STORY
This carved figure, most likely titled Bush Raisin Man, comes from Angelina Ngale Pwerle’s deep engagement with the stories of her Country at Utopia, north-east of Alice Springs. Born in 1952, Pwerle has long worked across painting and sculpture, drawing on her intimate knowledge of Anmatyerr traditions. The Bush Raisin, like the Bush Plum, is a food source of both physical and spiritual importance, celebrated in ceremony and represented in art as a way of keeping its story alive.
The figure embodies the presence of a spirit man associated with the Bush Raisin Dreaming. His form, though modest in scale, carries a powerful sense of character and vitality. With simple, direct carving, Pwerle gives shape to an ancestral being whose story would traditionally be passed down through song, dance, and body painting, ensuring that younger generations understand their obligations to land and community.
In making such works, Pwerle moves between the transience of performance and the permanence of sculpture. The figure holds memory in its surface, acting as both a guardian of Country and a reminder of the resources that sustain life in the desert. At once playful and reverent, Bush Raisin Man extends the artist’s practice beyond canvas, keeping ancestral narratives grounded in both form and spirit.
ARTIST PROFILE
