CHARLIE NANGUKWIRRK - LORRKON

CHARLIE NANGUKWIRRK
LORRKON,  2010
160 x 11 x 11 cm
Natural Earth Pigments on Carved Wood
 
REGION
Maningrida, NT
 
PROVENANCE
Maningrida Arts and Culture, NT 
Private Collection, NSW 
 
STORY
Lorrkon or hollow log coffins are central to the funeral ceremony practiced by the Kuninjku people of Western Arnhem Land. The hollow logs, which housed the ochred bones of the deceased person, were painted with clan designs and placed into the ground where they were left to decay naturally.  

The thin and delicate rarrk (crosshatching) done by the artist is amazingly and uniformly maintained across the whole length of a hollow log. The hollow logs reverberate with the power of ancestral beings who inhabit Western Arnhem Land.
 
 
ARTIST PROFILE
CHARLIE NANGUKWIRRK