COWBOY LOY PWERL - BUSH TURKEY DREAMING
COWBOY LOY PWERL
BUSH TURKEY DREAMING, 2014
71 x 119 cm
Synthetic Polymer Paint on Belgian Linen
REGION
Urapuntja/Amengernterneah (Utopia) NT
PROVENANCE
Lauraine Diggens Fine Art, Melbourne, Vic
Art Leven [formerly Cooee Art], Gadigal (Sydney, NSW)
STORY
In this work, Cowboy Loy Pwerle depicts the life cycle and foraging journey of the Bush Turkey, a key ancestral figure in his Country. At the heart of the composition lies the nesting place—a sacred site where the Bush Turkey shelters and lays its eggs. Surrounding it are intricate dotted motifs representing the seeds it feeds upon, scattered across the desert floor in seasonal abundance.
Cowboy traces the bird’s wandering path across the landscape through looping lines and repeated imprints, marking the distinctive tracks left in the sand as it searches for food. These markings are not only literal but also symbolic pathways, linking food sources, waterholes, and ceremonial sites.
Every element in the painting is layered with cultural knowledge. The nesting site is a place of renewal, where the cycles of life and law are reaffirmed. The seeds and tracks connect the viewer to the rhythms of the land, where each movement of the Bush Turkey is tied to survival, story, and Country.
While the work can be appreciated for its striking abstract patterning, it is also a coded map of lived experience—part natural history, part spiritual narrative—rooted in Cowboy’s intimate understanding of the land and its ancestral beings.
ARTIST PROFILE
