DAVID JANGALA COX - UNTITLED
DAVID JANGALA COX
UNTITLED, 2002
60 x 80 cm
Natural Earth Pigments on Canvas
REGION
Warmun, WA
PROVENANCE
Warmun Art Centre, WA, Cat. No WAC 972/02
The Alec O'Halloran & Helen Zimmerman Collection, NSW
Cooee Art Leven, NSW
STORY
Singing out Spring lies in Yiyili country on Louisa Downs Station, near Halls Creek in the Kimberley. In the Ngarrangkarn! (Dreamtime) three men were walking in the country near Yiyili. They were visitors to the country and had not been welcomed to the country. They came across a large natural spring and bent down to drink of the cool water. However, in the spring lived a large water snake who was keeper of that country and as the men bent down to drink the water, the snake ate them up. That is why you can see three sets of footprints leading into the water hole and none walking out. When a stranger comes to new country they should be welcomed to that country. The traditional way is to use a rock and dip it in the water and wipe the sides of the visitor and then throw that rock into the water. This is so the snake can smell the visitor and know that they have been welcomed. David has painted hills surrounding the waterhole. Yiyilili is David's country
David was born in Derby, in the north west of the Kimberley region. His family is from Yiyili, halfway between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek. This area has many creeks running through it, which feed the Fitzroy Roiver in the west of the Kimberley. David came to paint at the Warmun Art Centre after marrying a Warmun woman. They have two children. David is part of a younger group of artists at Warmun who have an intense interest in the Dreaming stories of their ancestors and are interested in exploring new ways of communicating these stories. He learnt to paint under the instruction of established Warmun artist, Churchill Cann. Churchill's aerial approach to viewing landscape and his use of fine sweeping "watercolour" strokes (using the trademark Warmun natural ochres), have greatly influenced David's work.
EXHIBITED
Inspired: Collectors Edition, April 2023, Cooee Art | Redfern
ARTIST PROFILE
