DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - KARNTAKURLANGU

 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI
KARNTAKURLANGU,  2006
90 x 90 cm
Synthetic Polymer Paint on Belgian Linen
 
PROVENANCE
Yuendumu, NT
Gallery Gondwana Fine Art, NTCooee Art Gallery, NSW 
 
STORY
In this beautiful work the artist Dorothy Napangardi depicts a major womenā€™s ceremonial site known as Mina Mina, her custodial country, which is located near Lake Mackay in the Tanami Desert, north of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory.To portray her Mina Mina the artist has created a striking check-like design in yellow and white on a black background. This painting can be read like a map through which the women move; across the terrain, around the soakages of Mina Mina and itā€™s crustations of salt; through the spinifex clumps and over the sandhills. The artistā€™s fascination with rather rigid geometrics coupled withlinear movements creates a push and pull effect, pulling the eye of the viewer up and down, inwards and outwards, pushing it from one point to the next. It is her ability to keep the viewer continually engaged whilst reading her work that sees Dorothy Napangardi receiving the recognition that she is.Karntakurlangu literally translates from Warlpiri language into ā€�Belonging to Womenā€™. The site depicted is Mina Mina, a sacred womenā€™s site which is located on the far west border of the Northern Territory, near the Western Australian border, close to the great salt lake of Lake MacKay. It comprises of a large claypan that fills with water after rain surrounded by large desert oak trees (Allocasuarina decaisneana).During the Dreaming women of the Napangardi (Dorothyā€™s ā€�skinā€™ name) and Napanangka (aunties for the Napangardi kinship) sang and danced this country into existence. This is how traditional knowledge is passed on ā€“ from auntie (fatherā€™s sisters) to niece. Dorothy Napangardi
 
EXHIBITED
And They Danced Their Way Across Country, October 2018, Cooee Art Paddington, 20th October - 10 November 2018