LAURIE GOWANULLI - ‘DUMBI’ (THE OWL)
LAURIE GOWANULLI
‘DUMBI’ (THE OWL), 1998
90 x 150 cm
Natural Earth Pigments on Canvas
REGION
Kimberley, WA
PROVENANCE
Painted at 'Wandjina Art Project' in 1998, supported by the WA government(Arts WA)
The Alec O'Halloran & Helen Zimmerman Collection, NSW
Cooee Art Leven, NSW
STORY
The Wandjina, are exclusive to areas of the Kimberley in Western Australia and are said to exercise power over the rains.
For custodians, portable images of the Wandjina are viewed as purely reproductions of the ‘real’ spirits adorning the cave walls at their most important Dreaming sites.
Wandjina images on bark, board, canvas, slate or paper were first produced for trade and exchange with missionaries travelling by lugger along the Kimberley coastline prior to mid 1970s. However the primary artistic inspiration and purpose in creating these works lay in the artist's responsibility for maintaining the ancestral sites, and repainting them to ‘keep them strong’.
EXHIBITED
Inspired: Collectors Edition, April 2023, Cooee Art | Redfern
ARTIST PROFILE
