ROSELLA NAMOK - EVERYONE DANCE

 ROSELLA NAMOK
EVERYONE DANCE,  2004
109 x 172 cm111.5 x 173 cm (Frame)
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
 
PROVENANCE
Lockhart River, QLD
Andrew Baker Gallery, QLDCorporate Collection, VicCooee Art, NSW 
 
STORY
Rosella Namok describes herself as a ā€�modern artistā€™. Her painting engages traditional themes but she explores them in her own distinctive style, bearing the markers of a modern sensibility. The ā€�culture and storiesā€™ of which Namok paints revolve loosely around several narratives. They are stories of her social and physical or natural environment featuring events such as hunting and fishing expeditions, weather patterns of rain and wind, or the stories of Kapay and Kuyan, the two opposing moieties that govern marriage relations in Namokā€™s Ungkum community. These tribal moieties were brought together into one community under the governance of the Christian missions that were established in the Lockhart River area in 1920. Also apparent in Namokā€™s work are themes relating to traditional knowledge of country including kinship relations as well as tribal law in relation to the both the individual and their community. In fact, it was her wish to explore and establish her correct lineage, her ā€�right placeā€™ within the whole, that initially sparked much of the imagery that takes shape throughout the entire scope of Namokā€™s art.