TREVOR NICKOLLS - ULURU
TREVOR NICKOLLS
ULURU, 2009
92 x 61 cm
Synthetic Polymer Paint on Belgian Linen
PROVENANCE
Melbourne, VIC
Property of the Artist's estate, Vic
STORY
Trevor Nickolls had a great reverence for Uluru and its significance within the Tjukurrpa of Aboriginal peoples. To show his respect and to acknowledge this importance, he placed the Uluru image into a number of his paintings as a symbol of Aboriginal empowerment and attachment to land. This painting places Uluru as the central feature and theme of the painting. Trevor Nickolls has added spiritual icons to emphasis the spiritual importance of Uluru; there are two spirit people whose heads become the eyes of a Wundjina-like face, a spirit shaped like a cloud and hovering over Uluru. Always ready to combine iconic imagery from diverse cultures, Trevor Nickolls places two doves, icons of peace in Western iconography, on each side of the Wundjina-like spirit face. Above this, Uluru is spelled out in writing as reinforcement and higher up is an Aboriginal spirit in the milky way; a spirit he saw as an omnipresent protector being and which he placed in many paintings.