Pansy Napangati
vor 1990
About the object
Since the 1970s, modern Aboriginal acrylic painting has been presenting the events and stories of so-called dreamtime, the creation of the world in the imagination of the Aborigines. In this painting by Pansy Napangati, the journey of the ancestors in the landscape is depicted from above: waterholes as sites being both mythological occurrences and actual vital resources in the landscape, are represented by concentric circles. The seated men with their weapons appear in a U-shape. The pictures are at the same time images of the past and a kind of road map in the present. With their arrival, the most important art movement in Australia was born, which made Aboriginal art internationally renowned.
see less
see more
Two old men are sitting at the Ilpilli spring west of Papunya, a desolate desert settlement founded by the Australian government. The concentric circle in the middle depicts the spring, the wavy lines show the water flowing from it. The men, recognisable by the U-shaped lines, are spinning hair - the white lines in front of them - for a ceremony. Next to them, we see their weapons: shields, clubs, spears and boomerangs, which the artist Pansy Napangati clearly depicts - other elements of the picture, however, cannot be interpreted by the uninitiated. The art of the Australian Aborigines has become mobile. The circles and lines that have existed since the settlement of the continent - at least 40,000 years ago - are no longer found on rock, sand or the human body, but painted on portable canvas using acrylic paint. This form of artistic expression, which resulted in one of the most successful indigenous art movements, was initiated by the art teacher Geofffrey Bardon, who brought acrylic paints to Papunya for his students in 1971. But instead, the adults picked up their brushes and painted their view of the continent. From an unusual perspective: from above, as a map of the landscape, traversed by paths and significant places - the lines and circles - traces of the creation of the world, which according to the belief of the Aborigines is still in effect today - referred to as "dreamtime" in the absence of a more accurate translation of the various Aboriginal terms. The resulting pictures manifest the knowledge of the events of Dreamtime, which can also be presented and animated in other forms, such as song, stories or even dance. Author: Margarete Brüll, Translation: Timothy Conell