Ada
Bird Petyarre |
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"Women Ceremony
Body Paint" $Aud8,000 + GST 10% for sales
in Australia
Dreaming Based on traditional body paint designs this painting depicts Body paint designs worn during women’s ceremonies associated with the areas of Utopia. The Ceremony celebrates an abundance of food sources within the artist’s country and the general health and fertility of the community. The ceremonial designs shown in this painting are worn on the shoulders, chest, breasts around the belly of the woman that are the custodians of this Dreaming. Women are the principal gatherers of Bush Tucker and most of their paintings relate to these Dreamings and Ceremonial events.
Ada Bird Petyarre
In
the 1990’s Ada Bird Petyarre reminds us that so much of desert art
originated in body painting designs. During the decade 1989-99 her
painting, now in acrylic on canvas, has come to rely more and more on
linear pattern making which at times has the frail quality of ochre or
clay on flesh. Her paintings provide one of the last significant links
with women’s ceremonial knowledge. It is her fervent hope that the
rising generation will continue to paint, dance and sing in the manner
of her own ancestors. To this end Ada uses her art to instruct, teach
and demonstrate to young women the ways of their parents, grandparents
and beyond. Her art appears to be simple, direct and lacking in
preciousness. It is, nevertheless, this ‘rawness’which speaks
clearly of her knowledge of the land, her people and their ceremonies.
Body markings import from the past the power of creation ancestors and
transform the status of the wearer, if only for a brief ceremonial
moment. Ada, born on a section of the old Utopia Station at Atangkere, c
1930, remains a significant member of one of the most important groups
to develop out of desert painting - the Utopia women. Indeed she was
described in 1995 as, ‘the second most important artist from Utopia
(after the prodigious Emily Kngwarreye)’. Initially this group, in
which Ada played such a prominent part, produced
desert designs on silk and cotton with the batik technique. These
art works were produced first in 1977, the very year that the Anmatyerre
and Alyawarre people began moving back on to their traditional land at
Utopia Station where they resettled in a variety of outstations. Indeed
during the court case which
preceded their return to tribal lands the women of Utopia had danced,
sung, chanted and painted on their body designs to demonstrate their
relationship with the land. This awelye
(clan symbols) told more powerfully than could words just how much the
land was part of the lives of these people. The same
awelye is used by Ada
Bird in paintings and prior to that in her batiks. This
was but the beginning, for the explosion of painting was remarkable, so
much so that noted authorities were consistently confounded with the
rapid development as individual artists began producing works of great
sophistication. Ada
remains reticent to talk about the detail and ritual significance of her
paintings. Indeed, in general terms we seem to know more about men’s
secret, sacred stories than we do about the women’s. This was
discussed by curator Anne
Brody in her catalogue essay. She wrote, Because
of the restricted nature of ritual matters, artists are circumspect
about discussing the meaning of their images in great detail. The titles
given to the works state simply what each artist said her work was
about. Many images make reference to specific awelye
at one level through the depiction of the body paint designs for the
breasts, upperchest, arms and thighs. Ada’s paintings are aligned with her personality; vibrant, outgoing and blatantly honest! She is a lover of bright colours, in particular blue, but also paints in more traditional and subdued colours. Her works are expressive of her lifestyle. She is a traditional, senior woman who involves herself in ceremony, dance and painting. She expresses herself to the fullest extent both on canvas and in the rituals of her ancient culture. She is a wonderful mother to June, Hilda, Colin, Steven, Paddy and Ronnie and a caring and active grandmother to so many! Her sisters include artists Gloria Petyarre, as well as Nancy, Myrtle, Kathleen, Violet, and Jeanie Petyarre. Another well-known Utopia painter, Lindsay Bird, is her brother-in-law. Ada
married and raised six children in the Utopia region of central
Australia with her husband before he passed away. Her country is
Atnangkerre and she paints the Angertla, (Mountain Desert Lizard),
Engcarma (Bean), Unyara (Emu), Annlara (Pencil Yam), Kadjera (Grass
Seeds) and Elaitchurunga (Small Brown Grass) Dreaming. Ada’s
works are collected throughout the world and are included in such
outstanding collections as, Robert Holmes a Court, Perth; National
Gallery of Australia; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Richard
Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, California; and the University of
Queensland, Brisbane. |
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