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About the Artists
Our vibrant and dynamic artists are from the Utopia region; a large remote area of Central Australia which, until recently, had no government funded art centre. As a result of their pioneering efforts, they have one of the strongest and richest art histories.
PAST EXHIBITION
BODY PAINT
8 Mar - 19 May 2019
Perhaps the oldest living art form in the world, the designs in these paintings have prehistoric origins. They belong to the world's oldest living culture.
We are honoured to present this collection of strong, soulful and expressive works featuring women's ceremonial body paint designs.
This painting illustrates breasts painted in elaborate ceremonial body paint patterns, embellished somewhat by Anmatyerre artist Tanya Bird. Her real life ceremonial designs are found to be much more simplistic.
The chrome colour scheme is derived from the bush plums called Ahakeye that grow abundantly on her country. Because other colours such as yellow ochre and red ochre are symbolic for other stories, a charcoal background is used as a neutral platform to highlight the black coloured plums.
Women of Ilkawerne perform ceremony for the Ahakeye where they dance and sing the associated songs.
Awelye for Ahakeye by Tanya Bird
Here we have a painting where the body paint designs are one element of a painting with many facets.
This painting is a celebration of three main Dreaming stories for women of Ilkawerne country; Alpar Seed, Bush Plum and Mulga Seed.
Designs depict seeds, plums, flowers and coolomons (carved wooden bowls), but also the intricate linear patterns of ceremonial body paint designs can be found throughout. Ceremony is often part of every story and can be seen like this in many different paintings.
Alpar Seed, Ahakeye and Ntang Artety by Alvira Bird Meptyane
Gloria is one of Australia's most accomplished and sought after Aboriginal artists. While she is most recognised for her Leaves depictions, it all started for her with Awelye - her ceremonial body paint designs.
Like her sisters and other women who gathered together for a tutorial in painting in the 1980's, Gloria instinctively knew what she was going to paint; body paint. "Nobody told me what to do, I been doing it myself." And she often tells how it is her treasured subject to paint.
Gloria doesn’t partake in ceremony much nowadays but remembers it being a happy, social time full of singing and teaching.
These two panels were commissioned in the grey on black for a 'bold-abstract meets quiet-sophistication' look.
Awelye by Gloria Petyarre
This is an intricate representation of Colleen's Dreamtime Sisters - spirits who look after the land and her people.
The Sisters are painted with ceremonial designs just as they are illustrated on the walls of a sacred site on Colleen's country.
There are also traditional U shape symbols depicting women of Colleen's country. These symbols are decorated with body paint designs; note the arc linear pattern on their chest and lines going down their arms.
Dreamtime Sisters by Colleen Wallace Nungari
Age 88, Queenie is an elder from Atnwengerrp country and lives in a remote northern Utopia settlement.
Utopia has a large painting community and while Queenie dabbles with this, she is not prolific. Her works are few and far between. We were happy to secure this small piece for this exhibition.
Painted in warm red ochre and white, these are the same colours used to paint her body and fellow countrywomen during their Atnwengerrp ceremonies.
Each corner has the typical arc linear pattern painted onto women's chests during ceremony.
Body Paint by Queenie Lion
For the people of Atnangkere, the Dreamtime tells the story of a small little lizard that carries the sacred white, yellow and red ochres of their country in a small sack on the back of his neck.
This lizard danced the story in Atnangkere country, where the dancing tracks can still be seen today embedded in the rocks. He then carried the ochre powder north, making travelling paths as he went slowly along.
Like in this painting, Myrtle and the women of Atnangkere country use yellow ochre, red ochre and white in the body painting.
Awelye for Arnkerrthe by Myrtle Petyarre
A founder of the Utopia art movement, Ada Bird was one of the first women to expose women's ceremonial body paint designs - using linear patterns and often bold colours to share the sacred body paint designs with breasts, chest and navel areas in full illustrative outline.
Ada's paintings are infused with a tangible sense of wonder and awe; inviting us, supporting us, nurturing us.
Awelye for Arnkerrthe by Ada Bird Petyarre
Bands of bright yellow and coral representing body paint fill every nook of space in this small but extraordinary piece.
Angelina's work depicts ceremony of healing for those touched by the Atham-areny spirit. With doctors are called upon and along with the women, they dance and sing to heal the sick.
Atham-areny Story by Angelina Ngale | 30cm x 15cm | SOLD
A striking abstract by Molly Pwerle, age 90, where lines are symbolic of dancing lines, body paint and the essence of all that encompasses Awelye.
In northern Utopia there is an ancestral place called Anthep, meaning 'dance', that is the most significant site on Atnwengerrp country. Here, women paint their bodies, dance, sing and pay homage to their country. As they dance, they stir up the dust and the earth, creating lines that are firmly imprinted in the rocky ground.
Awelye Anthep by Molly Pwerle
An exhibition on women's body paint wouldn't be complete without a Minnie.
From the moment she began painting, well into her late 80's, her works revealed bright coloured lines overlapping haphazardly across the canvas depicting none other than body paint designs. Like Gloria Petyarre, and Ada Bird and Molly, she intuitively began painting cultural motifs she had in fact been painting and singing and dancing all her life.
This piece is loveable green painting, a great size for small collections, and a welcoming piece to your home, your sanctuary. The blue energises the green, while the yellow brings a warm hue to the dynamic mix.
Awelye Atnwengerrp by Minnie Pwerle
About the exhibition
Perhaps the oldest living art form in the world, the designs in these paintings have prehistoric origins. They belong to the world's oldest living culture.
In the Eastern Desert, Awelye is the word used to describe women's ceremony, and sometimes just the body paint designs, where painting is a ritual of song and dance itself. The women sing during the body paint process to call the spirit ancestors to the approaching ceremony.
These ceremonies come from the land and the knowledge of these ceremonies is passed on by the senior land-owning women to the younger generations.
When women paint each other for ceremony, they may do so according to skin names and tribal hierarchy.
To apply body paint, women firstly smear their upper bodies with animal fat, or nowadays a generic vegetable oil. The oil helps keep the paint in place and for easier removal.
Using their fingers or a paint brush to trace the designs, the women paint specific colours and designs onto their chests and breasts, and in some ceremonies the upper arm and thigh.
Traditionally powders ground from ochres, charcoal and ash may be applied, with fingers or a brush. Now synthetic paints are often used.
Pictured: Pansy McLeod being painted for ceremony.
Tyepale
A tyepale is a traditional paint brush made from natural bush materials. Before ready made paint brushes existed, tyepales were used.
There is a local native flowering plant called Apwen (Senna artemisioides) where the thin narrow leaves are peeled off to reveal a nice long, skinny stem that was used to make a paint brush handle.
A soft padding is then secured to one end turning the stick into a brush.
