wangkartu dreaming: helicopter tjungurray & lucy yukenbarri
DESCRIPTION
Helicopter's paintings can be appreciated simply on a formal level as mesmerizing aesthetic abstractions, however, Helicopter brings his country to life in his paintings. In his paintings Helicopter reveals and aligns the bones of his country, searching for a pulse of energy through the radiance of colour vibrations that might unblock the spirit.Like many other Western Desert painters, Helicopter developed a highly individualistic and easily recognizable style. In the mid 1960s Lucy Yukenbari, married Helicopter.TRANSCRIPT
6 DUKE STREET ST. JAMES’SL O N D O N S W 1 Y 6 B NT E L . + 4 4 ( 0 ) 2 0 7 9 3 0 9 3 3 2FA X . + 4 4 ( 0 ) 2 0 7 9 3 0 5 5 7 7i n f o @ w h i t f o r d f i n e a r t . c o mw w w. w h i t f o r d f i n e a r t . c o m
WHITFORDF I N E A R T
Helicopter Covers 20/3/09 16:28 Page 1
WANGKARTU DREAMING:
HELICOPTER TJUNGURRAYI &
LUCY YUKENBARRI
22nd April – 22nd May 2009
6 DUKE STREET ST. JAMES’S LONDON SW1Y 6BNTEL. +44 (0)20 7930 9332 EMAIL [email protected]
www.whitfordfineart.com
WHITFORDF I N E A R T
All works are for sale
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:17 Page 1
Front cover: Wangkartu 01, 2003 (cat. no. 12)Back cover : Balgo Pound, a huge natural expanse, originally an inland sea andhome country to Helicopter Tjungurrayi and Lucy Yukenbarri
Fig. 1: Helicopter Tjungurrayi, painting in Balgo, the community where he resides,located on the Northern edge of the Tanami and Great Sandy Deserts`
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:17 Page 2
The Western Desert contemporary art movement is based on the narratives of Tjukurrpa or what
is more widely known as the Dreaming or Dreamtime. A better translation might be the Law, for
these narratives express and regulate the Aboriginal worldview. On one level they explain how the
world is the way it is. The y are repositories of knowledge about animals, plants, f ood, medicine
and history. Their significance is practical rather than mystical, such as providing topographical
descriptions that enabl e one t o find wat er or tr avel across the desert. On another l evel the
narratives show how life should be lived today so that the laws of nature laid down in the ancestral
past are not violat ed. The idea of a deep c ontinuity between the pas t and the pr esent is a
fundamental principle of the Dreaming. It means that contemporary events, no matter how new
and unexpected, must be interpreted in light of the Dreaming.
The Dreaming narratives exist as song cy cles. These cy cles are sung and danc ed during
ceremonies. Western Desert c ontemporary art is lar gely based on body and gr ound designs
painted during these ceremonies, and so are associated with specific Dreaming narratives. The
stories told in these narratives concern the activities and journeys of ancestors across the country
in which the geogr aphical features, flora and fauna are as integral to the s tory as the actual
ancestor. Indeed, each is a manifestation of the other, as are living persons and things today. Thus
a valley or river or road or the storm last night may be the manifestation of the Rainbow Serpent,
made during its journey across the landscape.
One of the tasks of ceremonial leaders—who usually are also artists—is to explain the new in light
of the past. This will often involve the inventions of new Dreaming narratives. These are usually
‘given’ to ceremonial leaders in dreams. This is why Western Desert painting is contemporary art.
Its Dreaming narratives are also about contemporary events, just as its artists are contemporary
manifestations of specific ancestors. Helicopter’s story of becoming a painter is bound up in the
Dreaming and its uses to explain an unusual contemporary event.
When he was ill as a 10-y ear old boy, a helicopter rescued him, taking him away t o the Balgo
mission, an isolated outpost at the edge of the Gr eat Australian Western Desert. This has been
remembered in several narratives told across the desert of a y oung man running in f ear for his
INTRODUCTION
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:17 Page 3
life, being picked up by an e vil Mamu, a large flying beast, taking him in its claws t o carry him
away from his country. It was r emembered this way bec ause it was similar t o the much older
Dreaming story in which the ancestral red-backed Kingfisher had, in Creation time, flown south
from Balgo guiding the marwantu (novices) and rescuing some Kukatja people by placing them
on his back.
Not surprising then, this incr edulous helicopter story named him. It also gav e him a new
perspective on his country that resonates in his repeated use of parallel lines. Being taken away
on the wings of Mamu had shown him his land fr om above. Looking down in f ear from the
helicopter, a vision was sear ed into his memory of wav e after wave of par allel sand dunes,
scarified by wind into the ancient seabed itself.
Helicopter’s life, his paintings and his c areer as an artis t cannot be full y understood without
reference to it – just as Joseph Beuys’ rescue by the nomadic Tartars after a near fatal plane crash
shaped his future as an artis t. Because Helicopter’s experience was interpreted in terms of a
significant Dreaming story, he gained a special s tanding across other desert communities. This
was instrumental to his vocation as a Maparn or shaman, a healer, a mediator between worlds.
If Beuys aspired to be a shaman and modeled his art practice on it, Helicopter was one before he
became a painter.
Helicopter’s paintings c an be appreciated simply on a f ormal level as mesmerizing aes thetic
abstractions, however, knowledge of his s tatus as a shaman and his brush with Mamu, offers
deeper insight into his work. Being a tr aditional healer, he sees into a person’s body to find the
true supernatural cause of an illness. He ‘opens membranes, lengthening and realigning things
into position, straight like a spear to unblock the spirit’. In a similar fashion, Helicopter brings his
country to life in his paintings. In his paintings Helic opter reveals and aligns the bones of his
country, searching for a pulse of ener gy through the radiance of colour vibrations that might
unblock the spirit.
Like many other Western Desert painters, Helicopter developed a highly individualistic and easily
recognizable style. Though Helicopter was in Balgo, ther e is no doubt that he knew about the
Pintupi painters at Papunya who pioneered the Desert painting mo vement in the 1970s. Many
Aborigines at the Balgo mis sion were of Pintupi descent and their relatives, including painters,
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:17 Page 4
would come to visit. Helic opter must have met the l eading artists Uta Uta Tjangalga, Timmy
Payunka Tjapangati and Dinny Nolan, who all spent time in Balgo. By the mid-1980s a dis tinctive
school of Balgo art had been es tablished. Unlike Papunya, the Balgo paint ers were known for
their wild syncr etism, colourful palette and bold s tylistic diversity. There were also f amous
painting couples such as the influential Wimitji Tjapanardi and Eubena Namitjin. In the mid 1960s
Wimitji’s daughter by a previous marriage, Lucy Yukenbari, married Helicopter.
Lucy was a respected senior custodian in her own right, with a vast knowledge of the waterholes
in Wangkartu country in the Great Sandy Desert, where Helicopter was born. Together Helicopter
and Lucy would become the best-known painting couple of the Balgo community. Soon after Lucy
started painting in the late 1980s, Helicopter began helping her complete her canvasses. A quietly
creative artist, she soon developed her own unique style of converging her dotting into thick lines
of pigment and single fields of colour across the canvas. Her iconic use of large black circles to
represent waterholes and soakwaters together with the dis tinctive addition of dark gr een and
blue, gave her work an individual style, unique to desert Aboriginal art.
Helicopter produced his fir st solo canvas in 1994. Whil e still sharing his wif e’s palette, he
immediately set about forging his own style. Their canvasses reflect their different personalities:
her paintings c ontain a s tately organic abundance, his hold a c ourteous distance in the
patternisation, classic rather than effusive, minimal rather than expressionist. His canvasses are
like a macroscopic tapestry of country, in which watering holes and desert dunes have been made
the very grammar of Wangkartu Dreaming.
Whereas Lucy’s paintings are bold and dr amatic, in keeping with the Balgo s tyle, Helicopter’s
mature work differs from the first generation of Balgo artists in an early restraint, lacking in overt
drama, narrative or cultural specificity.
Helicopter and Lucy painted side by side until her death in 2003. Their work has been e xhibited in
Canada, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands and the United States and their stature
as artists is cemented and market value reflects an accomplished maturity. Together Helicopter
and Lucy hav e six gr own-up children and a sc ore of gr andchildren. Their daught er Christine
Yukenbarri is also an acclaimed artist.
Erica Izett, former Art Coordinator, Warlayiriti Artists, Balgo, Western Australia
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:17 Page 5
Fig. 2: Wunda Ceremonial Warfare Shield, Wangkartu, Great Sandy Desert,carved and painted wood, 67 cm long, c.1950
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:17 Page 6
1. HELICOPTER TJUNGURRAYI (b.1947)
Minyuurpa 1996
Acrylic on canvas120 x 80 cm
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:18 Page 7
Fig. 3: The Great Sandy Desert, Western Australia, where Helicopter has painted
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:18 Page 8
2. HELICOPTER TJUNGURRAYI (b.1947)
Wangkartu 10 2008
Acrylic on canvas149 x 74 cm
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:50 Page 9
3. HELICOPTER TJUNGURRAYI (b.1947)
Pikarti Soak 1998
Acrylic on canvas35 x 45.5 cm
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:50 Page 10
4. HELICOPTER TJUNGURRAYI (b.1947)
Wangkartu 02 2007
Acrylic on canvas120 x 60 cm
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:50 Page 11
Fig. 4: Sunset over The Gibson Desert, Western Australia, home to the Pintupi people,who pioneered the Desert painting movement in the 1970s
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:50 Page 12
5. LUCY YUKENBARRI (c.1934 - 2003)
Marpa 01 2002
Acrylic on canvas180 x 120 cm
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:50 Page 13
6. HELICOPTER TJUNGURRAYI (b.1947)
Wangkartu 05 2008
Acrylic on canvas150 x 75 cm
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:50 Page 14
7. HELICOPTER TJUNGURRAYI (b.1947)
Wangkartu 06 2006
Acrylic on canvas180 x 120 cm
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:51 Page 15
8. HELICOPTER TJUNGURRAYI (b.1947)
Wangkartu 04 2007
Acrylic on canvas120 x 80 cm
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:51 Page 16
9. HELICOPTER TJUNGURRAYI (b.1947)
Wangkartu 07 2007
Acrylic on canvas150 x 75 cm
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:51 Page 18
10. LUCY YUKENBARRI (c.1934 - 2003)
A Soakage in Sandhill Country 1997
Acrylic on canvas178 x 119 cm
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 16:05 Page 19
11. LUCY YUKENBARRI (c.1934 - 2003)
Gathering Seeds for Damper 1998
Acrylic on canvas36 x 46 cm
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:39 Page 20
12. HELICOPTER TJUNGURRAYI (b.1947)
Wangkartu 01 2003
Acrylic on canvas120 x 80 cm
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:39 Page 21
Fig. 6: The Great Sandy Desert, Western Australia, birth country of Helicopter Tjungurrayi
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:39 Page 22
13. HELICOPTER TJUNGURRAYI (b.1947)
Wangkartu 11 2008
Acrylic on canvas150 x 74 cm
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:39 Page 23
14. HELICOPTER TJUNGURRAYI (b.1947)
Wangkartu 09 2008
Acrylic on canvas120 x 79 cm
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:39 Page 24
15. LUCY YUKENBARRI (c.1934 - 2003)
Marpa 02 2000
Acrylic on canvas120 x 80 cm
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:41 Page 25
Fig. 7: Helicopter Tjungurrayi, painting in Balgo Pound, a natural amphitheatre surrounded by outsidewalls of hollowed-out mountain in Western Australia
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:42 Page 26
16. HELICOPTER TJUNGURRAYI (b.1947)
Wangkartu 03 2003
Acrylic on canvas120 x 40 cm
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:42 Page 27
17. HELICOPTER TJUNGURRAYI (b.1947)
Wangkartu 08 2008
Acrylic on canvas150 x 75 cm
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:42 Page 28
HELICOPTER TJUNGURRAYI
1 MINYUURPA
2 WANGKARTU 10
3 PIKARTI SOAK
4 WANGKARTU 02
6 WANGKARTU 05
7 WANGKARTU 06
8 WANGKARTU 04
9 WANGKARTU 07
12 WANGKARTU 01
13 WANGKARTU 11
14 WANGKARTU 09
16 WANGKARTU 03
17 WANGKARTU 08
LUCY YUKENBARRI
5 MARPA 01
10 A SOAKAGE IN SANDHILL COUNTRY
11 GATHERING SEEDS FOR DAMPER
15 MARPA 02
WORKS
All paintings are documented and numbered in the
archives of the Warlayiriti Art Center, Balgo
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:42 Page 29
SOLO EXHIBITIONS2003 Always Together Painting, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne1999 Tjurrnu: Living Water, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS2002 19th NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of the
Northern Territory, Darwin2002 Balgo, Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth2001 31st Alice Prize 2001 & Tammy Kingsley Memorial
Award, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs2001 18th NATI Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of
the Northern Territory, Darwin2001 31st Alice Price 2001, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs2000 Outlandish Dreams II, John Ruskin House, UK in
association with Arts Network International2000 17th National ATSI Art Awards, Museum Art Gallery
of the Northern Territory, Darwin2000 Fifth National Indigenous Heritage Art Award & Art
of Place, Old Parliament House, Canberra1999 Aboriginal Art, IHK, Würzburg, Germany1999 Dreaming in Colour: Australian Aboriginal Art from
Balgo, University of Virginia, USA1999 16th National ATSI Art Awards, Museum and Art
Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin1999 East Kimberley Art Awards, Kununurra Arts
Council, Kununurra1999 30th Alice Prize, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs1998 Culture Store, Art Gallery, Rotterdam, The
Netherlands1998 Dreamings, Spazio Pitti Arte, Florence, Italy1998 The Laverty Collection, Museum of Contemporary
Art, Sydney1998 Dreamings, Vlaams-Europees
Conferentiecentrum, Brussels, Belgium1997 Daughters of the Dreaming: Sisters Together
Strong, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth1997 Dreamings, Arnhem, The Netherlands1997 Goteborgs Konstforening, Goteborg, Sweden1997 Innenseite: Projektgruppe Stoffwechsel, Kassel &
Göttingen, Germany
1995 Australia Now: Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Groninger Museum, The Netherlands
1995 Place and Perception, Parliament House Art Collection, Parliament House, Canberra
1994 Wirrimanu: Australian Aboriginal Art from Balgo Hills WA, Canadian Book Launch, Derek Simpkins Gallery of Tribal Art, Vancouver, BC, Canada
1994 11th National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1994 Power of the Land: Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art , National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1993 Images of Power: Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley , National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1989 Sixth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
COLLECTIONSNational Gallery of AustraliaNational Gallery of VictoriaArt Gallery of New South WalesArtBank, SydneyBerndt Museum of AnthropologyUniversity of QueenslandCampbelltown City Art GalleryThe Holmes à Court CollectionLaverty CollectionKluge Ruhe Collection, USAParliament House Art CollectionAlice Springs Art Foundation, Araluen CentreAboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, The NetherlandsKen Thompson and Pierre Marecaux Collection
AWARDS1999 Waringarri Arts Award, East Kimberley Art Awards,
Kununurra Arts Council2000 Highly Commended, 31st Alice Prize, Araluen
Centre, Alice Springs
LUCY YUKENBARRI (c.1934 – 2003)
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:42 Page 30
SOLO AND FAMILY EXHIBITIONS2006 Helicopter Tjungurrayi, Christine Yukenbarri, Imelda
(Guguman) Yukenbarri, Carmel Yukenbarri, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
2005 Helicopter Tjungurrayi, Christine Yukenbarri, Carmel Yukenbarri, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
2004 Helicopter Tjungurrayi, Alcaston Gallery at Depot Gallery, Sydney
2003 Always Together Painting, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne1999 Tjurrnu: Living Water, Alcaston Gallery , Melbourne
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS2007 Valid Editions, They Might be Giants , La Trobe
University Art Museum, Bundoora Homestead Art Center.
2007 My Country: Abstract interpretations of Australian Landscape, La Trobe University traveling exhibition Ateneo Art Gallery, Ateneo de Manilla University, Philipines.
2006 Valid Editions, Valid Editions, prints, Bundoora Hometead Art Center
2006 Desert Mob, Aruluen Art Center, Alice Springs2004 29th Annual Shell Fremantle Print Award, Fremantle
Arts Centre, Fremantle2003 Desert Mob, Araluen Centre for Arts, Alice Springs2002 19th NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of
the Northern Territory, Darwin2001 Balgo Works, Staedtische Gallery, Wolsfburg,
Germany2001 Spirituality and Australian Aboriginal Art, Alcaston
Gallery, Madrid, Spain2001 Yvonnou Balgo Exhibition, AMG Gallery, Paris2000 Peintures des Aborigenes d’Australie, Palais des
Congres et des Expositions, Paris, France1999 Aboriginal Art, IHK, Würzburg, Germany1999 Dreaming in Colour: Australian Aboriginal Art from
Balgo, University of Virginia, USA1999 16th National ATSI Art Awards, Museum and Art
Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1998 Propositions Australiennes, Arts d’Australie Stéphane Jacob, Paris
1998 Culture Store, Art Gallery, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
1998 Dreamings, Spazio Pitti Arte, Florence, Italy1998 Dreamings, Vlaams-Europees
Conferentiecentrum, Brussels, Belgium1997 Dreamings, Arnhem, The Netherlands1997 Innenseite: Projektgruppe Stoffwechsel, Kassel &
Göttingen, Germany1996 Balgo Hills: Art of the Place, Derek Simpkins
Gallery of Tribal Art, Vancouver, BC, Canada
COLLECTIONSNational Gallery of AustraliaArt Gallery of New South WalesNational Gallery of VictoriaKluge Ruhe Collection, USAGantner Myer CollectionLaverty CollectionEdith Cowan UniversityHarland CollectionRevue du Louvre, ParisAboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, The NetherlandsKen Thompson and Pierre Marecaux Collection
AWARDS1999 Special Commendation, East Kimberley Art Awards,
Kununurra Arts Council, Kununurra
HELICOPTER TJUNGURRAYI (b.1947)
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:42 Page 31
All paintings © Warlayiriti Artists
Images Figs. 1, 5, 7 © Warlayiriti Artists
Photographs Figs. 1, 3-6 by Tim Acker
Photographs: Figs. 7 and back cover by David Mudgedell
© Whitford Fine Art
Catalogue edited by An Jo Fermon
Produced by Artmedia Press Ltd • London
With thanks to Helicopter Tjungurrayi and the staff at the Warlayiriti Art Center in Balgo:Sally Clifford, Director, Annette Cock, Manager, David Mudgedell, Trainee Director andGareth Nagomarra, Trainee Manager.
In keeping with Aboriginal beliefs and at the request of Helicopter and his family,photographs of the deceased Lucy Yukenbarri are not published in this catalogue.
Helicopter Pages 20/3/09 15:42 Page 32