MULUYMULUY WIRRPANDA | BULWUTJA | 15 SEPTEMBER - 3 OCTOBER 2020 by Art Leven [formerly Cooee Art]

MULUYMULUY W I R R PA N DA

B U LW U T J A OFFICIALLY OPENING 19 SEPTEMBER 2020

COOEE ART | MULUYMULUY WIRRPANDA

15 SEPTEMBER - 3 OCTOBER 2020

Muluymuluy Wirrpanda | Bulwutja 15 September - 3 October 2020 Cooee Art Gallery 326 Oxford Street Paddington NSW 2021

COOEE ART | EMILY KNGWARREYE

Official Opening & Remote Artist Talk Saturday 19 September 2020 | 2-4pm RSVP essential

Muluymuluy Wirrpanda Image Credit | Buku Larrngay Arts

Muluymuluy Wirrpanda is one of the BukuLarrnggay Mulka Art Centre’s most exciting emerging artists. Since the death of her husband, the renowned elder Wakuthi, who led the return of his clan to their homeland at Baniyala after an absence of nearly 50 years due to conflict, Muluymuluy has established a unique, fresh style that departs from strictly traditional Madarrpa-clan paintings. In artworks that embody her extensive knowledge of the plants of the region, her delicate bark paintings, works on paper, and Larrakitj (hollow logs) feature an array of native plants including berries, yams, and edible species such as Buwakul (native grape), Dilminyin (scaly ash), and Ganguri/ Manmuna (long yam). The most prominent species that is represented in her art, however, is Bulwutja, a plant that grows in and around the billabongs and swampy areas of Muluymuluy’s home.

There are sixteen Yolngu clans in the Gove Peninsula and the surrounding region. Muluymuluy, who was Wakuthi’s youngest wife, was born in 1959 on Madarrpa clan country at Baniyala – one of the largest homeland centres in North East Arnhem Land – shortly after the clan’s return from Numbulwar, established by the Church Missionary Society. In the late 1950s, around a hundred permanent residents settled here on the shores of Blue Mud Bay, with its orange sandy beaches, shallow bays, and rocky outcrops. As Wakuthi’s wife, she worked for many years under his direction, producing important Madarrpa-clan paintings until, following his death in 2005, she began painting in her own right. Her family includes many of North-East Arnhem Land’s most famous artists. They include her sister Mulkun Wirrpanda and Wakuthi’s sons, Djambawa (winner of the 2019 Telstra Art Award) and Nuwandjall.

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Muluymuluy Wirrpanda – Her Art and Culture

All clans, including the Madarrpa and Gumatj, who live nearby, possess their own clan designs or miny’tji, which are painted on initiates during ceremonies and find expression in their art. Madarrpa ancestors spirits include Baru, who was metamorphosed through fire to become the saltwater crocodile. Baru’s nesting place, Garrangali, is located in mangroves and its songline extends out to meet other fire related clans further afield. The Madarrpa clan shares creation stories, ancestors, and their songlines with other Yirritja clans such as the Dhalwangu and Manggalili. In relation to the Bulwutja, Muluymuluy explains: This story is from a long time ago. People travelled around from place to place to hunt for Natha (food). First we dig in the water for Buḻwutja.Then we make a fire. When the fire burns down we take the coals to one side and put sand on top of them. Then the hot sand cooks the Buḻwutja. When you pick the Buwutja it is white from the water. It tastes sweet. We have eaten this Natha for a long time. The process in which Muluymuluy describes the collection of Bulwutja is in many ways similar to the process in which her bark paintings and Larrakitj (hollow logs) are sourced. She personally selects the trees that are suitable for stripping bark and preparing logs to become sculptures. She applies the natural earth pigments delicately - organically meandering the surface. Each layer is a subtle shift of monochromatic pigments that is reminiscent of the Bulwutja. Muluymuluy’s sister, Mulkun, famously collaborated with one of Australia’s pre-eminent contemporary landscape artists, John Woolsely.

She described the Bulwutja in the following way: Bulwutja is one of the plants which grows in and around the billabongs and swampy areas.The plants grow in clumps after the rains, and you pull them out in clumps. You cook it underground or on coals, and then mash it into a blackish grey paste that is tasty and nutritious. This paste can also be baked into a bread. Mulkun adds: Bulwutja grows on the Garanarri floodplain, south of Dhuruputjpi, and also at Lumatjpi, near Yilpara, where the songs tell of the spirit woman Marrnyili. Men sing the songs of this food entangled with the identity of this place. Together, they sing the journey of this woman through the landscape: Mokuywa Ngatha Marrnyiliwa Buway buway buway Marrtji nämbarra nupan larrumany There they go, the spirit women Marrnyili walking, walking, walking with their knees and their elbows lifting high in the air this way and that threading through the paperbark saplings searching for their food Cooee Art is delighted to host Muluymuluy Wirrpanda’s first solo exhibition, following the overwhelming response to her bark paintings showcased in our highly successful Sydney Contemporary 2019 exhibition at Carriageworks.

COOEE ART | MULUYMULUY WIRRPANDA

Muluymuluy Wirrpanda Image Credit | Buku Larrngay Arts

Muluymuluy Wirrpanda | Bulwutja | 2019 natural earth pigments on bark | 105 x 71 cm | #18594

COOEE ART | MULUYMULUY WIRRPANDA

Muluymuluy Wirrpanda | Bulwutja | 2020 natural earth pigments on bark | 98 x 64 cm | #18595

Muluymuluy Wirrpanda | Bulwutja | 2020 natural earth pigments on bark | 112 x 66 cm | #18596

COOEE ART | MULUYMULUY WIRRPANDA

Muluymuluy Wirrpanda | Bulwutja | 2020 natural earth pigments on bark | 110 x 71 cm | #18597

Muluymuluy Wirrpanda | Bulwutja | 2020 natural earth pigments on bark | 94 x 48 cm | #18600

There they go, the spirit women Marrnyili walking walking walking with their knees and their elbows lifting high in the air this way and that threading through the paperbark saplings searching for their food - Mulkun Wirrpanda

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Mokuywa Ngatha Marrnyiliwa Buway buway buway Marrtji nämbarra nupan larrumany

Muluymuluy Wirrpanda | Bulwutja | 2020 natural earth pigments on bark | 109 x 50 cm | #18599

COOEE ART | MULUYMULUY WIRRPANDA

Muluymuluy Wirrpanda | Bulwutja | 2020 natural earth pigments on bark | 133 x 67 cm | #18598

from left to right

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Muluymuluy Wirrpanda | Bulwutja | 2019 natural earth pigments on Stringybark hollow pole | 179 x 13 x 13 cm | #18607

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Bulwutja grows on the Garanarri floodplain, south of Dhuruputjpi, and also at Lumatjpi, near Yilpara, where the songs tell of the spirit woman Marrnyili. Men sing the songs of this food entangled with the identity of this place.

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- Mulkun Wirrpanda

Larrakitj

Text supplied by Buku Larrngay Ar ts

Following death, the body of the deceased was ceremonially placed on a raised platform and left to the elements until it was determined that its eternal spirit had completed its cyclical journey to the spring from which it came, and would, in time, return again. Whilst the body ‘lay in state’, the bones were naturally cleansed by the elements. As kinsmen learnt of the death, they made preparations to journey to the mortuary site. When all of the participants who were ritually required to ensure its safe journey had arrived, the essence of the soul, residing within the bone, was then made ready for the final rites. Accompanied by ceremony, the bones of the deceased were wrapped in paper-bark and placed inside the memorial pole as its final resting place. The Ḻarrakitj containing the bones was carried and erected standing in the deceased person’s clan estate in the bush. Over time the Larrakitj and its contents would return to mother earth. The Ḻarrakitj has often been referred to as the mother’s womb. Once sedentary mission communities were established in Arnhem Land it became impractical to abandon them and exposing corpses on platforms was forbidden by law. However, the cosmology of the Yolnu and the essence of the ritual mortuary ceremony continues.Today, Larrakitj are produced as the equivalent of headstones, or to contain personal effects (which might be dangerous unless removed from the living because of the emanations imbued by contact with the dead).

Since the advent of the Indigenous art movement in Arnhem Land this cultural form has been made as a fine art object and an instructional tool for younger generations. Artworks of this nature have multiple layers of metaphor and meaning which impart lessons about the connections between individual and specific pieces of country (both land and sea), as well as the connections between various clans. They also explain the forces that act upon and within the environment and the mechanics of a spirit’s path through existence. The knowledge referred to by this imagery deepens in complexity and secrecy as a person progresses through a life-long process of initiation into sacred aspects of the ‘law’.

Muluymuluy Wirrpanda Image credit | Buku Larrngay Arts

COOEE ART | MULUYMULUY WIRRPANDA

The Yolnu of North east Arnhem Land traditionally made Ḻarrakitj as ossuaries or bone containers which were erected as a memorial to a dead kinsman.

Muluymuluy Wirrpanda | Bulwutja | 2019 natural earth pigments on paper | 57 x 38 cm | #18656

COOEE ART | MULUYMULUY WIRRPANDA

Muluymuluy Wirrpanda | Bulwutja | 2020 natural earth pigments on paper | 76 x 57 cm | #18657

Muluymuluy Wirrpanda | Bulwutja | 2020 natural earth pigments on paper | 76 x 57 cm | #18658

COOEE ART | MULUYMULUY WIRRPANDA

Muluymuluy Wirrpanda | Bulwutja 5/20 | 2019 limited edition lithograph on paper | image 49 x 38 cm paper 76 x 57 cm | #18659

Muluymuluy Wirrpanda | Bulwutja 4/20 | 2019 limited edition lithograph on paper | image 49 x 55 cm paper 76 x 57 cm | #18662

COOEE ART | MULUYMULUY WIRRPANDA

Muluymuluy Wirrpanda Image Credit | Buku Larrngay Arts

Muluymuluy Wirrpandaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bark paintings on display at Sydney Contemporary 2019 Image Credit | Sydney Contemporary 2019

Muluymuluy Wirrpanda | Exhibition Histor y SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2020

Bulwutja, Cooee Art, Sydney NSW

2020

Salon des Refuse 2020, Charles Darwin Univiersity Art Gallery, Darwin, NT

2019

Sydney Contemporary 2019, booth A11 - Cooee Art, Sydney, NSW Top End Ochre, Everywhen Artspace, Mornington Peninsula, Vic Aboriginal Bark Painting And Larrakitj From Yirrkala, Northeast Arnhem Land, Purple Noon Gallery, Freemans Reach, NSW Gapan Gallery, Garma Festival, Gulkula, Northeast Arnhem Land, NT

2018

Gapan Gallery, Garma Festival, Gulkula, Northeast Arnhem Land, NT

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GROUP EXHIBITIONS

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