Front: Ivan Namirrkki, Mimih Spirits, 2022, ochres on stringybark, 148 x 51 cm (detail)
Left: Ivan Namirrkki, Kinga (Crocodile), ochre on stringybark, 158 x 56.6 cm (detail)
TWO MASTERS OF MANINGRIDA ARTS
In
partnership with Maningrida Arts Everywhen
Text ©Maningrida Arts, the artists and Susan McCulloch
Design ©Lisa Reidy
Images ©The artists
Published by Everywhen Artspace
February 10-28, 2023
Ancient meets contemporary in new barks and spirit poles by two of Central Arnhem Land’s most senior artists – Ivan Namirrkki and Jack Nawilil from the coastal community of Maningrida.
Jack Nawilil was born in 1945 and is a revered law and song man whose unique fibre sculptures made of kurrajong bark with ochre pigment, natural fibres, bush wax and feathers, won him the prestigious 3D Award in the 2012 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award.
Sixty-three-year-old Ivan Namirrkki is the son of one of Maningrida’s most well-known founding artists Peter Marralwanga (1917–1987). Namirrkki was taught to paint by his father – a renowned bark painter and political proponent of the maintenance of his country and culture.
Both Namirrkki and Nawilil have had decades-long, illustrious art careers with their work exhibited in leading galleries Australia-wide and internationally, featured in award exhibitions and acquired by many of Australia’s state and national public galleries and leading private collectors worldwide.
Having painted in a more abstract linear style for many years, Ivan Namirrkki’s new works revisit the style that first made his work famous – fluid figurative images etched in fine line against a velvety black ground . His classic subjects feature Ngalyod – the Rainbow Serpent, the Crocodile, the Kangaroo, Profane figures and numerous interpretations of Mimih Spirits.
“The point of painting such work for the market is to expose viewers directly to the power of the ancestral realm,” says Namirrkki.
Nawilil’s extraordinary multimedia spirit poles are his own creation. However, the stories they represent are both ancient and complex – referencing multiple places, clans and events that span vast distances and timeframes. Most of Nawilil’s works in the exhibition feature the story of the shooting star/comet called Namorroddo – believed by Central Arnhem Land people to be a manifestation of a spirit figure which can attack Aboriginal people and is overcome only by the powers of a very senior medicine man.
The impact of these works is remarkable. With Namirrkki’s fine-lined, velvety black barks relating powerful creation stories, and Nawilil’s unique poles of paperbark wrapped in lengths of meticulously woven, feather-decorated bush string, their spiritual presence is almost palpable.
Susan McCulloch February 2023
Kuninjku artist Ivan Namirrkki was born in 1961 and was taught to paint by his father Peter Marralwanga (1917-1987) – one of Maningrida’s most senior founding artists and a renowned bark painter and political proponent of the maintenance of Country,
Namirrki’s first works were in a figurative manner like that of his father. To distinguish his own sytle Namirrkki often used black as the background to the figures although, like his father, he also became adept at varying the pattern of infill from rarrk to dotting to sections of full colour to create dynamic visual effects.
In the late 1990s Namirrkki moved to paint geometric work in the Mardayin style – strongly symmetrical with evenly spaced bands of rarrk arrayed in concentric diamond forms. This diamond arrangement became his signature style.
Themes in his work include the ngalyod (rainbow serpent), birmlu and djarlahdjarlah (barramundi), kalawan (goanna), komorlo (little egret), komrdawh (freshwater turtle), nadjinem (black wallarroo), nakidikidi (a harmful and nasty spirit), namorrorddo (a profane spirit), nayuhyungki bininj (ancient people), ngaldjalarrk (snake), ngurrurdu (emu), and yawkyawk (a female water spirit).
He has spoken of his love for country particularly the soothing qualities of living adjacent to its important waters. There is also a confidence and peace derived from living in one’s heartland that flows to all activities conducted there.
Namirrkki began exhibiting in the early 1980s. Since, his work has been presented in numerous group and solo shows in Australia and internationally. In 2006 he was a finalist in the National Gallery of Victoria’s Clemenger Contemporary Art Prize.
Namirrkki’s art is in many collections including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of South Australia and leading private collections worldwide.
Namumuyak was a man who came from the sea and traveled inland. As he went he put children in their land and gave them their languages and their clan. He also put plants on the land and told bininj which ones they should eat and which ones they should not. So this man Namumuyak went on to Kardbam Clan country, there he put his own image and became a dreaming on the Kardbam country where he remains today.
Ivan Namirrkki, Namumuyak, 2022, ochre on stringybark, 146 x 52 cm, MM6723 | $4280
The mimih spirit exists in a realm that runs parallel to and mirrors many facets of human life, also demonstrating the deep sense of time and place understood by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Such spirits feature importantly in relation to Aboriginal spirituality, cosmology, social and moral tales as well as ritual. As is true with the multiple mediums employed by artists of West Arnhem Land, the development of artistic style and form is in line with an awareness by the artist that the work produced is predominantly made for a broader audience.
The mimih sits within a complex and important pedagogical and religious body of knowledge which links Kuninjku people to their distinctive escarpment homelands. Young Kuninjku artists, or apprentices, employ the mimih as an important exercise for the practice of the rarrk technique, as it could be achieved on a smaller surface area before, being attempted in larger scale.
The initial mimih manifestation was a large form that almost mirrored the anatomy of a human. Contemporaneously, mimih are depicted in a refined, slender, even emaciated form with a broad range of facial expressions giving both individual character to, and denoting the potential volatility and humour that mimih spirits are notable for in their interaction with bininj (humans).
The sculptures are frequently carved from the thin trunks of softwoods such as kapok (bombax ceiba or cottonwood) kurrajong, beach hibiscus or leichardt and are painted with earth pigments for their colouring and design.
Now a familiar and broadly depicted figure, it is important to acknowledge the development of this quite recent sculptural tradition. The depiction of this particular spirit being, once used as an addition to the sharing of song cycles and ceremony, has since been elevated to a prominent form and subject of contemporary sculpture.
Variation in the creation of mimih reflects the individualism of each artist and their stylistic markers.
Ivan Namirrkki, Mimih Spirit, 2022, ochre on stringybark, 148 x 36 cm, MM6724 | $3000
Ivan Namirrkki, Mimih Spirit, 2022, ochre on stringybark, 148 x 51 cm, MM6725 | $3900
Ivan Namirrkki, Mimih Spirit, 2022, ochre on stringybark, 99 x 38 cm, MM6727 | $2400
Ivan Namirrkki, Mimih Spirit, 2022, ochre on stringybark, 51.5 x 28 cm, MM6741 | $2300
Ivan Namirrkki, Mimih Spirit, 2022, ochre on stringybark, 72 x 44 cm, 129 x 49 cm, MM6782 | $4450
(NAMARNDE)
A profane and malevolent spirit
Ivan Namirrkki, Wiyadja (Namarnde), 2022, ochre on stringybark, 128.5 x 43 cm, MM6779 | $4300
The rainbow serpent is a powerful mythological figure for all Aboriginal people throughout Australia. Characteristics of the rainbow serpent vary greatly from group to group and also depending on the site. Often viewed as a female generative figure, the rainbow serpent can sometimes also be male. She has both powers of creation and destruction and is most strongly associated with rain, monsoon seasons and of course the colour seen in rainbows which arc across the sky like a giant serpent.
Known as Ngalyod in the Kuninjku language of western central Arnhem Land, the rainbow serpent is mostly associated with bodies of water such as billabongs, creeks, rivers and waterfalls where she resides. Therefore she is responsible for the production of most water plants such as water lilies, water vines, algae and palms, which grow near water.
The roar of waterfalls in the escarpment country is said to be her voice. Large holes in stony banks of rivers and cliff faces are said to be her tracks. She is held in awe because of her apparent ability to renew her life by shedding her skin and emerging anew. By painting this figure on bark today, Aboriginal people are carrying on the longest uninterrupted mythological tradition in the world, which has been the subject of art and ceremony for possibly thousands of years.
Ivan Namirrkki, Ngalyod (Rainbow Serpent), 2022, ochre on stringybark , 125 x 28 cm, MM6734 | $2500
Ivan Namirrkki, Ngalyod & Nomumuyak, 2022, ochre on stringybark, 147 x 43 cm, MM6778 | $4250
This is a painting of kinga, also known as namanjwarre, the saltwater crocodile (crocodylus porosus). These animals are totems for people of Yirridjdja moiety, one of the two patrimoieties of Arnhem Land aboriginal cultures.
Crocodiles are rarely killed for food but their eggs are keenly sought after during the wet season when the females are nesting. A major crocodile sacred site exists near the outstation of Kurrindin, in the Liverpool River district.
Ivan Namirrkki, Kinga (Crocodile), 2022, ochre on stringybark, 158 x 56.5 cm, MM6776 | $5900
It is well known that Aboriginal art often depicts images of sacred totems or dreamings of Aboriginal culture. However, the world of the non-sacred also provides a rich source of subject matter for Aboriginal art.
Much of the rock art of western Arnhem Land for example features secular topics such as common food animals and plants, depicted because of their economic importance but also merely because of their existence in the environment.
Ivan Namirrkki has painted a plains turkey or kori bustard (ardeotis kori), which they call ‘benok’ in Kuninjku. He painted this bird with several eggs of which one is cracked open. The dry season reaching from May till October is hunting season for these and many other birds. They are much liked as food source by Aboriginal people and are very common on Namirrki’s country.
Ivan Namirrkki, Benok (Plains Turkey), 2022, ochre on stringybark, 32 x 77 cm, MM6743 | $1900
“This Kangaroo belongs to Yirridjdja moiety, you can see him on that kunwardde bim (rock painting). He’s big and red” – Ivan Namirrkki. Kandakidj is a lead creator celebrated in the Wubarr, Mardayin and Lorrkkon ceremonies. In these ceremonies, initiates are introduced to sacred artefacts that are considered parts of the body of Kandakidj. Artists often pay attention to represent these powerful items inside the body of their figures by decorating them in special ways.
Hunting kangaroos is a vital part of Kuninjku life and intimate knowledge of animal anatomy is formed through hunting and preparing food. However, in the ceremonial context, initiates learn that the Ancestral beings were also hunted and their body parts transformed into sacred objects and features of the landscape. These transformations retain a measure of the power of the original Djang. Initiates may be brought to visit these important sites and are shown the objects used in dances in the ceremony. Artists, such as Namirrkki, use their bark paintings as a means of revealing connections between these different realms of understanding and help to create coherence between different layers of Kuninjku knowledge.
Ivan Namirrkki, Karndakidj (Antilopine Kangaroo (Male)), 2022, ochre on stringybark, 79 x 39 cm, MM6742 | $2200
Mayali and Rembarrnga artist Kamarrang Jack Nawilil is a senior member of the Balngarra clan, who lives and works at Bolkjdam, an outstation located near Maningrida community in central Arnhem Land. A song man and cultural leader, he works across painting on bark, carved sculpture and ceremonial objects such as mularra (morning star poles), mako (didgeridoo), lorrkkon (hollow logs) and his unique spirit poles – made from paperbark, feathers, native beeswax and handspun bark fibre string.
Common subjects of his work include representations of significant spirit beings, such as wyarra (skeleton), wurum (fish-increasing) and namorrodo (profane) spirits, and important ancestors, including the female creator ancestor Ngalkodjek who travelled from Elcho Island in the East.
The narratives represented in Nawilil’s artworks are extremely complex and often antithetical to Western knowledge systems. His artworks reference and manifest multiple places, clans and events that span vast distances and timeframes. To audiences who are not initiated and socialised in bininj (Aboriginal) cultural practices and history, the true and complete meanings of these artworks cannot be fully grasped. His artworks challenge the viewer to grapple with a different way of being in, and understanding, the world.
Nawilil won the Wandjuk Marika 3D Award of the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2012, for a spirit pole representing the story of Namorrodddo and made from paperbark, handmade bush string, pigments, beeswax and feathers
American collector and donor, the late Will Owen who wrote a well-read blog entitled Australian Aboriginal Art & Culture: An American Eye described Nawilil’s winning work:
“The winning work has the same sense or aura of an almost unmediated ceremonial object, the roughness of its wrapped and painted surfaces an index of the spirit’s strength. Namorroddo, associated with the shooting star is a fearful presence in the night and it takes a powerful medicine man to protect against him. Any object that appears in the NATSIAA is obviously an object of engagement with the marketplace, but Nawilil’s sculpture seem to arrive at the agora straight from some place very deep in the bush and the psyche; powerful and primal, Namorroddo is a simple and disturbing creation.”
Jack Nawilil’s work is held in public and private collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, the Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. He has exhibited with leading private galleries around Australia and overseas for nearly four decades.
Buya Male is specific to Nawilil’s clan Balngarra.
The artist explains, “It’s not from today, long long long time, when I’ve been little boy. My father been learn me. This one travelled from the east side and stopped at Kinoedjanga, my country”.
Long lengths of sting are made by hand, wrapped around a paperbark core and painted with natural ochres. This work is decorated with feathers from parrot and ibis and painted with the man-ngalingj (root vegetable, ‘bush potato’) design.
Jack Nawilil, Buya Male, 2021, kurrajong with natural fibres, ochre pigment, PVA fixative, bush wax and feathers, 139 cm (h), MM6738 | $3400
Jack Nawilil, Buya Male, 2022, kurrajong with ochre pigment, PVA fixative, natural fibres, bush wax and feathers, 182 x 6 x 6 cm, MM6770 | $4900
Namorrorddo is a profane spirit sometimes called a ‘bad angel’ in Aboriginal English. The Namorrorddo is a yirridjdja moiety being associated with the Yabbadurruwa regional cult ceremony.
Namorrorddo sits upon a rock and is usually painted with long claw like hands and feet. Sometimes spurs protrude from the elbows somewhat like those of a flying fox. Namorrorddo carries light, which emanates from his head. The shooting stars seen at night are Namorrorddo travelling across the night sky. He whistles an eerie cry, which Aboriginal people say they can hear at night from time to time. Namorrorddo is feared as an evil being who attacks humans by clubbing them with his fighting stick or miyarrul. Namorrorddo is also sometimes depicted carrying bamboo spears and a spear thrower. Namorrorddo is a major dreaming totem for the Kardbam clan. There are a few examples of images of Namorrorddo painted in rock shelters in the Mann and Liverpool Rivers district.
In 2012 Nawilil won the Wandjuk Marika 3D Award of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award with a similar spirit pole, of which the judges commented: “ Namorroddo embodies a sense of mysticism and draws in the viewer with its remarkable finesse of execution. This ceremony pole deals with that which is undisclosed, and yet evokes a strong masculine presence. Namorroddo is the Lightning Man, an ancestral figure who causes mischief at night, creating violent electrical lightning storms across the top end. This idea is conveyed by Nawilil’s palette of midnight purple, charcoal black, and bold patches of white that allude to body-paint. Close inspection reveals windings of handmade twine coiled around the pole; the flourish of two feather-tipped strings complement and add further mystery to the grave aesthetic of the piece”.
Jack Nawilil, Namarrorddo (a Profane Spirit), 2015, paperbark, natural fibres, ochre, 165 x 10 cm, MM5769 | $2800
Jack Nawilil, Namarrorddo (a Profane Spirit), 2016, paperbark, ochre pigment, PVA fixative, natural fibres, bush wax and feathers, 158 x 9 cm, MM6737 | $3400
Jack Nawilil, Namarrorddo (a Profane Spirit), 2015, kurrajong with ochre pigment, PVA fixative, natural fibres, bush wax and feathers, 130 x 10 cm, MM6736 | $3200
Transcription of text by Jack Nawilil about two ceremonial objects – Karlanj and Ngalkodjek. Transcribed by Murray Garde and Margaret Carew 2 & 5 December 2017. Notes by Margaret Carew on 5 Dec 2017. Note: The site Jack refers to as Koenoedjangka is in the Rembarrnga language. The ‘oe’ vowel sounds like the ‘ur’ in English ‘fur’.
“This one here, like ngaye ngakurrmeng, im my draw.This one here [ceremonial objects], I have drawn my own personal designs on them.This one Ngalkodjek.This one (is called) Ngalkodjek. (MG – note, that this is not the subsection term Ngalkodjok, rather the stem - kodjek is formative in the verb -kodjekmang ‘to abduct’ and may refer to a secret episode in the Nakorrkko story, the father and son cultural heroes for Bininj in western Arnhem Land).
“Daluk, im from Elcho im bin travelling.This represents a woman, she travelled (here) from Elcho Island, she is from Elcho, she was a woman indeed, shewent/travelled, this one and this one too.”
“Yoh. This one I made it, the design from Kinidjangka, the place where flying foxes live where the Nakorrkko passed through. I made that. I’ve made that story for you, that one of mine. I have put it there. You know that. You know what I’m talking about Bulanj (to Murray Garde).”
“Didjan, nane, dijan gama i bin travelling garra didjei, garra didjei. This one here, she is a woman who travelled this way, coming this way (to the west from north-east Arnhem Land). Im gona garra ebrijing. From Kunidjangka i bin make it. From Koenidjangka ngamarnbom en nani Koenidjangka ngamarnbom. En dijan Koenidjangka ngamarnbom. Nane now. She has many things. I made it, the one from Kinidjangka.“
“This design belongs to me. Like, I made it, and it should not be confused with a morning star pole, no, it is something different. they are separate indeed, these dreamings. It (an ancestral spirit) put it there. It is my totemic emblem. It is my ancestral design of the ancestral beings, indeed.”
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Ivan Namirrkki and Jack Nawilil
Everywhen Artspace
39 Cook Street, Flinders, Vic 3929
February 10-28, 2023
