7 minute read
Barayuwa Munuŋgurr
from Sullivan+Strumpf Contemporary Art Gallery Sydney & Melbourne, Australia & Singapore – Jan-Mar 2024
Text and Portrait courtesy Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre
TO TRULY UNDERSTAND THE FOUNDATION of Barayuwa Munuŋgurr’s art practice is to grasp the significance of ancestral stories of the Munyuku clan, to see their symbology within the intricate crosshatching of each work. The authority, confidence and energy of Munuŋgurr’s practice and his bravery in continually embracing fresh approaches is a clue to the influence of that heritage. Known for the precision of his hand, honed through years of supporting other artists at Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka art centre, Munuŋgurr work is highly detailed, emulating an atmospheric complexity that creates the watery world of these traditional histories.
The works in this new body of work exhibiting at Sullivan+Strumpf extends the traditional gestures that are foundational to Munuŋgurr painting technique and cross into contemporary materiality, etching into steel panels. Munuŋgurr was a key early adopter of the Found movement in contemporary Indigenous art practice, initiated by Gunybi Ganambarr. This movement, defined by the reclamation of abandoned and weathered metal sheets often used for road signs, came to prominence with Murrŋiny– a story of metal from the east, 2021, a group exhibition presented by Salon Art Projects in association with Northern Centre for Contemporary Art and Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre. This technique of etching traditional stories and histories into a modern materiality marks an important frontier in experimentation for many artists working in the region.
The undercurrent of each work in this exhibition refers to or directly portrays the life and movement of waters in Northeast Arnhem Land, in Australia’s Northern Territory. Munuŋgurr illustrates the language of water, the unending path it travels as it impresses upon the shoreline and pulls back into the ocean or waterways. His intricate technique–delicate dotting or innumerable lines crosshatched across either bark or steel–appear as the undulating surface of the water or the light sea foam gathering as ocean meets land. Submerged within the abstracted elemental surfaces of these sophisticated works are forms that symbolise narrative elements, imbedding into the work notions of place and deep time. The incorporation of these symbolic forms beneath the surface of the work is an art practice known by the Yolŋu people of Yirrkala as buwayak and has become increasingly prominent in Munuŋgurr’s work since 2013.1
Munuŋgurr is a long-time staff member of Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Art Centre in Yirrkala, providing meaningful assistance and support to all the artists of the community in many ways. The art centre is a community-based project that has been instrumental in drawing international recognition to the work of Yolngu artists and expanding the understanding of what contemporary Indigenous Australian art practice looks like. Having spent many years assisting other artists, Munuŋgurr has now become an established artist in his own right, painting both his own Djapu clan designs as well as his mother’s Munyuku clan designs. His mother is recently deceased Beŋgitj Ŋurruwutihun, a sister to the great Dula, who was a renowned ceremonial expert and painter. Munuŋgurr is a member of a younger generation of Yolngu artists, all of whom carry with them an unending connection to their cultural lineage. Through their emerging art practices, these traditional storylines meet with contemporary methods of artmaking.
Munuŋgurr life as an artist has gained to it steady momentum over more than a decade, with his work exhibited overseas and widely across Australia including the Museum of Contemporary Art, NSW; National Gallery of Australia, ACT; Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, NT; Dark Mofo, TAS; Art Gallery of South Australia, SA; Monaco Oceanographic Institute, Monaco; and Seattle Art Museum, Seattle. Significant milestones in the narrative of his practice include exhibiting as part of the 2014 edition of Primavera, curated by artist Mikala Dwyer. A major feature of the exhibition, Munuŋgurr exhibited a large-scale work that combined bark with digital screens, intersecting traditional practice with contemporary media. In 2017 his ten-metre wall work Yarrinya was purchased by the MCA for the permanent collection and exhibited for three years. This exhibition with Sullivan+Strumpf marks his debut solo with the gallery, a meaningful moment in the advocacy of his work to new audiences and as an important artist working in contemporary art in Australia. ■
[ ancestral legend ]
The work of barayuwa munuŋgurr honours his matrilineal Munyuku clan, belonging to the Yirritja moiety. Major spiritual themes relate to marine life and the rising cumulus clouds of the monsoon season. Mirinyunu (the ancestral whale) also connects to the clouds, the steam that rises from its blowhole being the bridge between animal and the skies above.
Munuŋgurr’s work draws on the inherited story of the death of the Mirinyuŋu at the beaches of the Munyuku saltwater estate of Yarrinya within Blue Mud Bay. The story speaks of the Yarrinya Ocean in which Munyuku spirit men (Wurramala or Matjitji) unknowingly hunt their own brother – according to Yolŋu kinship classifications – a whale named Mirinyuŋu. After the dead whale washes up onto the beach, the spirit men use garapana (stone knives) to cut its body into strips. Upon realising that they have eaten their brother in contravention of their laws, in an act of self-disgust and cleansing, they fling the knives into the ocean where they become a dangerously hidden and potent reef. The remains of the whale, the knives and the ocean rocks are combined in a spiritual manner that remains extremely significant to Munyuku people. Elements of this scene, such as the tail of Mirinyuŋu, its bones and even the lines from the surface of the water, are incorporated as sacred motifs in ceremonies. The presence of hidden forces remains strong in the Yolŋu mindset, with many of the artists of the clan often starting paintings around the curves and structure of the whale’s skeleton, which then disappear, buried underneath meticulously applied patterns.
The designs contain symbols of fratricide, shame, death and rotting of the whale, corruption and the loss of discipline in greedy consumption. Importantly, they also speak of redemption: in flinging the knives into the sea they cleanse themselves of the crime against kin. Their realisation prevents further harm and absolves them of the crime. But the danger remains hidden within the sea and must be avoided, a reminder of errors never to be repeated. To go to this area is to court disaster and be cut to ribbons by these contaminated hidden knives.
The bones of the whale are also said to have become a part of the rocks in the ocean. Bones are thought of as someone’s essence. From this description it is evident that the rock and the whale are combined in a spiritual manner, a union whose significance to the Munyuku people cannot be understated.
The directions of the bands of miny’tji (sacred clan design) relate to the sacred saltwater of Yarrinya, the surface chop of the water and the ancestral powers emanating from it. The dynamic patterning of dots and fluid filigree hatching suggest seaweed, mangrove stalks and monsoon waters. These finely wrought designs of this important cultural story describe the powers within the salt waters of the bay of which he is custodian.
