Lightningby Sarrita King

Sarrita's Lightning series are a painted memory of the electrical storms in the tropical climate of Darwin in the Northern Territory, where Sarrita spent her youth. The lightning would crack across the entire sky, creating lines not dissimilar to cracked earth. With Lightning came the winds that in their fury whipped up all the dust, rain, heat and magnetic energy into a maelstrom in the air.

Sarrita would discover new patterns and colours every time she witnessed these natural light shows. Sarrita paints the lightning series in two main ways: she either encapsulates the intensity of the storm and the driving rain to the point where it is seemingly audible or contrarily, she points out the subtle beauty within the storm and the way in which the elements gracefully twist and turn between dramatic lightning strikes.

Artist:Sarrita King
Title:Lightning
ID:10042158
Medium:Acrylic on Belgian Linen
Size:180 x 90 cm
Region:Katherine, Northern Territory

Artist

Sarrita King was born in Adelaide, South Australia on the 5th March 1988. She is the younger sister to fellow artist, Tarisse King and daughter to the late highly regarded artist, William King Jungala (1966 – 2007).

Sarrita inherits her Australian Aboriginality from her father who was part of the Gurindji tribe from the Northern Territory. The Gurindji tribe came to public attention during the 1960s and 1970s when members employed by the Wave Hill cattle station led a landmark case which became the first successful land rights claim in Australia. It is this same strong sense of self and pride that Sarrita embodies and it fuels her drive to paint her totemic landscape.

Sarrita spent most of her youth growing up in Darwin in the Northern Territory. Not far from where her ancestors inhabited, it is here that her connection to her Aboriginality and subsequently the land was able to grow. Her exposure to the imperious weather and extreme landscape has provided the theme for her works of art, since she began painting at age 16. Rolling sand hills, cracking lightning and thunderstorms, torrential rain, fire, desert and tangled bush are all scathing environmental factors that shaped her forefather’s lives and also her own. Depicting these elements in her paintings, Sarrita provides a visual articulation of the earth’s language.

Sabine Haider, Gallerist of Central Art say" Sarrita King is an amazing artist and person. Full of life and optimism and is an example too all upcoming young Aboriginal artists."

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