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Grandmother's Journey by Marie Napurrulla

Central Art believes there is an exciting future for emerging artist Marie Napurrulla and is proudly supporting her first exhibition.Marie's fine craft work and beautiful handcrafted baskets shows her artistic eye and dedication, when Marie presented her first painting I was amazed. The mix of colours captured my attention as she incorporated Aboriginal iconography very naturally into her contemporary designs.What moved me the most was that in producing these works Marie expressed her own satisfaction at being able to reach her Grandmother's spirit.The seven works in the series 'My Grandmother's Journey' depicts the physical and spiritual journey artist Marie Napurrulla took to search for her Aboriginal Grandmother.Her Grandmother had been a cameleer travelling between Tempe Downs Station and the mission settlement at Hermannsburg in Central Australia. At that time, Aboriginal women often accompanied the men assisting with local knowledge, the transportation of goods and as cooks. These journeys' were long and difficult and required a special resilience to cope with the harsh conditions in the desert without any modern conveniences.In her paintings, Marie imagined the tracks and stopping points her Grandmother must have made as she crossed the hot and arid landscape time after time between the cattle station and the Lutheran mission. Marie Napurrulla's striking paintings are a fusion of contemporary and traditional elements. She predominantly uses the traditional black, white, ochre and red paint and incorporates the iconic Aboriginal symbols in black and white to show meeting places and tracks. Yet she is able to capture the landscape in a contemporary style with her free flowing abstract forms juxtaposed between the black and white lines.The results are a series of works that are bold and unique and which have captured the ever-changing desert landscape in a way known only to those who have intimately travelled within it.

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