Salt on Mina Mina, 2002

synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen

122 x 198 cm

Price on application — enquire

Provenance: Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs, NT, Cat No. 6802DN (stamp verso) Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, Vic Private Collection Vic
Artwork story: This magnificent work depicts a major women's ceremonial site known as Mina Mina, the artist's custodial country located near Lake Mackav in the Tanami Desert, north of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory of Australia. During the Jukurrpa, Ancestral women of the Napangardi and Napanangka sub-section groups (aunt/niece relationship, in which knowledge is passed from one to the other) gathered to collect ceremonial digging sticks (Karlangu) that had emerged from the ground. They then proceeded east, performing rituals of song and dance, to the place known as Jankinvi. A large belt of Desert Oak trees (Allocasuarina decaisneana) now stand where these digging sticks once were. Topographically, the sacred site of Mina Mina is made up of two enormous soakage areas that, rarely filled with water, exist as claypans. As water soaks into the ground small areas of earth dry out and lift at the edges, becoming delineated by salt. In this stunning and striking design of white dotting Dorothy depicts the crustaceans of salt stretching infinitely onward, etched with the tracks of the women as their paths stretch on, crossing and merging: telling their stories.

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c.1950 / 1956 – 2013

synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen

122 x 198 cm

Price on application — enquire

Provenance: Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs, NT, Cat No. 6802DN (stamp verso) Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, Vic Private Collection Vic
Artwork story: This magnificent work depicts a major women's ceremonial site known as Mina Mina, the artist's custodial country located near Lake Mackav in the Tanami Desert, north of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory of Australia. During the Jukurrpa, Ancestral women of the Napangardi and Napanangka sub-section groups (aunt/niece relationship, in which knowledge is passed from one to the other) gathered to collect ceremonial digging sticks (Karlangu) that had emerged from the ground. They then proceeded east, performing rituals of song and dance, to the place known as Jankinvi. A large belt of Desert Oak trees (Allocasuarina decaisneana) now stand where these digging sticks once were. Topographically, the sacred site of Mina Mina is made up of two enormous soakage areas that, rarely filled with water, exist as claypans. As water soaks into the ground small areas of earth dry out and lift at the edges, becoming delineated by salt. In this stunning and striking design of white dotting Dorothy depicts the crustaceans of salt stretching infinitely onward, etched with the tracks of the women as their paths stretch on, crossing and merging: telling their stories.