Wandurrk - Spirit Being, 2009

118cm

$330

Provenance: Maningrida Arts & Culture, Maningrida, NT, Cat No. 143-09 Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW
Exhibited: Dream Catchers - Featuring Maningrida, Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW, October 2012 Metamorphosis-Contemporary Indigenous Sculptures and Objects, Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW, October 2009
Artwork story: Wandurrk, together with his wife, is the ancestral creator of the Gurrgoni people. After a long journey, they came to rest at Kuyun, a sacred Dreaming site where their presence is believed to remain. His spirit is associated with the low escarpments along the Tomkinson River plains, where shelter is made from Djangelle palm leaves and food is gathered from the Kentia (Aldjonduk) palm. Wandurrk plays an important role in Gurrgoni mortuary practices and is represented by the jungul jungul, a feathered stick placed on the grave of the deceased. He is also known as a trickster figure who leads travellers astray. One story tells of a Kunabidji man who was taken to Wandurrk’s dwelling, taught sacred songs, and later escaped after setting the spirits’ shelter alight. Visually, Wandurrk is depicted by a horizontal dotted line across his head, symbolising either a stalk of grass through a pierced septum or a woomera held behind the head. His elongated ears mark him as an ancestral spirit rather than a human figure.

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b. 1950

118cm

$330

Provenance: Maningrida Arts & Culture, Maningrida, NT, Cat No. 143-09 Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW
Exhibited: Dream Catchers - Featuring Maningrida, Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW, October 2012 Metamorphosis-Contemporary Indigenous Sculptures and Objects, Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW, October 2009
Artwork story: Wandurrk, together with his wife, is the ancestral creator of the Gurrgoni people. After a long journey, they came to rest at Kuyun, a sacred Dreaming site where their presence is believed to remain. His spirit is associated with the low escarpments along the Tomkinson River plains, where shelter is made from Djangelle palm leaves and food is gathered from the Kentia (Aldjonduk) palm. Wandurrk plays an important role in Gurrgoni mortuary practices and is represented by the jungul jungul, a feathered stick placed on the grave of the deceased. He is also known as a trickster figure who leads travellers astray. One story tells of a Kunabidji man who was taken to Wandurrk’s dwelling, taught sacred songs, and later escaped after setting the spirits’ shelter alight. Visually, Wandurrk is depicted by a horizontal dotted line across his head, symbolising either a stalk of grass through a pierced septum or a woomera held behind the head. His elongated ears mark him as an ancestral spirit rather than a human figure.