Fishtrap, 2006

natural earth pigments on hollow log

276 cm

Est. $5,000 – $8,000

Hammer $5,000

Provenance: Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka, Yirrkala, NT, Cat No. 2840J Annandale Galleries, Sydney, NSW, Cat No. BLA328 Private Collection, NSW, acquired from the above Accompanied by certificates of authenticity from Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka and Annandale Galleries
Exhibited: Wanyubi Marika & Young Guns II: bark paintings & ceremonial poles, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, NSW, 16 April – 10 May 2008
Artwork story: Ganambarr was born in 1973 at Gängan and assumed ceremonial authority under the tutelage of Gawirrin Gumana and Yumutjin Wunungmurra of his mother's Dhalwaŋu clan. Fishtrap announces from its first glance an ambition that had not been seen before in north-east Arnhem Land. Where artists such as Gawirrin Gumana and Wukun Wanambi had used chisel or grinder to accentuate figurative motifs within the larrakitj form, Ganambarr removed wood in such quantity that the pole is no longer a regular cylinder but has become a sculpture. The subject is the sacred freshwater at Gulutji on the Gulutji River at Gängan, where in the times of Wanarr the Ancestral Creator Being Barama emerged to give law, ceremony and kinship to the Yirritja moiety. Here a fish trap was constructed by driving stakes into the river banks and filling the gaps with branches, mud and grass, a paperbark basket fixed at an opening in the centre; fish driven downstream would attempt to leap the barrage and be caught. At Gulutji the original trap persists today as a naturally occurring rock formation. Horizontal bands across the pole depict this barrage, with Gany'tjurr the totemic heron fishing alongside; below, Baypinna saratoga swim up against the current, beaten back into the trap by the fishermen. Beyond the rock formation, the sacred freshwaters of Gängan are rendered in the diamond miny'tji, the clan-owned design of the Dhalwaŋu. This pole, the earliest of the three larrakitj in this sale, is where Ganambarr's practice began.

Catalogues233 of 257

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Sale 3 · Lot 85

Gunybi Ganambarr

b. 1973

Region: Arnhem Land
Community: Gäṉgaṉ
Language group: Yolŋu (Yolngu) – Ŋaymil (Ngaymil) clan

Fishtrap, 2006

natural earth pigments on hollow log

276 cm

Est. $5,000 – $8,000

Hammer $5,000

Provenance: Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka, Yirrkala, NT, Cat No. 2840J Annandale Galleries, Sydney, NSW, Cat No. BLA328 Private Collection, NSW, acquired from the above Accompanied by certificates of authenticity from Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka and Annandale Galleries
Exhibited: Wanyubi Marika & Young Guns II: bark paintings & ceremonial poles, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, NSW, 16 April – 10 May 2008
Artwork story: Ganambarr was born in 1973 at Gängan and assumed ceremonial authority under the tutelage of Gawirrin Gumana and Yumutjin Wunungmurra of his mother's Dhalwaŋu clan. Fishtrap announces from its first glance an ambition that had not been seen before in north-east Arnhem Land. Where artists such as Gawirrin Gumana and Wukun Wanambi had used chisel or grinder to accentuate figurative motifs within the larrakitj form, Ganambarr removed wood in such quantity that the pole is no longer a regular cylinder but has become a sculpture. The subject is the sacred freshwater at Gulutji on the Gulutji River at Gängan, where in the times of Wanarr the Ancestral Creator Being Barama emerged to give law, ceremony and kinship to the Yirritja moiety. Here a fish trap was constructed by driving stakes into the river banks and filling the gaps with branches, mud and grass, a paperbark basket fixed at an opening in the centre; fish driven downstream would attempt to leap the barrage and be caught. At Gulutji the original trap persists today as a naturally occurring rock formation. Horizontal bands across the pole depict this barrage, with Gany'tjurr the totemic heron fishing alongside; below, Baypinna saratoga swim up against the current, beaten back into the trap by the fishermen. Beyond the rock formation, the sacred freshwaters of Gängan are rendered in the diamond miny'tji, the clan-owned design of the Dhalwaŋu. This pole, the earliest of the three larrakitj in this sale, is where Ganambarr's practice began.