Mangodbi, 2004

natural earth pigments on bark

125 x 55 cm

Est. $2,500 – $3,500

Hammer $2,200

Provenance: Maningrida Arts & Culture, Maningrida, NT, Cat. No. 870-04 Private Collection, NSW, acquired from the above Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Maningrida Arts & Culture
Artwork story: At Kudjaldorrdo, near Ivan Namirrkki's outstation at Marrkolidjban, a creek called Mangodbi runs through sacred Kuninjku country. The Cultural Research Officer at Maningrida Arts & Culture who certified this bark in 2004 recorded that the creek is a sacred site associated with Ngalyod, the rainbow serpent. Ngalyod has both powers of creation and destruction, is most strongly associated with rain, monsoon seasons and rainbows, and controls the fertility of the country and the seasons. The pattern of rarrk in this painting, the documentation notes, is an oblique reference to Kuninjku ceremonies and imbues the image with a spiritual power. Namirrkki learned to paint from his father, Peter Marralwanga, whose work appears elsewhere in this Catalogue. Marralwanga guided him in the stories of the Kardbam clan lands and of the clans of the surrounding country. In the late 1990s Namirrkki began painting geometric works in the Mardayin style, developing the strongly symmetrical concentric diamond arrangements that became his signature. His work is held in the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of South Australia. Mangodbi 2004 renders the site as a total field of rarrk, the entire bark surface covered in the fine diagonal hatching of Kardbam clan design in deep red-brown, warm ochre, cream, and near-black, structured as a grid of diamond forms each carrying its own directional hatching. At the centre, a large concentric circle in cream encloses a small black disc, marking the site itself within the surrounding Country.

Catalogues239 of 257

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Sale 3 · Lot 91

Ivan Namirikki

b. 1961

Region: Arnhem Land
Community: Marrkolidjban

Mangodbi, 2004

natural earth pigments on bark

125 x 55 cm

Est. $2,500 – $3,500

Hammer $2,200

Provenance: Maningrida Arts & Culture, Maningrida, NT, Cat. No. 870-04 Private Collection, NSW, acquired from the above Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Maningrida Arts & Culture
Artwork story: At Kudjaldorrdo, near Ivan Namirrkki's outstation at Marrkolidjban, a creek called Mangodbi runs through sacred Kuninjku country. The Cultural Research Officer at Maningrida Arts & Culture who certified this bark in 2004 recorded that the creek is a sacred site associated with Ngalyod, the rainbow serpent. Ngalyod has both powers of creation and destruction, is most strongly associated with rain, monsoon seasons and rainbows, and controls the fertility of the country and the seasons. The pattern of rarrk in this painting, the documentation notes, is an oblique reference to Kuninjku ceremonies and imbues the image with a spiritual power. Namirrkki learned to paint from his father, Peter Marralwanga, whose work appears elsewhere in this Catalogue. Marralwanga guided him in the stories of the Kardbam clan lands and of the clans of the surrounding country. In the late 1990s Namirrkki began painting geometric works in the Mardayin style, developing the strongly symmetrical concentric diamond arrangements that became his signature. His work is held in the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of South Australia. Mangodbi 2004 renders the site as a total field of rarrk, the entire bark surface covered in the fine diagonal hatching of Kardbam clan design in deep red-brown, warm ochre, cream, and near-black, structured as a grid of diamond forms each carrying its own directional hatching. At the centre, a large concentric circle in cream encloses a small black disc, marking the site itself within the surrounding Country.