A feature of Djambawa's paintings
are the geometric clan designs (likan or miny'tji). Miny'tji are
the sacred clan design for a particular area of country and may
denote certain aspects of a place and the associated creation story
given to it by the Ancestors. Cross-hatching with a brush of human
hair (marrwat) adds vibrancy to the designs.
In Yolngu art there is a recursive
relationship between the ancestral designs and the way the environment
is seen: the miny'tji are a sacred representation of the
world just as the world is a visible manifestation of ancestral
design.
The fine cross-hatching creates an impression
of energy and movement reflecting the power of the Ancestral
being that the design represents.
Howard Morphy argues that
this technique carries strong connotations of environmental forces.
The cross-hatched diamonds that represent the Madarrpa crocodile
as it dives into the waters off Yathikpa carrying the fire that
burnt into his back, express the heat of the flames as they leap
thought the bush, the boiling waters of the sea as the crocodile
thrashes about, and the tresses of sea grass flickering beneath
the waters. The meanings are imminent in the designs and influence
how they are seen and felt. The lines of diamonds are powerful
expressions of the ancestral crocodile and in context allude to
the forces of the sea and the cross-cutting nature of the currents,
the curved lines in some of the paintings refer to the rounded
crocodile's nests of Garrangali.
References:
Buwayak Invisibility (2003)
Saltwater (1999) |
