Jeffrey Moose Gallery is proud to announce an exhibition of paintings by indigenous artists from Yuendemu in Australia’s Central Desert for the months of July and August. The exhibit runs from Friday, July 10th thru September 19th. A reception will be held on First Friday, August 7th from 6 to 8 PM.
Traditional ground paintings by these artists, known as Warlukurlangu (Home of the Fire Dreaming) made history in Paris, 1989, part of the international survey, “Magiciennes De La Terre.” At this sensational exhibit of Indigenous art from throughout the world, a group of men from Yuendemu packed tons of desert earth and crushed flowers from home, shaping the material into an enormous “Ground Painting” to honor the Yarla Jukurrpa, a creation story about the bush potato.
Several works by Warlukurlangu Artists are on display in The Seattle Art Museum’s third floor galleries. It was through the Kaplan/Levy Collection shown at SAM that Jeffrey Moose was connected to this remote desert art coop. On exhibit will be works by 14 painters from the center.
In November 2019 in Yuendemu, a Walpiri man named Kumanjayi Walker was shot to death by a policeman for the Northern Territory, Zachary Rolfe. Though police killings of indigenous Australians are unfortunately common, it is unprecedented for police to be arrested and charged with a crime in such cases. Local citizens banded together in a “Justice for Walker” movement and petitioned authorities in the major town Alice Springs, 300 km to the south. Marches and vigils took place throughout Australia, foreshadowing the Black Lives Matter movement.
Dot paintings are images rendered from an aerial perspective which use symbols to represent people, animals, plants, weather systems and other forms in telling ancient creation stories. In their original form, these stories are part of the Song Lines, complex sets of story-poems recited in rhythmic pattern that link places across the Australian continent.
