- Title: Tjukurrpa
- Artist: Bonney James
- Region: Kimberley
- Art Centre: Warlayirti Artists
- Medium: Woodblock print
- Collection:
- Dimensions: 40 x 50 cm
- Edition Size: 20
- Price ($AUD): $ 440
Artwork Story
Bonney has created a beautiful print that tells a tjukurrpa (dreaming) from the country in which he was born. This area is a little further south of Well 26, near Lake Disappointment. Central to this tjukurrpa and this print are the two men stretching their beards. Here they share the one rockhole (water source). Bonnie tells this tjukurrpa, that surrounded by the desert these ancient men groomed their beards and where their hair fell, so too did the sandhills form (depicted by the orange areas) across the land.
Warlayirti Artists are well known for their beautiful, high quality artworks including limited edition prints. Since 2002, there has been a long-standing collaboration between the Balgo artists and the printers from Northern Editions in Darwin. This partnership has resulted in numerous editions of etchings and screenprints and in more recent times has expanded to include Japanese woodblock printing for the men.
The woodcuts are in response to an existing but not regularly practised carving tradition upon sandstone and soapstone, as well as wood for boomerangs, shields and spears. These prints retell traditional tjukurrpas (Dreamings) and knowledge in an alternative medium, so important stories are retained for perpetuity.
© Warlayirti Artists