- Title: Owl (Tjurukukuni) 165-14
- Artist: Brian Farmer Illortaminni
- Region: Tiwi Islands
- Art Centre: Jilamara Arts and Crafts
- Medium: Linocut
- Collection:
- Dimensions: 61 x 30.5
- Edition Size:
- Price ($AUD): $ 385
Artwork Story
This Linocut by Brian Farmer was produced in collaboration with printmaker Martin King from the Australian Print Workshop in Melbourne. The Australian Print Workshop (APW) has an ongoing relationship with Jilamara Arts & Crafts, which began in 1995. Since then APW has undertaken several return trips to the Island. These visits have been complemented by visits to the Melbourne workshop by several of the Tiwi artists.
Tjurukukuni, the owl who acted as messenger for the Tiwi lovers Wai-ai (Bima) and Taparra, guiding them to one another through the bush. Wai-ai was the wife of Purukaparli. While gathering bush tucker Wai-ai was enticed into the trees to make love with her brother-in-law, Taparra. She left her baby son Jinani in the shade, but was away for so long that he perished from heatstroke. Her husband, enraged and devastated, fought Taparra, who flew away and became the moon. Wai-ai became the curlew bird, forever crying out her grief in the dusk. Purukaparli, was the first Tiwi to perform the pukumani (funeral) ceremony (for his deceased son.) It was following this act of infidelity that death came to the world and the Tiwi people.
The Tiwi word Jilamara, which roughly translates to the English word ‘design’ refers to the intricate ochre patterning traditionally applied to the bodies of dancers and the surface of carved poles during the Pukumani (funeral) and Kulama (initiation/yam) ceremonies.
An individual design and aesthetic is highly valued by Tiwi artists and is representative of their personal interpretation of the traditional Tiwi design or jilamara. Artists draw continual inspiration from body paint (yirrinkiripwoja) and scarification designs (minga) as well as clan totems, ceremony and the Tiwi creation story. Designs passed on by family are also an inspiration to Tiwi artists developing their own particular style or jilamara.
Jilamara Arts & Crafts was originally established in 1989 as an adult education centre focusing on fabric printing. Today artists work from a palette of natural ochres to produce paintings on linen, canvas, paper and bark. Also renowned for sculptural works the tradition of carving has continued through the art centre.
Prints produced by Jilamara artists have been acquired for major public collections including: the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Victoria.
© Jilamara Arts and Crafts