Gurtha
Barrupu (Rita) YUNUPINGU: artist
The significance of fire to the Yunupingu family of the Gumatj clan is paramount. Represented by diamond shaped miny’tji, motifs or sacred clan designs, the painting depicts gurtha or fire. It particularly represents the Fire. This is by no means an ordinary fire but one of supernatural intensity. All that it touches is/was/will be forever changed. The Fire exists in every atom of Gumatj land. When the trees have grown back and living witnesses have gone, the land will still remember the Fire. The fire is also the hearth of domesticity and the ashes of ancestral campsites (Artist exhibition statement 2012).
Title
Gurtha
Artist/Maker and role
Barrupu (Rita) YUNUPINGU: artist
Date
2011
Medium
natural ochre, earth pigment and acrylic binder on bark
Measurements
196.0 x 76.0 cm
Production place
Yirrkala, East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory
Credit line
Purchased through The Leah Jane Cohen Bequest, The Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation, 2012
© Burrupu (Rita) Yunupingu, 2011
The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia
Accession number
2012/0059