Untitled Scarf by Willy Tjungurrayi

Tjungurrayi’s untitled painting depicts Kirritjinna, a rockhole site south-west of Lake MacDonald, a vast ephemeral salt lake straddling the border between Western Australia and the Northern Territory. During ancestral times, a large group of Tingari Men camped at this site before travelling to Lake MacDonald. The legends of the Tingari are secret-scared in nature, but in general, they are a group of ancestral Dreaming beings who traversed the country, creating and transforming the landscape through their travels. The Tingari Men were usually followed by Tingari Women and accompanied by novices, and their adventures are enshrined in numerous song cycles.

Tjungurrayi painted the places he used to walk around as a boy growing up in the desert. Kirritjinna, close to the place of his birth, is rendered in the artist’s signature style – a central, undulating water source forming part of a network, connecting people, Country, and Law. A master of movement and restraint, Tjungurrayi uses subtle variations in tone to create depth in this work, his fiery palette giving life to the ancestral footprints that connect the sites of his Country.