Puyurru (Water Dreaming), 2014, Shorty Jangala Robertson
Acrylic on linen, 61cm x 30cm
Provenance: Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne.
Shorty Jangala Robertson was born at Jila (Chilla Well), a large soakage and claypan north west of Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 kms north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. He lived a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle with his parents, older brother and extended Warlpiri family. Shorty’s paintings are fresh, vigorous and new. His use of colour to paint and interpret his dreamings of Ngapa (Water), Watiyawarnu (Acacia), Yankirri (Emu) and Pamapardu (Flying Ant) is vital, yet upholding the Warlpiri tradition. Shorty was well in his 70’s when he started painting. (1)
From the authenticity certificate: The site depicted in this painting is Puyurru, west of Yuendumu. In the usually dry creek bed are water soakages or naturally occurring wells. Two Jangala men, rainmakers, sang the rain, unleashing a giant storm. It travelled across the country, with the lightning striking the land. This sotrm met up with another storm from Wapurtali, to the west and was picked up by a ‘kirrkarlanji’ (brown falcon) and carried further west until it dropped the storm at Purlungyanu, where it created a giant soakage. At Puyurru the bird dug up a giant snake ‘warnayarra’ (the rainbow serpent). The snake carried water with it to created a large lake named Jillyiumpa, close to an outstation in this country. In contemporary Warlpiri paintings, traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, associated sites and other elements. In many paintings of this Jukurrpa, curved and straight lines represent the ‘ngawarra’ (flood waters) running through the landscape. Motifs frequently used to depict this story include small circles representing ‘mulju’ (water soakages) and short bars depicting ‘mangkurdu’ (clouds).