IRRUNYTJU ARTS
Irrunytju is situated on the western Australian side of the tri-state border of the NT, SA and WA, formerly known as Wingellina. The predominant language is Pitjantjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra. Most of the senior artists were in some way affected by the Maralinga nuclear testing in the 1950’s; some remember the bright light, the sound and the subsequent damage to the children born in the ensuing generations. The artists living at Irrunytju and surrounding outstations have powerful spiritual links to the vast region. Their Tjukurrpa (law or dreaming tracks) is a vivid mental imprint of traditional journeys the artists’ ancestors travelled, initially to accurately pin point waterholes and food sources but also to delineate ceremonial grounds and sacred places, where chapters within the monumental epics of the Dreamtime took place. Their paintings express their myth cycles embedded in the topography of the land.
The first Irrunytju works emerged in 2001 stunning dealers and museum curators alike with their exuberant, highly individual colourful composition. It seemed a raw outpouring of expressive talent initially by women who previously fabricated and decorated manual crafts such as weapons and utensils.
The Irrunytju work is the product of western desert men and women who have been raised with traditional beliefs in pre-contact conditions, wandering the vast region throughout their lives through a network of small communities and outstations, seeking family and completing ceremony.
Their paintings are volatile expression of their knowledge and intuition of the desert for the first time in the western medium of paint and canvas. Painting until recently was a source of amazement to the senior artists, who wondered how the materials including paint, canvas and brushes were acquired. It was otherworldly.
Irrunytju is recognised as one of the newest and most interesting communities of the contemporary art movement of the desert peoples.
Irrunytju artists represented include:
Clem Rictor
Roley Roberts
Tjinkuma Tjilya
Tjuruparu Watson
Many of the artists are represented by major state galleries including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of Western Australia and the Queensland Art Gallery.