Barayuwa Munuŋgurr

2019, collagraph
PAPER SIZE: 64 x 100 cm
PRINT SIZE: 64 x 100 cm
Edition of 20
Cat No 3883-19
Price UF

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2019 Gapan Gallery
Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre

Barayuwa has created this print to honour his mother’s Munyuku clan, inspired by her brother, the late ritual specialist and artist Ḏula Ŋurruwutthun. It is associated with the ancestral events relating to the death of the ancestral whale called Mirinyuŋu on the beaches of the Munyuku saltwater estate of Yarrinya within Blue Mud Bay. Known in English as Point Blane.

In 2013 Barayuwa started to hide the elements of a whale skeleton in this style of work. A work in the NATSIAA of this year was Highly Commended by the judges and caught the eye of the Director of the NGA Ron Radford who commissioned a work. An installation which was exhibited at the NCCA in Darwin led MCAA Director Liz-Anne McGregor to commission a conceptual wall work for their permanent collection.

There is perhaps a hidden reference to the dangers of overconsumption. The resources of highly prized fat in a beached whale are equivalent to gold in a hunting society. But in the temperatures and conditions of the Top End the dangers of contamination are real. But also a decomposing whale can become a literal bomb and the internet shows videos of massive explosions when the stomach cavity is pierced releasing the pent up gases.

This print was created by the initial collage of glue and sand being layed down on a board which was printed from and then a second layer of screenprint overprinted with the finer marwat (cross hatch).

– BUKU-LARRŊGAY MULKA CENTRE