Water Dreaming at Kalipinypa
1971
Medium
enamel paint on composition board
Measurements
61.6 × 73.2 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased through The Art Foundation of Victoria with the assistance of Alcoa of Australia Limited, Governor, 1993
© The Artist/Licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency Limited
Gallery location
Not on display
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Papunya, Northern Territory
Accession Number
O.21-1993
Department
First Nations Australia
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Vizard Foundation
Physical description
This painting represents the Water Dreaming sacred to the artist. The concentric circles indicate five underground waterholes at Kalipinya, a Water Dreaming site. The barred lines represent thunder and lightning and the dots indicate rain, children of the rain ancestor. The artist brings the horizon into the landscape as rain, storm and atmospheric disturbance. This is a brilliantly simple interpretation of the landscape, a perception of the continent with symbolic forms; the configuration of concentric circles and linked line with dotting is lightning, thunder, rain and earth at Kalipinya.