This country belongs to the artist. He has depicted
a central rockhole that supplies water to the surrounding country.
Helicopter describes this country as "stone country" and
the small rondelles depict the many small stones found there.
The lines also depict the many sandhills in the region.
PROVENANCE
Warlayirti Artists Aboriginal Corporation, Western Australia
Catalogue Number 504/97
William Mora Galleries, Melbourne
Helicopter Tjungurrayi, who is in his early fifties, is one of the younger
generation of artists at Balgo Hills. He grew up near Jupiter Well in the Gibson
and Great Sandy Deserts.
Helicopter was given his name as a result of an incident in the 1960s, when
he fell seriously ill and was collected by a flying doctor in the first helicopter
seen in the area. Now a marpan or medicine man himself, Helicopter practices
as a traditional healer in the Balgo Community. He is married to the artist
Lucy Yukenbarri. Helicopter began painting in about 1995, and has participated
with other artists from Warlayirti Arts in exhibitions in Australian capital
cities, the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden.
Recently the name Helicopter became kumanjayi, meaning that it cannot be spoken
aloud because the prefix "Hel" sounds like the name of someone else
who has died, and if spoken would call up their
spirit. As a result, Helicopter has been renamed "Chopper".
(Isaacs, Jennifer, "Spirit Country: Contemporary Australian Aboriginal
Art", Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1999)
