Acrylic on Belgian linen
150 x 75 cm
This painting is from Helicopter ’s country in the Great Sandy Desert,
where he lived and hunted as a young man, before he had ever seen khartyia,
or white people. The small black circle in the centre is Karyla soakwater,
while the parallel lines are talis, or sand dunes which dominate the landscape
of this area. The thin green and black lines are kilikili, or creeks of the
area while the dot work is the stone country found between some of the sand
dunes.
PROVENANCE
Warlayirti Artists, Balgo Hills, Western Australia, painted 1999,
Catalogue number 415/99A
Helicopter learnt from an early age the location of water sources and how to
hunt for bush food. He is a maparn (traditional healer) and people travel long
distances to see him for treatment and healing. In the early 1990s he painted
with his wife (recently deceased), but since 1995 has painted independently
in a distinctive linear style that radiates from the central feature of a soakwater.
He is dedicated to painting his country and that of his parents where he lived
a nomadic life as a young boy. He also uses the kinti-kinti style of dotting
pioneered by his wife but works with a different range of colours combined
with the more flowing linear elements.
Helicopter was given his name as a result of an accident in the 1960s when he
became
seriously ill and was collected by a flying doctor using the first helicopter
seen in the area.
REPRESENTED
National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of Victoria
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Laverty Collection
Kluge Ruhe Collection, USA
Revue du Louvres, Paris
Gantner Myer Collection
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