Floating life: contemporary Aboriginal fibre art

132 133 In the work in the Gallery’s Collection, Syaw (Fish net) 2004, painted in clear citrus tones, lines of colour mirror the structure of the traditional looped string net. Although not a landscape in the familiar sense, through a succession of textures and illusions the painting becomes an aerial view that suggests, both physically and metaphorically, the feeling of moving through country and sunlit water. As gallerist Kathleen Brown comments, ‘Syaw fishnet becomes syaw design, a representation imbued still with the rhythmic motion of its travel through water’. 2 Wilson paints another important woven object. Warrgarri are the typically hardy, all-purpose string bags from Peppimenarti, and Warrgarri (String bag stitch) 2003 is a literal illustration of the stitch. Here, though, variegated painted lines substitute for the regular loops of finely spun cabbage palm fibre used to make a bag. Through the macroscopic painted image, Wilson engages the viewer in an intimate examination of the lines of the weave, their rhythmic repetition in rich ochre colours enlivened by random flicks of white, reminiscent of an exotic cursive script. Explaining the development of her practice to Nicholas Rothwell, Wilson commented: ‘I didn’t know how to paint at first . . . all I had were ideas from weaving’. 3 As Rothwell observed: Very soon, though, there was an abstraction from the original thought: the constant, subtle modulation which marks out Wilson’s work began. The paintings she and her fellow-artists make now are both art product and record of a process; the unending details of their pattern-creation can consume a week, or a month, in the painting room — a month in which the painter’s thoughts will return insistently to the old, lost days she is recreating, streamlining in the realms of geometry and imagination. 4 Above Peppimenarti are ancient rock paintings, including iconic images of bags and nets familiar to the older generation; these paintings are now concealed from view by a landslide. Regina Wilson has found a new way of passing on their story in paintings which embody a world of uses and functions in their endless coloured lines. Endnotes 1. Nicholas Rothwell, ‘Legacy of sand palm and vine’, Arts and Entertainment , The Australian , 23 January 2004, p.14. 2. Kathleen Brown, Awa Yedi i Falmi Warrim Pek Durrimu — May 30 2003, Peppimenarti Community, Peppimenarti Community Council and Karen Brown Gallery, Peppimenarti, 2003, p.5. 3. Rothwell, p.14. 4. Rothwell, p.14. Opposite Regina Wilson Warrgarri (String bag stitch) 2003 Synthetic polymer paint on canvas 160 x 124cm Acc. 2004.040 Purchased 2004 with funds from Corrs Chambers Westgarth through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Kathleen Korda Marathiel/Ngangikurrungurr people NT b.1959 Walipun (Fish net) 2008 Looped merrepen (sand palm) fibre, natural dyes with bamboo 62 x 132 x 105cm Acc. 2009.130 Purchased 2009. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation