Floating life: contemporary Aboriginal fibre art

96 the conical form, and intensifies colour and subtle surface patterning. Using alternating colours gives a chequered design. The baskets are finished with a row of buttonhole stitch at the rim, and a string handle of hand-rolled tree bark fibre. The flattened circular mats now commonly made in Arnhem Land evolved from the traditional nganiyal, a multi-purpose double-sided mat or container considered to be a powerful symbol of fertility. Baypungala is a skilled maker of the nganiyal, using a heavy, smooth stone to mould the form as she rotates it. In the rounded Nganiyal (Conical form) 2002, she has built row upon row of twined pandanus strands, finishing it with a dramatic fringe of untamed warp lengths. Her circular floor or wall mats may be tightly woven into dramatic soft ‘targets’, or made with an open stitch where crossed warp threads, held by bands of closely twined weft fibres, create a lacy, open weave known as buyu-gadagada in some eastern Arnhem Land Aboriginal languages. Judy Baypungala is dedicated to her craft, and has been prolific during her long career. She is a confident, accomplished weaver, and her practice is distinguished by exciting innovations in design, ambitious scale and the use of brilliant natural colours. With her wry sense of humour and a glance to the past, she creates objects of beauty and refinement for both domestic use and gallery display. Endnote 1 Ian Keen, Knowledge and Secrecy in an Aboriginal Religion , Oxford University Press, New York, 1994, p.85. Left Mindirr (Conical basket) 2003 Twined pandanus palm leaf, bark fibre string, with natural dyes 39.5 x 23cm (diam.) Acc. 2004.085 Centre, and opposite Mindirr (Conical basket) 2003 38.5 x 24cm (diam.) Acc. 2004.086 Purchased 2004. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant Right Mindirr (Conical basket) 2006 Twined pandanus palm leaf, bark fibre string, with natural dyes 33 x 17cm (diam.) Acc. 2008.156 Purchased 2008. The Queensland Government’s Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund © Judy Baypungala 2003, 2006. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney, 2009