Terry Ngamandarra (1950 - 2011) Australia
Lot 26
Six Clan Waterholes at Balpanarra
1989
Ochre pigments on stringybark (Eucalyptus Tetrodonta) Steel strap frame verso installed NGA
144 x 80cm (irregular)
Provenance Ngamandarra painted six clan waterholes at a site known as Balpanarra, an area for which he and his elder brother have custodianship. It is located in the swampy area near the Cadell River. The rectangular shape across the painting is Barnaka - Digging stick which was responsible for the creation of the waterholes in the beginning of time.
Exhibited National Gallery of Australia, Travelling Exhibition Touring Australia and New Zealand 2003-2004
Label verso 'Maningrida Arts and Crafts Cat No. NGA39' Ochre pigments on stringybark (Eucalyptus, Tetradonta) Artist name, language group 'Gunardba' location 'Gochan Jiny-Jira Outstation' Signed April 1989 at Gochan Jiny-Jira
SOLD
Terry Ngamandara was born in a bush camp outside of Darwin. Shortly after his birth
his family returned to their clan country near the Cadell River in western Arnhem
Land, close to the large swamp, Barlparnarra. Here, Ngamandara became immersed
in the religion and culture of his own people, the Girnimba and Garramirra, and was
fully trained under traditional men’s law in the designs for totems.
Barlparnarra is a complex of important sacred sites for the Jowanga moiety group
through central Arnhem Land. It is associated with the creation myth of the two
sisters commonly known as Djangkawu, however, in the Barlparnarra version they
are called Murlurlu. Many Dreaming tracks of mythological beings associated with
the two sisters converge at this site, and, ceremonies which celebrate their journeys
are still held there. Ngamandara is senior custodian of these clans.
One of the key emblems of the artist’s clan is gulach — the spike rush that
dominates the Barlparnarra swamp country. The emblem always appears as
triangular motif. This spike rush also forms a food source for magpie geese, a key
swamp animal and totem.
The artists’ design is also used as body decoration during funeral ceremonies where
it is painted on the body of deceased clan member just prior to burial.
Before taking up bark painting, Ngamandara spent time in the nearby Aboriginal
community of Maningrida, where he did construction and forestry work as well as
labouring in fishing enterprises. This technical training assisted him when he later
turned to art under the tutelage of the senior artist England Bangala
In the art of central Arnhem Land new conventions are constantly evolving. This is
borne out by Ngamandarra’s work as he creates landscapes of singular purity of
form, using strong black lines to cut superimposed multiple plants, reduced to
triangles and rectangles, which float in rhythms of ordered geometry. The rarrk
(cross-hatching) is one directional and suggests flat grassy plains country near
Gochan jiny-jirra where the artist lives.
Biography courtesy of The Australian Art Print Network, 2001.