14 AM 1965/04
Graham Gordon Tjupurrula Tingari 2004
Acrylic on Belgian linen 900 x 1200mm $3300
Graham has painted a typical Pintupi tribal painting denoting aspects of Tingari. The most important of the
creation stories is the Tingari story, a subject chosen by many artists of the Central western desert. The Tingari
were a particular group of ancestral beings, both male and female, who travelled all over Australia at creation time.
Their activities encompassed extremes of good and evil, sexual excess, greed, theft of sacred objects and many
other human weaknesses. There is great secrecy about some of the rituals and ceremonies connected with the
Tingari Cycle, as their adventures are known. This painting, as with most Aboriginal paintings, is a birds eye view
of part of the land with a central camp site or waterhole as this is synonomous with a camp. The wavy line
emanating from this central motif is a songline or journey line denoting movement across the country. The lines
of the sides of this songline reflect the sandhill nature of his country. Off to the edges, the artist shows other
types of country. However, this country is the country of Graham's garndfather, Tjumpo Tjapanangka - a noted
old artist who still paints at Balgo Hills. This country is located south of Balgo in the Great Sandy Desert and
centred around the vast salt lake named Wilkinkarra (Lake McKay). This country is dominated by tali
(sandhills).and the central circle is a tjurnu (soakwater) which was created by a snake during the Tjukurrpa
(Dreamtime). Tingari Cycle stories as paintings to the Western eye are enigmatic works and reflect the gulf
between the ancestral belief systems of the Pintupi desert people and us Western people. The imagery is
considered secret and sacred and hence the full story is only told to male initiates of the tribe. The rest is a
euphemism for "It's not your story so we can't tell you". (These notes have been written by Art Mob's gallery
owner, Euan Hills, from various sources and his knowledge of the Pintupi people and their art forms). Feb 2006.