1 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 grandfather, Tjumpo
Tjapanangka - a noted old artist who painted at Balgo Hills until his passing early in 2007. 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.