This is a story about two brothers Kodjokkodjok. A long time ago in the old days there were two men, an older and a younger brother. They were both living at a place called Gamarrkawarn and another place called Marnamarnayi. They went to Kakadu area to get bamboo spears. When they had lots of bamboo spears they went on their way back home and the younger brother saw a possum in a rock. The older brother got it and killed it. They collected sticks and made a fire then cooked the possum on the sand. When the possum was cooking his eyes popped out and rain came down. The ground got soft and then ngalyod (the rainbow serpent) came up and dragged the brothers to where the big billabong was and drowned them. Both brothers became burarr (water goanna).
Kunwinjku art is part of the oldest continuous art tradition in the world. Ancestors of today’s artists have been painting the rock walls of West Arnhem Land for tens of thousands of years. The traditional palette of white, red, yellow and black comes from the ochre that naturally occurs in the region, although contemporary artists sometimes choose to paint in acrylics as well. Kunwinjku artists famously paint using either the traditional rarrk hatching technique, or the more contemporary and complex cross hatching technique which has been adapted from ceremonial painting. These lines are painted using a manyilk, which is a piece of sedge grass shaved down until only a few fibres remain.
Artists at Injalak Art Centre have been painting on Arches 640gsm handmade watercolour paper since it was introduced as a medium by American art collecter John W. Kluge in 1990 when he commissioned a suite of paintings for the Kluge-Ruhe Collection at the University of Virginia, USA. It is archival quality and has an organic texture that mimics the natural surface of bark, making it an excellent alternative in West Arnhem Land where trees suitable for bark harvesting are much sparser than other areas of the Top End of Australia.
This painting needs to be framed. It’s also being sent direct from the artist at a remote art centre, Injalak Arts, in the top end. Please note there is only one mail plane a week that takes the artwork to Gunbalanya. The tracking information is then received a week later when the mail plane returns so often the paintings are delivered before we receive the tracking information. Please expect a slightly longer wait for this very special artwork to arrive.