nilŋnilŋ (the spark)

Tolarno Galleries, in partnership with Buku-Larrngay Mulka Centre, is delighted to present Yolngu artist Wanapati Yunupingu’s first solo exhibition.

For his debut solo exhibition with Tolarno Galleries, Yolngu artist Wanapati Yunupingu has transformed an array of found road signs and scrap metal into 24 sculptural works etched freehand with a rotary drill.

Cleverly exploiting the colourways of yellow/black and red/white, Yunupingu has etched over the existing words and symbols a series of sacred designs and narratives relating to his clan, the Gumatj, for whom yellow is a ceremonial hue.

A common feature across all of the works is a lattice-like design of repeating diamonds, which represents gurtha (‘fire’ in Yolngu) and refers to the ancestral story of the “first fire”.

As David Wickens explains in the accompanying catalogue essay:
“[The first fire’s] regenerative sparks continue to birth and rebirth itself – investing its deep knowledge in the land and the sea as it sparks the next generation into life.