Making a Mark

A Collection of Fine Spinifex Indigenous Art

Making a Mark

A Collection of Fine Spinifex Indigenous Art

Australian Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) artwork by KUNMANARA PATJU PRESLEY of Spinifex Artists. The title is Upa. [20-203] (Acrylic on Linen) Australian Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) artwork by KUNMANARA PATJU PRESLEY of Spinifex Artists. The title is Upa. [20-203] (Acrylic on Linen)
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KUNMANARA PATJU PRESLEY (dec)

Upa
20-203
Acrylic on Linen
 Upa | 20-203
Acrylic on Linen
 137 x 110cm | 53.94 x 43.31in
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This is the place, which holds the cave of the moon man, Wati Kinara. It’s called Upa. It’s between here and Irrunytju close to Awinya and Mituna. This is a big story. Tjukurpa mulapa really the truth. The Moon man took shelter inside the cave.

Patju Presley paints with such a spiritual confidence, as someone who knows their place in the Creation. Here he depicts the significant site of Upa situated in the north of traditional Spinifex Lands. This site manifests the Wati Kinara Tjukurpa (Moon Man Creation Line) and Patju tells of the Moon Man taking shelter inside the kulpi (cave) that is there. Patju states that this story he tells is the truth.

These characters that Patju depicts within a living, breathing landscape are the creation beings who shaped the immediate environment as they moved through it, leaving a moral narrative etched into the physical domain as testament to their power and presence. it is this physical, spiritual and religious existence that cannot be separated for Patju and is what gives his work the transcendent quality we experience from it.

This is the place, which holds the cave of the moon man, Wati Kinara. It’s called Upa. It’s between here and Irrunytju close to Awinya and Mituna. This is a big story. Tjukurpa mulapa really the truth. The Moon man took shelter inside the cave.

Patju Presley paints with such a spiritual confidence, as someone who knows their place in the Creation. Here he depicts the significant site of Upa situated in the north of traditional Spinifex Lands. This site manifests the Wati Kinara...