![Australian Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) artwork by LAWRENCE PENNINGTON of Spinifex Artists. The title is Pukara. [14210] (Acrylic on Linen)](https://media.redotgallery.com/stockroom/gallery/p/artwork/l/pukara-3788-LARGE-2.webp)
LAWRENCE PENNINGTON (dec)
Pukara14210
Acrylic on Linen
Pukara | 14210
Acrylic on Linen
85 x 110cm | 33.46 x 43.31in
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Lawrence Pennington has painted Pukara, which is a major Spinifex site on the northern boundary of the Spinifex Lands. At Pukara, Two Men (Wati Kutjara), a father and a son travel across the country, their presence is a powerful one. As a child the son was teased and grew up to have a menacing look in his eyes. The people were scared and appealed to the father to take him away as he had become dangerous. One day the son arose early and in the morning fog to set a trap for the people, luring them in close with the sound and smell of Kalyinpa-kalyinpa and ultultkunpa, sweet foods. As people came close the son ate them. To this day people approach the rockhole here with great care making sure the snakes are settled down with smoke first.
The large circle symbolises the main rockhole of Pukara and the smaller surrounding circles other water holes in the vicinity. The father and son are depicted as blue wavy line and the single line symbolises the son. The path way they travelled is represented by the blue and white dots.
Lawrence Pennington is a senior initiated man from Spinifex country. At the time of Lawrence’s birth in the early 1930’s, his people, the Spinifex people had no contact with Western civilisation. Lawrence grew up as a young boy living a fully traditional hunter-gatherer life. His initiations as a young man in this country have given Lawrence intimate knowledge in a physical as well as a spiritual sense of the sites and stories of the area he was born and responsible for. Lawrence’s works possess a rare power that stem from this deep connection to culture and country.