Artists statement

Nyapanyapa Yunupingu is a senior Yolngu artist based in Yirrkala in North East Arnhem Land. Yunupingu’s paintings and drawings are highly idiosyncratic because she often depicts personal observations, or merely ‘things she likes’. This is distinctive from many of those of her Yolngu peers who adhere to a stricter approach to the telling of ancestral stories such as dreaming narratives expressed through clan designs. This marks Yunupingu as one of the most striking and experimental visual artists in the region.

This series of Djorra works come from a 2015 exhibition titled Lawarra Maypa, a Macassan term for ‘pages and pages’. They are exemplary of Yunupingu’s experimental approach, and of the prolific nature of her practice. The works are executed in materials found lying around the print workshop of Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre where Yunupingu works, and include paper from a photoshoot, print paper, permanent markers, white pipe clay (a naturally occurring ochre in North East Arnhem Land), and gadayka (stringy bark) hollowed out by termites to form a larrakitj or ceremonial pole. The key motifs of Lawarra Maypa are Yunupingu and her sisters (the figures depicted in dresses) and laranni (bush apple trees). These are combined with mayilimiriw, linear and circular patterns and other non-sacred marks that are used to cover up sacred stories from uninitiated viewers.