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Untitled

This work portrays an area known to the artist, painted here from memory. During the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) era one’s survival depended on their intimate knowledge of the location of resources; thus physical elements of Country, such as sources of kapi (water), tali (sandhills), and different varieties of warta (trees, vegetation) were carefully observed and remembered. Today, this relationship with Country remains equally strong, despite the movement of Martu out of the desert and into remote Aboriginal communities, towns and cities.

Also visible may be traces of life cycles based around kalyu (rain, water) and waru (fire). A thousands of year old practice, fire burning continues to be carried out as both an aid for hunting and a means of land management today. As the Martu travelled and hunted they would burn tracts of land, ensuring plant and animal biodiversity and reducing the risk of unmanageable, spontaneous bush fires. The patchwork nature of regrowth is visible in many landscape works, with each of the five distinctive phases of fire burning visually described with respect to the cycle of burning and regrowth.  

Finally, metaphysical information relating to a location may also be recorded; Jukurrpa (Dreaming) narratives chronicle the creation of physical landmarks, and can be referenced through depictions of ceremonial sites, songlines, and markers left in the land. 

Categories: Shire of East Pilbara (Martumili Artists)

Name: Sharon Porter

Language: Ngaanyatjarra

Community: Tjukurla

Biography:

"I like to paint my grandmother’s Country around Kiwirrkurra. I was painting for a long time in Tjukurla. I like to paint with all the ladies, sitting around painting all together.” 

- Sharon Porter

Sharon Porter is part of the new generation of Martumili Artists. Inspired by the wisdom and creative legacy of the most senior and established artists in the group, these young and emerging artists are moving desert art forward in innovative and experimental directions.

Born in Alice Springs, Sharon grew up moving between remote desert communities along the Western Australian and Northern Territory borders; Kintore, Tjukurla, Warakuna and Kaltukatjarra (also known as Docker River). At this time, she lived principally with her grandfather, Anatjari Tjakamarra (dec.), and grandmother, Katjarra Butler- both celebrated artists in their own right. More recently, Sharon has been living in Kunawarritji with her aunt and fellow Martumili Artist, Roma Gibson.

Sharon learned to paint organically, watching her grandfather and grandmother at work and in this way absorbing their distinctive techniques and styles. In her own paintings, elements of Anatjari and Katjarra’s styles can be identified, with her bold, unrestrained geometric designs reminiscent of her grandmother’s work, and her intricate patterning paying homage to her grandfather’s style.

As stated by Sharon, she paints principally about her grandmother’s Country in the Kiwirrkurra area. Kiwirrkurra is a rockhole located in the tali (sandhill) Country of the Gibson Desert, to the south west of Lake McKay. An Aboriginal community by the same name is now located nearby, to the west of the water source.

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