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Owen Yalandja

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Selected works
FW15861
Spirit cast (Yawkyawk) suite of 5 ed of 15
FW15862
Spirit cast (Yawkyawk) suite of 5 edn 4/15
Bio

 

Kuninjku artist Owen Yalandja is a senior member of the Dangkorlo clan, the custodians of an important yawkyawk site. Members of the Dangkorlo clan have set up their outstation community at Barrihdjowkkeng near a billabong that is a Yirridjdja moiety sacred site for the yawkyawk spirits. Yawkyawk or young spirit girls live in this billabong and their shadows can occasionally be seen as they flee the smell of humans who approach the water. They are imagined to have been girls who transformed into mermaid- like figures with fish tails. The identity of this group is very much related to their yawkyawk dreaming for which they have spiritual and practical responsibility.

Yalandja's repertoire is almost exclusively concerned with representations of the yawkyawk spirits in sculpted form. In the early 1980s, Yalandja learned carving from his father, renowned artist Crusoe Kuningbal who invented, in the early 1970s the representation of mimih spirit in sculptural form for use in a trade ceremony called Mamurrng. Yalandja and his brother Crusoe Kurddal followed their father's legacy but over the years have found their own styles. In the early 1990s, Yalandja experimented with the dot patterns his father taught him, and created V shaped marks to suggest scales of the watery beings. As Yalandja has said

I make it [yawkyawk] according to my individual ideas ()My father used to decorate them with dots. A long time ago, he showed me how to do this. But this style is my own, no one else does them like this.

Yalandja only uses kurrajong tree for carving and carefully selects trunks which can be thin and curvilinear to give his figures a sinuous appearance.

Yalandja is now teaching his son Dustin Bonson to carve and make mimih spirits. Yalandja is also well known in the Maningrida area as a singer for the Yawkyawk style diplomacy ceremonies. His work is now represented in major Australian collections and has been exhibiting his works in many group shows since 1993.

Courtesy Maningrida Arts & Culture centre, 2016

Story/Statement

 

YAWKYAWK
Yawkyawk is a word in the Kunwinjku/Kunwok language of Western Arnhem Land meaning 'young woman' and 'young woman spirit being'. The different groups of Kunwinjku people (one of the Eastern dialect groups call themselves Kuninjku) each have Yawkyawk mythologies, which relate to specific locations in clan estates. These mythologies are represented in bark paintings and sculptures of Yawkyawk beings. There are also a few examples of rock art images of these beings.

The female water spirits Yawkyawk or Ngalkunburriyaymi are perhaps the most enigmatic of mythological themes. Sometimes compared to the European notion of mermaids, they exist as spiritual beings living in freshwater streams and rock pools, particularly those in the stone country. The spirit Yawkyawk is usually described and depicted with the tail of a fish. Thus the Kuninjku people sometimes call them ngalberddjenj which literally means 'the young woman who has a tail like a fish'. They have long hair, which is associated with trailing blooms of green algae (called man-bak in Kuninjku). At times they leave their aquatic homes to walk about on dry land, particularly at night.

Aboriginal people believe that in the beginning most animals were humans. During the time of the creation of landscapes and plants and animals, these ancestral heroes in human form transmutated into their animal forms via a series of various significant events now recorded as oral mythologies. The creation ancestor Yawkyawk travelled the country in human form and changed into the form of Ngalkunburriyaymi as a result of various ancestral adventures. Today the Kuninjku believe that Ngalkunburriyaymi are alive and well and living in freshwater sites in a number of sacred locations.

Some features of a respective country are equated with body parts of Yawkyawk. For example a bend in a river or creek may be said to be 'the tail of the Yawkyawk, a billabong may be 'the head of the Yawkyawk and so on. Thus different groups can be linked together by means of a shared mythology featured in the landscape, which crosscuts clan and language group boundaries.

Courtesy of Maningrida Arts & Culture Centre 2014

CV

 

Owen Yalandja CV

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2015 Owen Yalandja, Seva Frangos Art, Subiaco, Australia

2011 Yawkyawk: Water Spirit Carvings from Maningrida, Rebecca Hossack, London

2010 Owen Yalandja: Yawkyawk, Seva Frangos Art, Subiaco, Australia

2008 Owen Yalandja, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, NSW

2005 Owen Yalandja, William Mora Galleries, Melbourne, VIC

2004 Owen Yalandja, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, NSW

2002 Owen Yalandja, Redback Gallery, Brisbane, Australia

2000 Owen Yalandja. Water Spirit Sculptures from Barrihdjowkeng, Aboriginal & Pacific Arts, Sydney, NSW

 

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2018  Mardayin, Art Kelch, Freiburg, Germany

2018 From Coast to Escarpment: Spirit Worlds of Maningrida, Michael Reid, Sydney, NSW

2018 Outstation, Outstation Gallery, Darwin, NT

2016 Owen Yalandja, Bob Burruwal, Jack Nawilil: New Yawkyawk Spirits and Sculptures, Annandale Gallery, Sydney, Australia

2016 Sentient Lands, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW

2015 Black Art / White Walls, Curated by Djon Mundine, Counihan Gallery, Melbourne, VIC

2014 Four Spirits from Maningrida, FireWorks Gallery

2012 Dream Catchers, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney

2012 Maningrida Group Show, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC

2011 Maningrida 2011 - Where the Dreaming Changes Shape, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC

2011 Shalom Gamarana Ngiyani Yana, Waterhole Art,Sydney, Australia

2011 Maningrida Arts and Culture, Annandale Gallery, Sydney, Australia

2010 Togart Contemporary Art Exhibition, Chan Contemporary Arts Space, Darwin, Australia

2009 Menagerie, Melbourne Museum, Melbourne, VIC

2009 Orche - A Study in Materiality, Short Street Gallery, Broome, WA

2009 Maningrida Group Show, Maningrida Arts & Culture Gallery, Darwin, NT

 

2009 26th Telstra National & Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin

2009 Spirit Beings and Ceremonial Lorrkon, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC

2008 Gungura - The Spiraling Wind, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, NSW

2008 Melbourne Art Fair, Art Fair, William Mora Galleries, Melbourne

2008 Maningrida Survey, Short Street Gallery, Broome, WA

2007 One sun, one moon, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW

2007 Spirit in Variation Part II, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, NSW

2007 Spirit in Variation, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, NSW

2007 Culture Warriors, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT

2007 rarrk, Bargehouse Gallery, London, UK

2006 Untitled, Togart Contemporary Art exhibition, Darwin, NT

2006 Australian Aboriginal Art 2006/2007, John Gordon Gallery, Coffs Harbour, NSW

2006 Lorrkons and Spirit Figures, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, NSW

2006 23rd Telstra National & Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin

2006 Sculptures from Maningrida, William Mora Galleries, Melbourne, VIC

2006 Dream Tracks, Aboriginal art of Arnhem Land, La Fontaine Centre of Contemporay Art, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain

2005 rarrk, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, NSW

2005 Spirit Beings and Lorrkon, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC

2005 Aboriginal vision in Contemporary Australian Art, Wright exhibition space, Seattle, USA

2004 Crossing country: the alchemy of western Arnhem Land art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW

2003 Next Generation, William Mora Galleries, Melbourne, VIC

2003 The Visit, Annandale galleries, Sydney, NSW

2003 People, Fire-Works Gallery, Brisbane, QLD

2003 Dreamtime, contemporary aboriginal art, Cankarjev Dom Ljubljana, Slovenia

2003 Mythological beings from Maningrida, Hogarth Galleris, Sydney, NSW

2002 19th Telstra National & Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin

2002 East + West, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, NSW

2001 In the Heart of Arnhem Land. Myth and the making of contemporary Aboriginal art, Musée del l’Hôtel-Dieu, Mantes-la-Jolie, France

2001 18th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, NT

2001 Outside in: Research Engagements with Arnhem Land Art, Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT

2001 Vital fluids, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra, ACT

2000 Biennale Of Sydney 2000, Biennale Of Sydney, various venues at various location, NSW

1999 My Country: Australische Aboriginal Kunst, Brandweer Kazerne, Utrecht, Netherlands

1999 Spirit Country: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Gantner Myer Collection, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA

1998 Spirits of the Dreaming Jarraman Arts Aboriginal Corporation, National Aboriginal Cultural Centre, Sydney, NSW

1997 Metamorphosis, Gallery Pizzi at Venice Biennale Palazzo Papadopoli, Venice, Italy

1996 Dreaming: Aboriginal Art from Australia, Galerie Kouwenhoven, Delft, Netherlands

1996 Dreaming: Aboriginal Art from Australia, Galerie Kouwenhoven, Delft, Netherlands

1996 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC

1996 Maningrida Exhibition, Indigenart, Subiaco, WA

1996 Spirits of the Dreaming, Raintree, Raintree Fine Art Gallery, Darwin, NT

1994 Pitture e Sculture dell Australia Aborigena, Touring Italy: Spazio Krizia, Milan; Palazzo Butera, Palermo; Museo di Architetture e Scultura Ligure di Sant Agostino, Genova.

1993 Group Maningrida Exhibition, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney, NSW

1993 The Tenth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, NT

 

COLLECTIONS

Helen Read Collection, Darwin, Australia

Aimee Proost Private Collection, Australia

Laverty Collection, Sydney, Australia

Artbank, Sydney, Australia

Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

Coopers & Lybrand Collection, Utrecht, Netherlands

David Betz private collection, New York, USA

Kluge Collection, Morven Estate, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, Australia

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia

Walonia Aboriginal Art, The Netherlands

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia

Macquarie Bank Art Collection, Australia

Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia

Museum of Aboriginal Art, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Gantner Myer Collection, United States of America

William and Lucy Mora Private Collection, Melbourne, Australia

Musee des Confluences, Lyon, France