Description
Jay Jurrupula Biography
- Artist skin name:
- Clan: Barappa
- Born: 1983
- Language group: Kune/Rembarrnga
- Community: Gunbalanya (Oenpelli) NT
Jay grew up in Korlobidahdah outstation about 2 hours from Maningrida. She start to learn weaving techniques when she was 17 years old by watching her grandmother, mother and auntie.
Jay is a talented Maningrida artist who works with detailed linocut fabric, drawing and screen print at Babbarra Designs. Her work is exciting and portrays the ancestral stories of Namurre Boko (two brothers story) and Modjarrkki in her work. She loves to illustrate the plants and animals that live in the freshwater country around her fathers homeland of Korlobidahdah, Arnhem Land.
The Modjarrkki story belongs to the Barappa clan and is from the Duwa Country Dukala-djarranj and Kolorbidahdah located in the stone country of West Arnhem Land. The Songline and story has been passed down to Jay by her father (Dad’s brother) and is a true story, a story that really happened. This story is still practiced through bunggul during cultural celebrations and gatherings.
Jay has been exhibited nationally and internationally through Maningrida Arts & Culture. She is also a busy mum with three children.
When she spends time with family in Darwin and brings works to Songlines.
Past Group Exhibitions with Maningrida Arts & Culture
- 2017 Karridjowkke Kunronj (Crossing Streams), Nomad Art, Darwin, NT
- 2002 Barks in the spotlight Utrecht, The Netherlands, Barks in the spotlight, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- 2000, Bushcolour: Works on paper by female artists from the Maningrida region, Bushcolour: Works on paper by female artists from the Maningrida region Hazlehurst Regional Gallery & Art centre, Gymea, NSW Touring Australia and USA (2001)
- 1999, Bushcolour: Works on paper by female artists from the Maningrida region, Bushcolour: Works on paper by female artists from the Maningrida region Northern Territory University Gallery, Darwin, NT
- 1999, Claiming Title: Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art and the Land Touring exhibtion, Claiming Title: Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art and the Land Touring exhibition
Collections
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT
Arnhem Land art is part of the oldest continuous art tradition in the world. Ancestors of today’s artists have been painting the rock walls of West and Central Arnhem Land for tens of thousands of years. The traditional palette of white, red, yellow and black comes from the ochre that naturally occurs in the region, although contemporary artists sometimes choose to paint in acrylics as well. The artists famously paint using either the traditional rarrk cross-hatching technique, or the more contemporary and complex cross hatching technique which has been adapted from ceremonial painting. These lines are carefully painted using a manyilk, which is a piece of sedge grass shaved down until only a few fibres remain.
