Description

Artists: Damien and Yilpi Marks, this husband and wife team collaborate to create beautiful works of art.

Design Story:

This very detailed painting describes a dry time of year in Damien’s homeland, Mount Liebig, west of Alice Springs in Central Australia. The painting illustrates aspects of landscape and culture around that area that was told to Damien by his great-grandmother and great-grandfather. There are women sitting with their children collecting bush potatoes (the mass of red shapes at the bottom of the painting). The women are talking and getting ready for a ceremony. There is one man (wati) sitting down with his spear. The spinifex is dry and so the man is walking around making bushfires. He is a good man, he is undertaking controlled burnings so the spinifex burns up and then good fruits can grow after this. There are several symbols in this painting. The small sun-like symbols represent women’s body painting – these are the images the women are painting on each other as they sit down ready for inma – traditional ceremony. There is a dry creek bed running through the painting (in red and white), and there are cracks in the ground and claypans. There are also dried rockholes (tjukula), and next to them are tali – sandhills.

Manufactured by Better World Arts (South Australia) – accredited by the Fair Trade Association of Australia

Royalties on sales are paid to the artists/their families.

Better World Arts ethos “By developing new and innovative projects, we can continue to distribute generous royalties to artists and support economic sustainability for communities in developing regions.”