Lot 56
Djirrirra Wunungmurra(born 1968)Yukuwa, 2012
2 December 2025, 18:00 AEDT
SydneyAU$3,000 - AU$5,000
Ask about this lot
Alex Clark
Head of Sale, Senior Specialist
Merryn Schriever
Managing Director, Australia
Djirrirra Wunungmurra (born 1968)
Yukuwa, 2012
natural earth pigments on incised found board
98.0 x 63.0cm (38 9/16 x 24 13/16in).
natural earth pigments on incised found board
98.0 x 63.0cm (38 9/16 x 24 13/16in).
Footnotes
PROVENANCE
Buku-Larrngay Mulka, Yirrkala (documentation attached verso, cat. 4181X)
Annandale Galleries, Sydney (label attached verso, cat. BLA 790)
The Sarick Collection, Canada
EXHIBITED
FOUND: GUNYBI GANAMBARR, DJIRRIRRA WUNUNGMURRA & RALWURRANDJI WANAMBI, contemporary indigenous work incorporating found objects, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, 23 July - 31 August 2013, illus. in exhibition catalogue, p. 33
The Buku-Larrngay Mulka documentation attached verso reads:
'Yukuwa is one of the personal names of the artist and Yukuwa is the topic of this work. Almost a self-portrait.
This motif first arose when she had been challenged about her right to paint Buyku the fishtrap imagery of her own clan and homeland by a family member. Rather than argue she retorted by painting imagery which in one sense is her own personal identity. The complaints in relation to Buyku evaporated but Djirrirra persists with the Yukuwa imagery with the encouragement of her art centre.
This piece is a reference to Yirritja renewal ceremony which is by definition a shared communion of Yirritja moiety clans which does not relate to circumcision or mortuary rites.
Spirits of deceased people are on a cyclical journey from their point of death to the reservoir of souls particular to their clan identity. But at these irregular ceremonies they all congregate for one last dance together before heading their separate ways.'