Punu – Living Wood
SALON Art Projects and Maruku Arts present Punu - Living Wood, an exhibition of carved wooden objects by multidisciplinary artists from remote communities spanning the Western and Central Desert regions.
The exhibition includes hand carved kali (boomerangs), wana (digging sticks), piti (collection bowls) and a range of walka boards, designs that are burnt/painted and etched onto plywood.
Punu is the Pitjantjatjara word for ‘living wood’. The carvings on show present both traditional and contemporary elements. The piti, wiras and mimpus – all sorts of bowls traditionally produced over generations for daily use, are engraved or left natural to form impressive contemporary sculptures. The walka board (walka meaning design or pattern) is a relatively new medium that enables artists to express their wood carving skills in contemporary ways. Artists engrave their stories and designs, just like painting a canvas. Some use fencing wires heated in the fire, other use a pyrography-pen.
Niningka Lewis is an established artist whose colourful boards illustrate the arrival of the first camels and white people in the desert, they tell the story of the Maralinga Atomic-bomb tests in the desert, and about life in the missions.
Younger artists have learned the burning skills from their parents and grandparents but have taken the designs further. Dallas Smythe and Cynthia Burke are two young artists from Warakurna who have developed their own way of expressing themselves on walka boards and sculptures.
Punu – Living Wood fuses together youth, wisdom, tradition and present-day, culminating in a beautiful exhibition of three-dimensional work,
IMAGE: Billy Cooley, Piti Walkatjara - Collecting Bowl with Design, 2019, photograph by Fiona Morrison
Katie Brown
Sandy Dodd
Ned Grant
Lydon Stevens
Robert Woods
Lalla West
Fred Ward
Noli Rictor
Stanley Presley Patju
Lulu Cooley
Billy Cooley
Ernest Bennett
Cynthia Burke
Dallas Smythe
Reggie Uluru
Kathryn Queama
Niningka Lewis
