Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that the following contains the names of deceased persons.
Gaypalani Wanambi, a Yolŋu artist from Eastern Arnhem Land, makes artwork in the ‘Found movement’. She is one of several generations of artists from north-east Arnhem land repurposing industrial materials.
‘I use recycled or materials that I find on my land’, Wanambi says: ‘It is in line with my art centre's guiding principle which is, '… if you paint the land, you must use the land.”1
In Dawurr (29-23), the artist has used a rotary drill to etch images onto the back of a discarded safety sign collected on her Country near the bauxite mines around Yirrkala. Wanambi represents song poetry relating to journeys of Wuyal (the ancestral honey hunter), the life cycles of bees, and stringybark blossom found in the Marrakulu homeland of Gurka’wuy, Northern Territory.
Gaypalani Wanambi
Gaypalani Wanambi (born 1986) is based at the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre in Northern Arnhem Land. She is the daughter of a senior Yolŋu painter and filmmaker Mr Wanambi (1962-2022), who established the ‘Found movement’. Wanambi exhibits her work nationally and was a finalist in the 2023 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.
References
1. Artist correspondence with Parliament House Art Collections.
Gaypalani Wanambi (1986), Yolŋu people
Dawurr (29-23), 2023
etched found metal,
Parliament House Art Collections.