Nawurapu Wunungmurra

The Hand, the Eye & the Heart | 1 October 2011 — 12 February 2012 | GOMA | Free admission

Nawurapu Wunungmurra’s five larrakitj (memorial poles) describe the journey of a spirit in north-east Arnhem Land as it sings its way along fresh waterways to the coast, to where tidal surges and brackish floodplains meet and mingle with salty sea water. From there the spirit is carried out to the deep Yirritja-moiety ocean waters on the horizon.

Wunungmurra focuses here on the moment of truth for the spirit. With a powerful leap of faith, it transforms into a drop of saltwater and becomes vapour, rising eventually to its mother’s bosom in the Wangupini (cumulonimbus clouds) that sit on the horizon. Pregnant with life-giving water, these maternal clouds move across the land and shed their rain, which flows as rivulets off the escarpment: the cycle continues. Arts coordinator Will Stubbs has said that ‘to continue its eternal journey, the spirit is obliged to confront the obstacle of mortality and find the rhythm, imagination or power to leap blindly into an unknown dimension’.