STUDIO education resource - Museums & Galleries NSW

JOHN MAWURNDJUL
JOHN MAWURNDJUL
KUNWINJKU COUNTRY, NT
John Mawurndjul’s studio is his country, Kunwinjku country, in Arnhem
land in northern Australia. Mawurndjul works mostly outside – often under
an awning that runs from his house situated in his traditional homelands.
Sometimes he works in the larger centre of Maningrida where he visits for
art business and to see friends and family.
This photograph by Ian Lloyd was taken in Maningrida at a friend’s house,
the day before Mawurndjul traveled to Paris to work on a commission for
the Quai Branly museum. Mawurndjul is shown sitting crossed legged on
the ground with a hollow log in front of him. He applies ochre, ground from
a stone, with a brush made from only a few long hairs, to the log or bark in
a delicate pattern of lines known as rrark.
While Mawurndjul’s patterns may appear abstract they are actually the
secret marks of a traditional ceremony known as the Mardayin ceremony.
The enactment of this ceremony is the subject of his large bark painting
titled Mardayin at Dilebang 2005. Painted directly onto bark, Mawurndjul
uses PVA glue to help bind the ochre and give the surface a shimmering
effect. The bark used in painting is harvested during the wet season from
the large stringy bark trees, which are a type of Eucalyptus tree, found
across his country.
Born in 1952, Mawurndjul began painting in the late 1970s and today he is
widely acknowledged as the greatest living bark painter.
Using a world
map find the place where
Mawurndjul lives on a map.
Shade in the area of Arnhem
Land. Find Paris on the map
then mark the journey.
What music is he playing
on the stereo? What music
do you to listen to when you
work?
Can you find evidence of
music in the other artists’
studios?
Look at the palette
photograph and compare
Mawurndjul’s ochre painting
process with other painting
processes in the resource.
Choose two palette pictures
and annotate these by listing
the materials, tools and
processes you can see.
Watch the Art and Soul video
to discover how Mawurndjul
harvests the bark for his
works:
www.abc.net.au/arts/artandsoul/flash/default.htm
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