CLIFFORD POSSUM TJAPALTJARRI

Painted at Warrandyte, Victoria in 1994

The painting is in good condition with minor scuffs to the canvas edges. There are no signs of repair or restoration.
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This painting is sold with an eight minute DVD of the artist in the process of painting this work together with accompanying photographs of the artist and artwork as well as descriptive notes by Milanka J. Sullivan. The documentation bears the number CPT/ EJM:94005 and reads as follows: "In this painting, the artist gives symbolic expression to a sacred Untyiye, or Corkwood Ceremony, which has been practiced by Anmatjerre Law Men from one generation to another, since the dawn of Creation, in Dreamtime.

Interrelated to the native Untyiye, or Corkwood Tree (Hakea Cordophylia), this ceremony is essentially a Malierra, or initiation ceremony, in which male tribal youths, who were born within Untyiye's native area of Coniston, undergo ritual learning experiences as part of their passage to manhood.

Representing Untyiye's corroboree camp and sacred ceremonial sandpainting, the symbolic circle in the middle of the canvas, is shown with two wavy parallel lines, which give expression to the corroboree men's bodypaint and incisions, that the men host on their bodies, as they engage in ritual song, dance and secret/sacred practice.

Besides giving form to this ceremony, the imagery in this painting also doubles as a tree itself. In that, the sandpainting or symbolic circle lends to the tree's trunk, while the bodypaint, or parallel lines represent Untyiye's branches, which are dominated by brownish flecks, that pose as the sacred nectar, which is found in the Untyiye's precious fruit.

Depicting this fruit as pear-like motifs, this paintings also shows the two stages of this fruits development. The lighter motifs for example, represent the young fruit , while the darker shapes, in contrast, show the fruit at its best, or ripe and full of the Untyiye's sacred nectar, which the artist likens in taste to soft drink, such as Coca Cola.

Though unlike soft drink, Corkwood nectar is a thirst quenching, sacred liquid, that along with the tree it comes from, takes pride of place in this Corkwood ceremony, and in the hearts and minds of Anmatjerre people, as it did in the Dreamtime, on the Tanami Desert, during Creation".