REV-22

Albert Pilkington

Martumili Artists

Untitled

Acrylic on canvas: 60.3 x 46.1 x 2.3

These works relate to more intangible concepts; life cycles based around kalyu (rain, water) and waru (fire) are also often evident. Thousands of years old, the practice of fire burning continues to be carried out as both an aid for hunting and a means of land management today. As the Martu travelled and hunted they would burn tracts of land, ensuring plant and animal biodiversity and reducing the risk of unmanageable, spontaneous bush fires. The patchwork nature of regrowth is evident in many landscape works, with each of the five distinctive phases of fire burning visually described with respect to the cycle of burning and regrowth.