[The Guardian] Bark Ladies: the painters reimagining ancestral beings, mermaids and the Yolŋu universe – in pictures

Bark Ladies: the painters reimagining ancestral beings, mermaids and the Yolŋu universe – in pictures

A new exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria – Bark Ladies: Eleven Artists from Yirrkala – celebrates the NGV’s collection of more than 70 bark paintings and larrakitj (painted hollow poles) by female artists from the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre in north-east Arnhem Land. Five of the 11 artists are living and continue to work out of the Yolŋu-run art centre.

The works explore Yolŋu conceptions of the universe, fire, totems, spiritual beings and animals as well as Australian politics. Traditionally, Yolŋu artists use materials collected from the land, mixing natural pigments, ochre and sand with traditional and synthetic binders to create paint. In recent years, some Yolŋu artists have begun mixing natural materials with discarded printer cartridges to create technicolour pigments.

• Bark Ladies: Eleven Artists from Yirrkala runs at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne until 25 April 2022
• ‘It keeps me alive’: the politically potent bark paintings of Dhambit Munuŋgurr

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