Susan James

Walka Board

45
votes

Susan James

Walka Board

Medium: Acrylic and burnt wire on wood
Year: 2010
Price: $ POA
POA

‘Walka’ is the name of the design used for silks, cottons and other fabric-making, prints and postcards which developed in the Pitjantjatjara community of Pukatja (Ernabella) in the 1950s and 60s. Yet ‘walka’ (which literally means ‘design’) has also come to mean a very different style in an entirely new technique developed by artists at Mutitjulu and in other areas of the PY and NPY lands working with Maruku. In these striking small board paintings, the design is made by a mix of burnt wire incision and acrylic paint. Designs are most often those based on sand and body design with the first series strikingly effective in their restricted palette of brown, black and white. Now other colours such as orange and red are also used. Exhibited at Sydney’s Birrung Gallery for the first time in 2007, the boards became an instant success as an innovative melding of existing and new techniques.

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