Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr
Aboriginal Art: Tjukurrpa
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Current ExhibitionInternet Tour of PaintingsArtistsThe Gallery in SpeyerVisiting the GalleryOpening HoursActivitiesCatalogue DM39,-Aboriginal ArtStylesTjukurrpaCopyrightLiterature in the GalleryBibliographyOutback PhotosCentral AustraliaNorthwest AustraliaNorth AustraliaMap of AustraliaLatest ChangesThe following text is part of the article "The Unseen in Scene" from the exhibition catalogue "Das Verborgene im Sichtbaren. The Unseen in Scene":
"Although, visually and conceptually, the paintings speak for themselves and are capable of casting their own special spell on the viewer, one can gain a better understanding of them if a brief look is taken at the many different facets of tjukurrpa (1)- facets that are mutually related, interacting with each other and forming a highly complex system of ideas from the Aboriginal world view and religion.
Tjukurrpa manifests itself primarily in the Aboriginal ancestors who, in the distant past, travelled across the land, moulded the landscape, created man and his abilities as well as animals and plants and who eventually sank back into the land, became part of it and are still present today. Geographical features still mark episodes from these ancestral journeys, features which are often places of reverence and therefore under protection.
The heavens, too, are populated by ancestors who came down to earth to share in the act of creation and who then went back to heaven again.
The Aborigines have numerous song cycles and stories about the journeys and activities of their ancestors which connect remote parts of the country and thus different groups of people. In other words, each group with its own culture and language owns parts of a larger song cycle or longer story and is thus united with others in tjukurrpa.
The ancestral activities and journeys come to life through the singing and dancing that are part of Aboriginal religious ceremonies as well as in their earth sculptures and sand paintings. The stories and song cycles contain the Aborigines´ knowledge about animals, plants, food, medicine and morality which enable human society and survival. They are not in any way mystical, but served the purpose of conveying knowledge and recording history. Even today, they have a very practical significance, serving as topographical descriptions of the land, helping, for example, to look for water or to find one´s way in the desert.
But tjukurrpa means much more. The Aborigines do not make a distinction between the spiritual and the material, the natural and the supernatural. Tjukurrpa means both creation and the rules of interaction within society. It combines the past, the present and the future, with no hard and fast dividing lines between them. Man is part of tjukurrpa, just as tjukurrpa is part of man, his spiritual, psychological and material identity. Tjukurrpa is both wisdom and existence. At the same time, it is the law, given to man by his ancestors. In this way, every natural and cultural phenomenon is related to all the others.
Tjukurrpa, the world view it expresses, the ancestral law, the stories and the concepts of the land - none of this is static. The new elements of the changing environment and the incidents that occurred when Aborigines were persecuted in recent history have become part of tjukurrpa. For everything new is as old as the world itself, because it has always been part of the great design of tjukurrpa.
The Land
The Aborigines have a special relationship with the land. The land is more than a material entity that provides food and medicine, it also has a spiritual dimension. It is not owned, it is held in trust. The land is synonymous with a "spiritual home". Each person belongs to a certain part of the land, just as, conversely, the land belongs to him. The land contains the identity of a person, even before they are born. Not surprisingly therefore, the forced resettlement policy of the Australian government, which started at the turn of the century and continued until the 1960s, led to one of the Aborigines´ most painful experiences, as they were compelled to leave the land to which they belonged and to settle in remote places. Consequently, the increase in political freedom in the early 1970s immediately produced a reversal, as people began to move back to their ancestral areas.
Anne Pattle-Gray, the first Aborigine to earn a doctorate in theology, described the relationship between man and the land, as follows: ´Our lives have always centred upon the natural, spiritual world _ It is only through our spiritual link with the earth that we can preserve our identity. Therefore we see ourselves in the same categories as the land. To us, the earth is sacred. It is a living creature in which other living creatures have their origins and their destinies. It is the origin of our identity, the root of our spirituality and our dreaming, and the basis of our service. We are spiritually bound to the earth. By being committed to nature we can warrant our own well-being.´
Tjukurrpa as Inspiration
Every Aborigine possesses one or more tjukurrpas or stories, inherited from their parents or grandparents. These tjukurrpas are the spiritual link with a certain part of the land and, in many cases, a specific plant or animal. The land, tjukurrpa, man and stories - including stories told through a painting - are closely connected: tjukurrpa refers to the land which is part of a person and the stories which belong to the land.
Tjukurrpa is true. It is the real world as we experience it, but it is also the spiritual world behind it. Its strength consists in the combination of both - a strength that becomes visible in the art. They are powerful paintings, and regardless of whether they are sometimes more lyrical in style, with muted colours, or whether they are precisely dotted, with symbols that stand out distinctly against the background, they always convey a great presence and strength.
The artists are inspired by their tjukurrpas and their art is therefore about the essential things in life which determine a person´s destiny both materially and spiritually. Tjukurrpa unites the visible and the invisible. It is that inner quality which is shown to the outside, yet remains hidden.
This can be seen on a variety of levels - in the stories, in the various planes of the compositions and in iconographic encryption."
(1) Tjukurrpa is a word in the language of the Warlpiri in central Australia. The Gija in the Kimberleys refer to it as ngarrangkarni, the Ngarinjin - also in the Kimberleys - call it lalai, and the Arrernte altyerre, altjeringa, alcheringa or aldjerinya.
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and Artist
Letzte Änderung am 2000-02-18
