To my people, colour and spirituality are intertwined and colour gives meaning to the everyday aspects of our traditional lives, like gathering food and medicines and forecasting the weather.
When our Creators, the male and female Rainbow Serpents first emerged from the earth, they were transparent. They gave themselves colour to protect them from the sun.
We still use the healing colours of ochre in our ceremonies, red for men and yellow for women.
Artwork visual and list of works on application
Artist Statement:
Colin Walangari Karntawarra McCormack is
an Australian Aboriginal elder from Alice Springs who now lives and works in Sydney. He is an
international award winning “CentralWesternDesert”
painter and his colourful and spellbinding works tell the traditional Dreaming
Stories of the world’s oldest living culture.
Walangari’s work has
been exhibited extensively both in Australia and internationally. He
uses his art as a means of cross-cultural communication and he is dedicated to
improving the lot of his people.
Multi talented, he is
also a gifted musician, teacher, public speaker and performer with a wonderful
stage presence.
Born in 1961, Walangari
is of the Arrernte, Luritja, Walpiri, Yankuntjatjarra, Pintubi, Anmatjerre and
Alyawarre peoples of the Central and WesternDesert
His early childhood was
spent living a carefree, traditional lifestyle in the Australian outback. His
direct family line includes the famous water colourist Albert Namatjira and two of the founding
fathers of the Papunya Tula movement, Clifford Possum and Paddy Carroll.
Walangari has two university degrees and has
held many executive positions and directorships of various Aboriginal Councils.
He chaired CAAMA (the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association), the
first Aboriginal owned radio station and was a director of the first Aboriginal
television station, Imparja. He is committed to helping ensure that the voice
of Aboriginal Australia is heard.
Walangari's life and
paintings have been featured in many television documentaries and publications
including the “International Artist” magazine.
The National Gallery of Australia has
acquired one of his early works.
While his paintings tell the traditional stories
of his people and feature the iconography of the "WesternDesert",
Walangari uses a fuller colour spectrum and unique effects to forge a striking
path within modern Aboriginal Art.
In 1995 he painted the first prize for the
inaugural Indigenous Surfing Competition sponsored by Billabong and Coca Cola.
The AustralianMuseum featured Walangari
in the CD ROM that they produced as part of their "Living Colour"
exhibition in March 2000.
He was commissioned to paint a work for the
Rugby World Cup Paris Exhibition in 2003 and in the same year his work featured
in the annual selling exhibition “Art Paris” in the Carrousel du Louvre.
In June 2008 he was awarded the “Green
Leaf Award” for artistic excellence in painting by the United Nations
Environment Programme and the NaturalWorldMuseum.
