Bark painting
Photograph by avlxyzon Flickr.
Such designs were often deliberately Bark painting smeared before they could be seen by women or non-initiates, because of the power imparted, which would be dangerous for someone who was not able to handle Impressionism it. The content depicted by the painting is often either a traditional Dreaming story or a map. A Yolngu person can immediately identify the Bark painting clan and moiety of the painter from that design, which then also provides further context for interpreting the symbolism of the geometric designs. Cross-hatching is perhaps one of the most distinctive and beautiful features of Yolngu art.
The buyer may therefore receive a watered-down or distorted version of the Bark painting story. Most of the following is based on Morphy (1991), where far more detail may be found, and refers specifically to the Yolngu paintings from Yirrkala, although the same principles will largely apply elsewhere. To understand a Yolngu bark-painting fully, one has to be Yolngu. After heating in the fire, the bark Bark painting is flattened under foot and weighted with stones or logs to dry flat.
The canvas is then ready to paint upon. Earth pigments - or ochres - in red, yellow and black are used and are mineral oxides of iron and manganese. When Donald Thomson first came Bark painting to Yirrkala in 1933, only paintings with clan designs had borders.
While the designs themselves are ancient, the medium of painting them on a piece of flattened bark is a relatively modern phenomenon, although there is some evidence that artists would paint designs on the bark walls and roofs of their shelters. The modern form of bark painting first appeared in the 1930s, when missionaries at Yirrkala and Milingimbi asked the local Yolngu people to produce bark paintings that could be sold in the cities of New South Wales and Victoria. Sometimes the elements of a story are obvious - such as those depicting men or animals - but sometimes the elements are symbolic.
White pipeclay, or calcium carbonate, is also used. Morphy gives the example of a circle and a line, which a non-initiate is told represents a “kangaroo water hole”, and depicts a water hole with a creek running into it.
Even those non-indigenous people who, like Morphy, have spent years studying the subject, are still reduced to analogies. Nowadays, the value of a fine bark painting depends not only on the skill and fame of the artist, and on the quality of the art itself, but also on the degree to which the artwork encapsulates the culture by telling a traditional story. The very best artists of Bark painting are recognised annually in the Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. The barest necessities for bark artwork are paint, brushes, bark, fixative and a fire. The material of choice is the bark from Stringybark (Eucalyptus tetradonta).
The following limited explanation therefore only skims the surface of meaning. A bark painting consists of several components, not all of which may be present in an individual painting, and which are generally applied in the following order: In all cases, the bark is first covered with a layer of ochre, which is usually red or white, occasionally yellow, and rarely black. The border, if present, is usually yellow. Yolngu culture takes a holistic view of the world, in which these meanings may not be so very different after all.
A fixative, traditionally orchid juice, is added over the top. The sacred designs on which bark paintings are based included abstract patterns and designs (such as cross-hatching in particular colours) which identify a clan, and also often contain elements of the Eternal Dreamtime. Traditionally, bark paintings were produced for instructional and ceremonial purposes and were transient objects.
Ochres may be fixed with a binder such as PVA glue, or in the old days, with the sap or juice of plants such as orchid bulbs. After the painting is completed, the bark is splinted at either end to keep the painting flat. As the trade grew, and the demand for paintings increased, leading artists such as Narritjin Maymuru started being asked to mount exhibitions. It was, however, not until the 1980s that bark paintings started being regarded as fine art, as opposed to an interesting Indigenous handicraft, and commanded high prices accordingly on the international art markets.
Alternatively, the story behind the painting may be one which cannot be told to an uninitiated person. Sometimes different feature blocks depict different scenes in a story, and the painting as a whole tells the whole story. Figurative designs are those which resemble a real (or mythological) object or being.
Thus a figurative design of a possum “looks like” a possum, as opposed to being an abstract symbol for a possum which is recognisable only to someone who is versed in this symbolism. The motives of the missionaries were to earn money that that would help pay for the mission, and also to educate white Australians about Yolngu culture (Morphy 1991).
It is best cut from the tree in the wet season when the sap is rising. At a later ceremony, when he says he knows it’s a “kangaroo water hole”, he is told “That water hole was made by the old man kangaroo digging in the ground with his tail to make a well for water, using his tail as a digging stick”.
What appears to the tourist as a series of wavy lines punctuated by dots may actually be telling a complex Dreaming story describing the path of a creator spirit, and the events that happened along the way. An uninitiated man or woman is only allowed to paint outside stories - in other words, the sort of story that might be told to a child. The bark chosen must be free of knots and other blemishes.
For example, a circle might represent a water hole, a campsite, a mat, a campfire, a nut, an egg, a hole left by maggots, etc. Later, he is told an even more complex story involving a female kangaroo.
Only the inner smooth bark is kept and placed in a fire. Each feature block can be regarded as a complete composition, distinct from the other feature blocks.
Thus a painting may be displayed in an exhibition, or put up for sale, but the artist, although having the right to paint the story, does not have the right to tell the story to another person. Today, they are keenly sought after by collectors and public arts institutions. The designs seen on authentic bark paintings are traditional designs that are owned by the artist, or his skin , or his clan, and cannot be painted by other artists.
Nowadays, borders may be found on any type of painting. A painting is often divided into several distinct sections (or feature blocks ) by a series of dividing lines. The chosen colours may be a specific to a particular clan, and the effect is difficult to describe, but produces a deep impression on the viewer.
A clan design may consist of a combination of symbols, geometric designs, and cross hatching, One clan symbol, for example, consists of a series of interlocking diamonds painted in particular colours, whilst another includes symbols of a “sugar-bag” (wild honey). An initiated man can paint an inside story, which is itself restricted knowledge.
Two horizontal slices and a single vertical slice are made into the tree, and the bark is then carefully peeled off with the aid of a sharpened tool. Bark painting is an Australian Aboriginal art-form which is done on the interior strip of a tree bark.
Sometimes it will be both, because the ancestral stories and songs often refer to the paths of creation ancestors as they travel across the land (see songlines). An example is given by Morphy of a painting which depicts a particular ancestral journey, but was then able to show on the painting where they had built an airstrip. Notable bark painters include: Yirrkala bark petitions Dreaming · Dreamtime · Mythology · Prehistory · History · Historical figures · .
As buyers often require a story to go with the painting, this puts the artist in an unenviable position. Most commercially available bark paintings contain recognisable figurative designs that often tells a traditional story. Geometric designs are representational symbols, and their meaning often depends on context and on who painted the painting.
The Yolngu language and culture has words and concepts which are completely alien to non-Indigenous cultures, and so, to some extent, a non-Indigenous person is reduced to that of a blind person trying to understand the concept of colour. This is a continuing form of artistic expression in Arnhem Land and other regions in the Top End of Australia including parts of the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
(See Morphy for the detailed story.) Unlike the previous components of the painting, Clan designs are sacred and initially did not appear on public paintings, although nowadays they can be seen on commercial paintings. The same symbol can also have different meanings.
In many cases these designs would traditionally be used to paint the body for ceremonies or rituals, and also to decorate logs used in burials ceremonies. Closely-spaced fine lines are drawn in particular colours, intersecting each other.
