Mangkaja Kangaroos- Jimmy Pike
Mangkaja Kangaroos by Jimmy Pike
Original Limited Edition Fine Art Print by Artist
Print 83/500, 30 x 42 cm
“Mangkaja or Wirringarri is a white bird from the Dreamtime. He is like an owl, with black and white markings around his eyes. He travels at night. Mangkaja came from Kiyili way. Some people were frightened of this Mangkaja. They found his sitting down on a log. They tried to kill him, but he flew up very high, and where he landed there sprung up a waterhole, Mangkaja Kura. Nearby this place is Malajapi, the campsite of the Mala spirit. Mala is the little bush kangaroo. The people come here to tell the spirit to send plenty of Mala to the land.” - Jimmy Pike
Jimmy Pike (c1940-2002) was a Walmatjarri Aboriginal artist. He lived in a Bush camp on the edge of the remote Great Sandy Desert of north Western Australia where he painted, producing the art for which he has become so well known. Jimmy’s paintings of the physical and spiritual quality of his traditional Walmajarri country added a new dynamism to the central positions of landscape in Australian art. They project a new dimension to our understanding of connections of place and identity. Jimmy Pike is one of Australia’s most famous Aboriginal artists. He is represented in the collections of all major Australian public art galleries and museums.
This work is a screen print of an original series of lino cuts. Pike carved his lino with uneven zig zag lines a technique similar to carved boat nuts, a practice common in the Kimberley region. The deep cutting of Pike’s lino meant they were often too fragile for subsequent editions.
