Bone China Cake Plate - "Family and Country" by Damien and Yilpi Marks
Artist: Damien and Yilpi Marks
Bone China Cake Plate 17.5 x 12cm
This is a very detailed painting which describes a dry time of year in Damiens homeland, Mount Liebig. The painting illustrates aspects of landscape and culture around that area that was told to Damien by his great-grandmother and great- grandfather. There are women sitting with their children collecting bush potatoes (the mass of red shapes at the bottom of the painting). The women are talking and getting ready for a ceremony. There is one man (wati) sitting down with his waru (spear). The spinifex is dry and so the man is walking around making bushfires. He is a good man, he is undertaking controlled burnings so the spinifex burns up and then good fruits can grow after this. There are several symbols in this painting. The small sun-like symbols represent womens body painting these are the images the women are painting on each other as they sit down ready for inma traditional ceremony. There is a dry creek bed running through the painting (in red and white), and there are cracks in the ground and claypans. There are also dried rockholes (tjukula), and next to them are tali sandhills.
About Better World Arts
Better World Arts are members of the Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand and the Indigenous Art Code. They are also endorsed by Fair Traders of Australia.
Better World Arts were established as a cross cultural project linking Aboriginal artists and their designs to international traditional artisans from remote regions in Kashmir, Peru, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Nepal (Tibetan refugees). More recently, Better World Arts have started working with China, making bone china and silk ties.
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