BOXER MILNER TJAMPITJIN - UNTITLED
BOXER MILNER TJAMPITJIN
UNTITLED, 2003
80 x 80 cmacrylic on linen
REGION
Wirrimanu (Balgo Hills), WA
PROVENANCE
Warlayirti Artists, WA Cat No. 212/03
Private collection, Singapore
STORY
Boxer Milner began painting in the late 1980s. Born south-west of Billiluna near Sturt Creek, Boxer was one of a small number of people who came from the transition zone between the desert and the river country in Tjaru land. Here the country and vegetation move from flat and featureless rolling Spinifex plains to flood plains with enormous river channels and permanent water holes.
His paintings differ from those with a conventional Balgo aesthetic. They explore the yearly cycles of flood and dry which create swamps with abundant bird life, through which Purkitji (Stuart Creek) runs. Muyun is the name for a prominent sand dune, south of Boxer's home, and is shown as the horizontal line through the centre of the painting. The track that people travelled along, when moving through this country is the central vertical line. The variety of hook shapes show the different drainage and creek lines throughout this country, while the background colours show the different types of soil and vegetation found in the area. This was the country where an ancestral man called Waltjiri threw his boomerang one day, for fun, and the boomerang as it travelled across the sky left behind the wirtaki, or rainbows that form during the wet season.
ARTIST PROFILE
