Jarlujangka Wangki

Place Oceania: Australia, Western Australia
Accession Number ART90371
Collection type Art
Measurement Image: 33.2 x 39.2cm; Sheet: 50.0 x 60.0cm
Object type Print
Physical description screenprint (from linocut)
Maker Pike, Jimmy
Desert Designs
Place made Australia: Western Australia, Australia: Western Australia, Fremantle
Date made 1985
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: AWM Licensed copyright

Description

'When mother and my sister went hunting, they were carrying fire, bush fire. And they were looking round for game after a fire. Well, people used to go round, you know tracking for kangaroo or bandicoot, look around. They heard something coming - nyii-nyii-nyii- Like a murnurrkunurrku sound you know: nyii-nyii. That was coming straight down. They looked up; it was coming here, a plane. They took off and - Finish! - head down and keep going, they hid and ran into the scrub; took off.

They reckon it dropped something and Poong! it went, Poong! and when they looked properly it was like ashes, you know. It went pssh! like smoke. I don't know what it dropped, bomb or what. Everything went up there, somewhere. The plane went back.

They found all the tin. Like sheet iron. I don't know what sort they found. Metal, something like that. Might be bomb, now. They reckon when it dropped they found all the metal there.'

This is the story ‘Jarlujangka Wangki’ as related by artist Jimmy Pike. In his print he has depicted his mother and elder sister at two stages of the story: being frightened by the explosion and running away. The plane is also depicted flying above them and then looping off and away. Jimmy Pike, artist member of the Walmajarri people, began making art in the 1980s while serving a prison term. He is renowned for his energetic line work and adept handling of the painting and printmaking media. His works have a graphic quality and describe his home desert country - the endless sandhills, submerged waterholes and intense shimmering heat of this harsh environment.