Lissadell Hill

Label

In the Ngarrangkarni (Dreaming) a man went hunting with his two dogs. The dogs chased after a kangaroo and disappeared. The man sat at the top of a hill, high above the Bow River, and called out for them to return. He turned into a rock and can still be seen standing there, calling out for the dogs, who, along with the kangaroo, also became rocks, marking the landscape. Notice how Barrett has used repetition to create the hill and the man (in rock form) as well as her dramatic application of the black background.

Goody Barrett grew up on Lissadell Station, an area deeply affected by the Argyle Diamond Mine and the damming of the Ord River, subjects also addressed by Freddie Timms in Lake Argyle Country, displayed nearby. Her paintings record Country lost due to the environmental devastation of the mine and the lake.

From the 2023 exhibition Layered Histories: Indigenous Australian Art from the Kimberley and Central Desert, curated by Amelia Kahl, Barbara C. & Harvey P. Hood 1918 Curator of Academic Programming

Exhibition History

Layered Histories: Indigenous Australian Art from the Kimberely and Central Desert, Amelia Kahl, Curator, 5 August 2023 - 2 March 2024, Citrin Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire.

Publication History

Stephen Gilchrist, editor, Crossing Cultures, The Owen and Wagner Collection of Contemporary Aboriginal Art at the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2012, p. 14, Fig 1.12.

Provenance

Narrangunny Art Traders, Perth, Western Australia, Australia (Certificate of Authenticity); sold to Will Owen (1952-2015) and Harvey Wagner (1931-2017), Chapel Hill, North Carolina, date unknown; given to present collection, 2009.

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