Yarla Jukurrpa (Bush Potato Dreaming)

Label

This painting shows Yumurrpa country and celebrates the yala (desert yam, Ipomoea costata), a low bush with potato-like tubers and purple-blue-pink flowers. The two central circles are specific places, Yumurrpa (top) and Waputarli (bottom), as well as the yala plants. The straight lines between them represent both the Jukurrpa (Dreaming) paths between the locations and the plant’s roots. The yams are also shown as the small black circles connected by the wavy lines. Women, shown as a u-shapes, are traveling around the area looking for yala to harvest. Here the painting makes visible the overlay between plant, Country, history, and human practice, all held within the Jukurrpa.

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. 67, Fig. 6.1.

Provenance

Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Association Inc. of Yuendumu, Yuendumu, Northern Territory, 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.

This record is part of an active database that includes information from historic documentation that may not have been recently reviewed. Information may be inaccurate or incomplete. We also acknowledge some language and imagery may be offensive, violent, or discriminatory. These records reflect the institution’s history or the views of artists or scholars, past and present. Our collections research is ongoing.

We welcome questions, feedback, and suggestions for improvement. Please contact us at: Hood.Collections@dartmouth.edu

Subjects