DETAIL : Jimmy BAKER 'Katatjita' 2006 synthetic polymer paint on canvas, Courtesy of Marshall Arts Aboriginal Fine Art Gallery, � Jimmy Baker
John MAWURNDJUL | Lorrkon

John MAWURNDJUL | Lorrkon
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MAWURNDJUL, John
Australia 1952
Lorrkon 2004
Sculpture
natural earth pigments and PVA fixative on stringybark
243.0 (h) x 20.0 (w) cm
Purchased 2005
NGA 2005.323
© John Mawurndjul, courtesy Maningrida Arts & Culture
VIEW: ARTICLE | BIOGRAPHY |

Lorrkon or hollow log coffins are central to the funeral ceremony practiced by the Kuninjku people of Western Arnhem Land. The hollow logs, which housed the ochred bones of the deceased person, were painted with clan designs and placed into the ground where they were left to decay naturally. Mawurndjul’s work makes reference to a major secret and sacred ceremony called a Mardayin. The meaning of his work is restricted and not for public knowledge.

The thin and delicate rarrk (crosshatching) done by Mawurndjul is amazingly and uniformly maintained across the whole length of a hollow log. His hollow logs reverberate with the power of ancestral beings who inhabit Western Arnhem Land and demonstrate Mawurndjul’s masterful and dynamic arrangement of rarrk.