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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Australian Indigenous & Oceanic Art
• Sale Date:
  22 Jul 2014 ~ 6.30pm (Part 1 - Lots 1 - 198)
  23 Jul 2014 ~ 2.30pm (Part 2 - Lots 199 - 331)
• Lot #:
  75
• Lot Description:
  Tiger Moore
  (born circa 1940)
  Gurirr Gurirr (Krill Krill) Ceremony (2003)
  natural earth pigments and synthetic binders on fly-screens
  53 x 88 cm each (8)
• Provenance:
  Commissioned by Kevin Kelly, Kununurra (2003); Red Rock Art, Western Australia; Caruana and Reid Fine Art, Sydney; Private Collection, New South Wales
• Notes:
  This series of paintings is sold with an accompanying video of the artist discussing the works. The following is the artist's interpretation of the series: 1. The accident - This board depicts the accident at Turkey Creek. It was here that the truck went off the road and seriously injured the woman who was transported by ambulance to the Flying Doctor Service in Wyndham but died in flight over Mt. Cockburn. 2. The Dreamtime Serpent Ð Unggud - "Unggud, he was wrapped up on that calico now, that snake then he flew round and that old man [woman] saw that snake and that's how she got that accident by that Unggud." This boards tells the story of Rover Thomas' dream. From the dream comes the story cycle where Rover (and Tiger Moore's) aunty appeared to Rover and told him the story of her journey through death after a car accident. The dream tells of the vision of this spirit, and the landscape she saw on her last journey. 3. The Kangaroo and the Dog - "That dog followed that Kangaroo from the hill where they are now down to Bow River and drowned him on the water and they still on that river there now." 4. Pompeys Pillar - Bungarl the Bats - "The corroboree of this Pompeys Pillar is the Bat, he flies around at night." 5. Sugarloaf at Red Butt - "The wind blew the sugar from the leaves and built up against this mountain, only bloodwood tree. You can collect them with calico and coolamon." 6. Dunham Gorge - Daiwal Hill - "This is where the Barramundi got poisoned and the crane took the Barramundi and tried to hide it on the hill." 7. Barramundi Dreaming - Carr Boyd Range - "The crane hid that barramundi on that hill - I think they call it Carr Boyd Hill [Range]." 8. Mt Cockburn Ð Darragu - This board is the final part of the journey where the spirit of the woman departs and leaves for her resting place. Darragu (salt water crocodile) is Mt Cockburn which rises behind Wyndham. Tiger Moore inherited ownership of the Krill Krill (Gurirr Gurirr) ceremony about Cyclone Tracy that destroyed the city of Darwin in 1974 from Rover Thomas (c.1926-1998). The ceremony details the journey of the spirit of a woman (Tiger Moore's mother's sister) across the Kimberley when she witnesses the cyclone, in the form of an ancestral Rainbow Serpent, over Darwin. Moore's aunt had been fatally injured in a car accident on roads flooded by the cyclone near Warmun (Turkey Creek) in the eastern Kimberley. She was flown by a Flying Doctor Service airplane to hospital but died along the way. Her spirit then made the journey back to her home in Warmun. The ceremony, its imagery, songs and choreography, were revealed to Rover Thomas. Boards painted with images of sites visited by the spirit on its journey are carried by performers in the Krill Krill ceremonies across their shoulders, behind their heads. Initially, the boards were adapted from building materials, and Kevin Kelly records that flyscreens were often used in the late 1970s and 1980s. This set of screens was made specifically as a series of paintings but it was not used in a Krill Krill ritual. The images selected for each ceremony vary according to the contexts in which the ritual is performed. Similarly, suites of paintings made by Rover Thomas and Paddy Jaminji (c.1912-1996), the main painters of the series, vary in detail. Compare Moore's series here with those held by the National Museum of Australia and the National Gallery of Australia, illustrated in Taylor, L. (ed.), Painting the Land Story, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, 1999, pp. 24-31, plates 6-10, and Thomas, R. with K. Akerman, M. Macha, W. Christensen and W. Caruana, Roads Cross: The paintings of Rover Thomas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1994, pp. 28-35, and pp. 59-60, respectively. Wally Caruana
• Estimate:
  A$20,000 - 30,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.