Current Projects
Kungkarrakalpa (The Seven Sisters)
Anmanari Brown was born at Purpurna in the 1930s and is culturally associated with the Pitjantjatjara people of the Northern Territory. She initially grew up with her family in the desert before kartiya (non-Aborignal people) came to the lands, and eventually settled at Warburton mission in Western Australia, where she attended school.
The artist was married to Nyakul Dawson and was a founding artist with the Irrunytju Arts Centre. She currently lives with her daughter Angilyiya Mitchell and family in Papulankutja/ Blackstone in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands in Western Australia, painting with Papulankutja Artists in WA.
Brown almost always paints the Kungkarrakalpa as she is intimately connected to the land and its stories. Using a brush she makes confident lines and paints distinctive blocks of colour, sometimes using red to refer to places that have important significance to women. In many of her paintings the sisters are represented sitting together as U-shapes in a line or circle, or lying side by side behind a sand-dune as a row of thick lines.
Like many of the senior artists, in addition to painting, the artist works in other art forms especially punu (carving of utilitarian and sacred objects), weaving tjanpi baskets and inma. Her work is in many important public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of Western Australia, and Queensland Art Gallery.
The Tapestry
The painting on which the tapestry is based tells the story of the Kunkarrakalpa, or The Seven Sisters. The sisters traversed the sandy central western deserts, but they were followed by a kula-kula, a lustful man, who wanted to take one of the sisters as a wife. In the words of the artist:
‘The women hunted him away, but he still keeps following them. He is always playing tricks to try and get one of the sisters. That Nyiru, he's a cheeky one. He caught one of the sisters, the big sister and took her. Too much. She died. He is still chasing them.' - Anmanari Brown
A team of three weavers is working on the tapestry, capturing the textures and colours of the painting while translating it to a larger scale. The completed tapestry will be exhibited at the Melbourne Art Fair in August 2012.
