Marker's Commentary

This single-panelled painting depicts the central motif of a stylised goanna tracking across the land and reflects a faithful translation of an age-old visual language into the present. In so doing, it creates a sense of timelessness that melds the physical and the spiritual world, without separating past, present or future. A repertoire of traditional symbols, the sinuous band of repeated ochre dots symbolising a line of travel, visually connects a series of roundels and concentric circular motifs. An explosion of stars rendered using spray paint connects the Creation Story to the tangible subject matter, as if linking the cosmos to the land. The earth-coloured palette, control in dot application and finely-wrought hatching applied in different sections of the goanna’s body and landscape sites consolidate the spiritual dynamism of the ancestral figure. While understanding that the personal and specific cultural meanings remain restricted, the well-known iconography enables the broader story to be seen. The painting brings into focus the cultural, aesthetic and educative value of Indigenous painting, of the connections that exist between different worlds and ways we consider works that apply traditional visual grammar within a contemporary framework.