Winga (Tidal movement, waves)

Born c1930, Tiwi, Pularumpi, Melville Island, North region

Cornelia Tipuamantumirri is a Tiwi artist who works through the Munupi Art Centre at Pularumpi on Melville Island. The Tiwi people of Bathurst and Melville Island, have a distinct culture and they share a visual language known as jilamara (design) based on the innumerable configurations of mulypinyini pwanga (lines and dots). These designs are individually conceived and may be used in ceremony, body painting and artworks.

Tipuamantumirri began painting in 2010 and her works offer an impressionistic view of country. 'Winga (Tidal movement, waves)' 2012, focuses on the movement of water and the changes this brings, both in terms of the silt that is moved by waves altering the coastline and the varying sea life that accompany the incoming and outgoing tides.

In the Tiwi tradition Tipuamantumirri’s works are painted with a wooden kayimwagamiki (comb), to create lines of ochre dots, in subtle variations of colour and intensity. On the deep black background these undulating lines create areas of shifting light and movement, reminiscent of the play of sunlight on the sea and the tidal movements of water itself, which Tipuamantumirri is referencing in this work.