Gan'yu (Stars)
2006
- Medium
- earth pigments on Stringybark (Eucalyptus sp.)
- Measurements
- 90.7 × 36.5 cm
- Place/s of Execution
- Yirrkala, Northern Territory
- Accession Number
- 2006.421
- Department
- First Nations Australia
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, NGV Supporters and Patrons of Indigenous Art, 2006
© The Estate of Gulumbu Yunupingu, courtesy of Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Vizard Foundation - Gallery location
- Gallery 2
Ground Level, NGV Australia - About this work
-
Gulumbu Yunupingu, the youngest sister of Galarrwuy and Mandawuy Yunupingu (lead singer of Yothu Yindi), lived as a child at Yirrkala and went to school in the old Mission house. She married Yirrkala Church Panel artist Mutitjpuy Mununggurr and had four children, including Milkayngu Munugurr, the original yidaki (didjeridu) player for Yothu Yindi. She works in many different media, including weaving pandanus mats and baskets, painting on barks and yidaki, and collecting shells to make jewellery, armbands and headbands.
This bark painting alludes to two stories about different constellations, which the artist was told by her father, Mungurrawuy Yunupingu, as a child. Gulumbu retells the stories for children of a new generation and also paints them. A screen of around sixty small star-based bark paintings were shown in the World Expo in Hanover Germany in 2000.