There is an inspiring feeling of freedom that comes with leaving behind the constraints of the city and shedding the avaricious layers that accumulate inhabiting a metropolitan area. Having the chance to exchange one's tiny inner city apartment for an endless backyard is enough to dilute the deepest shades of melancholy. Drive an hour out of the city and one is greeted with infinite masses of native green and brown bushland, charming country towns littered with Victorian and Federation brickwork, and vast expanses of blue-green sky and sunburnt orange sand.
As a young girl, I loved the colourful stories of the Dreamtime. I imagined tales of a Rainbow Serpent leaving marks of her sleeping body and winding tracks, carving out rivers and lakes and bringing water and life to the Aboriginal people. This spiritual connection to the Dreaming is painted in sparse dots and strokes of white and black, through the baron ochre sand of the Australian desert. Some of us have played witness to this land's awe inspiring patterns, flying over her magnificent aerial drawings en route overseas. It is here that the concept of the Dreaming comes to life, and the spiritual connection the Aboriginal people have with their land is confirmed.
It is within this millieu that Dorothy Napangardi's art is created. Her work typifies dotted representations of the physical features that surround her country; The Mina Mina landscape. Her paintings explore intricate portrayals of its salt pans and sand hills. Dorothy's palette is often restrained, using only black and white in a minimal and soft style. Her artwork captures a strong sense of movement and spatial composition, previously unseen in flat, stylised indigenous artworks.
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