Paddy Fordham Wainburranga

DOB: c.1932
Born: Arnhem Land

About Artist:
PADDY FORDHAM WAINBURRANGA
DOB: c.1932 - 2006
LANGUAGE: REMBARRNGA
GROUP: MIRRAYTJA
COUNTRY: BAMDIBU
AREA: JARRULUK, SOUTH ARNHEMLAND, N.T

Medium: Ochres on bark/paper painting, Acrylic on canvas/linen, Carving, Lithographic print

Subjects: Rembarrnga mythologies, Mimi Spirit, Historical and cultural recordings of region, including significant bush animals.


With the Australian public becoming increasingly interested in art, and the rising popularity of the major portrait prizes in this country, a renaissance for figurative painting is looming for both artists and the audience after a long love-affair with landscape painting, engendered from our colonial past.

Paddy Fordham Wainburranga was displaced from his birthplace Bamdibu (south west of Ramingining) to Beswick Station, 100 km south east of Katherine. The Rembarrnga language group from Central Arnhem Land has produced many skilled painters in recent times, but none have matched his dedication to recording the history of the region through a remarkable series of works produced since the seventies.

Although Paddy Fordham Wainburranga was taught to paint by his father, the lack of ceremonial status resulted in him not having the entitlement to include the symbolism of country used by some other Rembarrnga people. At first glance, Wainburranga's figurative style takes us back to archaeological bark paintings iconography that is now unfamiliar in modern depictions of 'country' in the Aboriginal paintings of today. Art collectors are finding a resonance in the ancient pictorial forms first portrayed in both bark and rock paintings. Paddy has embraced this traditional form in his unique visual travelogue of Ngalkbun Rembarrnga mythologies.

Figurative depictions of the Balangjarngalain spirits cross over from the imagination to the linear two-dimensional forms nearly leaping off Paddy Fordham Wainburranga's canvases. There is no doubt that the gestural form of the Mimi Man, dancing as he looks over country, is the protector incarnate. Accompanying the Mimi we can see representations of the bush animals such as the file snake, long and short neck turtles, leeches, the rainbow serpent, butterflies and Paddy's favourite totem, the mosquito. Significant stories were passed down to Paddy by his father, many of which featured both these animals and the Mimi Man, who only comes out at night.

Wainburranga's artworks are housed in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, the National Gallery of

Victoria, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Artbank, Berndt Museum of Anthropology, Flinders University Art Museum, Museum of Victoria, Holmes à Court Collection and many more private and institutional collections world-wide.

When asked if he would ever give up painting if he became wealthy, he replied:
"No, painting won't stop. No, I gotta do that. My painting, my Dreamtime, nobody own it for me, nobody can stop this history painting. When I die, young people gotta take it over. That's

why all over the world we meet up, talk together and give history to one another. I give you my paintings of your give me your painting. Everything for the children because they going to be taking over."

Collections Held:
Art Bank, Sydney
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour, Sydney
Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of WA
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
Museum of Victoria, Melbourne
The Holmes à Court Collection, Perth

Group Exhibitions:
1984 - Aboriginal Art Exhibition, Canberra
1985 - The 2nd National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Darwin
1987 - The 4th National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Darwin
1989 - A Myriad of Dreaming, Melbourne & Sydney
1989 - Aboriginal Art, The Continuing Tradition, Canberra
1989 - The 6th National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Darwin
1990, Tagari Lia; My Family, Australia, UK
1990 - Contemporary Aboriginal Art, USA
1991 - Australian Perspecta, Sydney
1991 - The 8th National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Darwin
1992 - Tyerabarrbowaryaou, I shall never become a white man, Sydney
1992 - The 9th National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Darwin
1992/3 - New Tracks, Old Land, USA
1993 - The 10th National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Darwin
1993 - Australian Heritage Commission Art Award Exhibition, Canberra
1993/4 - Aratjara, Art of the First Australians, Germany, UK, USA
1994 - Tyerabarrbowaryaou 2, Sydney & Cuba
1994 - Malu Urul, Sydney
1994 - Art of the Rainbow Snake, Melbourne
1999 - Spirit in Land, Barkpaintings from ArnhemLand, Melbourne

Awards:
1989 - Memorial Award for Malawan's eldest son ( Best artwork in open media ) National Aboriginal Art Award, Darwin
1993 - Telecom Australia Prize, Darwin

Film:
1988 - Too many Captain Cooks ( Director : Penny McDonald )