Wamulu

This second book in the Aboriginal Arts and Knowledge series documents a body of work created cooperatively by 4 artists: Ted Egan Tjangala, Dinny Nolan Tjampitjinpa, Johnny Possum Tjapaltjarri and Albie Morris Tjampitjinpa. Wamulu, a yellow flower, has traditionally been used during ritual ceremonies in the western desert of Australia. The wamulu flower is gathered, dried, cut up, and mixed with ochre and binders before being applied to the ground. This catalogue for an exhibition at the Fondation Opale showcases an exceptional project that took place near Alice Springs between 2002 and 2005, where this collective of artists used paint made from the wamulu flower, which is most often associated with impermanence, to create contemporary and permanent works of art. At the same time, they honoured the traditional Aboriginal process of communal performance, participation, and song that emphasises the link between the present and the past. Includes an interview with the noted Aboriginal art expert Arnaud Serval, who facilitated the work of the collective. Text in English and French. AUTHORS: Georges Petitjean is an art historian, writer, and curator at the Fondation Opale, in Lens (Switzerland). Arnaud Serval is a gallerist who specialises in Aboriginal art, and has immersed himself in Aboriginal culture for the past two decades.