Description
'Pencil Yam Flower' depicts a freedom of technique, sureness of imagery and the relationship of spiritual connection Joy Petyarre has to her ancestral lands and is derived from the Altyerr or Dreaming. Joy lives at Aniltye Outstation on the Angarapa Landtrust, which is part of the Utopia Homelands. Joy is a talented artist who works in both painting and batik on silk.
Utopia batik is famous for its gutsy, spontaneous style. The style is fluidly dictated by mark marking, with hot wax dripped from a charged brush (or ‘tjanting’) around a communal wax pot. The traditional technique of the ‘tjap’ requires a fixed studio arrangement with a single artist at a special printing table. The Utopia artists' natural disposition more readily favours the batik application method of the communal wax pot, creating movement and spontaneity.
History
Utopia Collection TM and National Textile Collection,
Tamworth Regional Gallery.
Significance
Provenance: Purchased directly from the artists of Utopia Batik Pty Ltd (Anmatyerre, Ngwarlalemenya Utopia Station NT) from the 13th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial in 1998.