bark painting depicting a coiled snake, unrecorded Australian Aboriginal artist

Artwork Overview

bark painting depicting a coiled snake, unrecorded Australian Aboriginal artist
bark painting depicting a coiled snake, unrecorded Australian Aboriginal artist
unrecorded Australian Aboriginal artist
bark painting depicting a coiled snake
1960s
unrecorded Australian Aboriginal artist, artist
bark painting depicting a coiled snake, 1960s
Where object was made: Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
Material/technique: bark; pigment
Dimensions:
Object Height/Width (Height x Width): 81 x 39.5 cm
Object Height/Width (Height x Width): 31 7/8 x 15 9/16 in
Credit line: Gift of James A. Sleeper
Accession number: 2007.2754
Not on display
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Spencer Museum of Art Highlights

For Australian aboriginal people, “dreamtime” or “the dreaming” is objective reality—truth opposed to the subjective reality experienced in daily life. Although the translation is imperfect, the dreaming interweaves art, truth, and the ancestors. Events that occur in the dreaming do not, as one might expect, occur during sleep. Instead, events in the dreaming take place simultaneously in the past, present, and future. This bark painting likely accesses events that are occurring in the dreaming, allowing initiates of different levels to understand and discover messages built into the imagery, seen by all, yet understood by few.

Google Art Project

For Australian aboriginal people, “dreamtime” or “the dreaming” is objective reality—truth opposed to the subjective reality experienced in daily life. Although the translation is imperfect, the dreaming interweaves art, truth, and the ancestors. Events that occur in the dreaming do not, as one might expect, occur during sleep. Instead, events in the dreaming take place simultaneously in the past, present, and future. This bark painting likely accesses events that are occurring in the dreaming, allowing initiates of different levels to understand and discover messages built into the imagery, seen by all, yet understood by few.

Exhibitions

Google Art Project
2016