Makinti Napanangka, Hair String Belt, 2003

Lot description

MAKINTI NAPANANGKA c.1930 - 2011 Hair String Belt, 2003 acrylic on linen 91 x 61 cm bears inscription verso: Makinti Napanangka, Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, MN0309190 PROVENANCE Papunya Tula Artists, NT Cat No. MN0309190 Private collection, NSW Makinti began painting in 1994, when a women's painting project was organised for the Haasts Bluff and Kintore communities. Her gestural style and bold linework were derived from painting with her fingers dipped in earth ochres onto women's bodies for ceremony. The tactile surfaces of her paintings reflect this tradition of touching and sensing, while the images serve to revitalise the journeys of her two female ancestors, the Kungka Kutjarra, as they danced their way across the land. Their travels followed desert water sources and, particularly in Makinti's work, the site of Lupulnga — the rockhole where she was born and where her spiritual connections are deeply felt. Small ovoid roundels, often appearing in linear sequences, denote this crossing of Country. "Care for Country" is a driving force behind this bond, as water sources must be regularly cleared of debris and sand to keep them, and the life they sustain, fresh and flowing. The lines running through the work evoke ceremonial body painting for women's law and, more specifically, represent spun hair-string, which is used to make the belts worn by women during ceremonies associated with this rockhole site. © MAKINTI NAPANANGKA / Copyright Agency, 2025