All the jila, 2007
Daniel Walbidi
synthetic polymer paint on linen
120.0 x 160.0 cm
bears inscription verso: artist’s name, date, medium, size and Short Street Gallery cat. 24318
Short Street Gallery, Broome
AP Bond Gallery, Adelaide
The Luczo Family Collection, USA
Deutscher and Hackett, Melbourne, 19 October 2016, lot 2
Private collection, Indonesia
In 2007, Daniel Walbidi travelled with a group of Yulparitja elders, including his father Harry Bullen (Nabiru), from Bidyadanga back to their ancestral lands around Winpa and Kirriwirri in the Great Sandy Desert. The journey sought to renew the Yulparitja people’s enduring connections to Country and proved a formative experience for the young artist. It was also the first time Walbidi had seen his homeland from the air – an encounter that would profoundly shape his painterly vision.
Completed later that same year, All the jila, 2007 maps the network of freshwater sites at Karrparti, Kawarr, Jurntiwa and Wirrguja, rendered in a vibrant tapestry of colour and form that would become a hallmark of Walbidi’s practice.
Studying art at school and university, Walbidi drew inspiration from leading Aboriginal artists including Albert Namatjira, Emily Kam Kngwarreye, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, and, closer to home, Rover Thomas, whose customary lands neighbour those of the Yulparitja.
In 2008, Walbidi was selected for the Xstrata Emerging Indigenous Art Award at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane. The following year, his work was included in Contemporary Aboriginal Painting from Australia, the first exhibition of modern Aboriginal art presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. In 2012, he was selected for unDisclosed, the second National Indigenous Art Triennial at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.
1. The Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) produced Desert Heart, a documentary film on the journey narrated by Walbidi, which was screened in March 2008.
WALLY CARUANA