MELBOURNE.- Tolarno Galleries is presenting Kieren Karritpul’s exhibition of paintings, YERR Wurrkeme Marrgu / New Works.

Karritpul is a Ngen’giwumirri man who lives and works in the remote community of Nauiyu/Daly River, 230km south of Darwin.

He comes from a family of master weavers and artists and has been making art since he was 15 years old.

“I paint at home on the floor, either inside or out on the verandah,” says Karritpul. “My uncle used to tell me, ‘You have to sit on the floor so the ancestors can watch from above and guide you as you work.’”

Growing up in Nauiyu, Karritpul would often observe his mother, grandmother and great-grandmother as they made dilly bags and fish nets.

Many of the paintings in the exhibition depict these traditional objects in intricate detail, revealing the different designs and varieties of weave that give them form.

Several canvases zoom in on the concentric circles found at the base of a dilly bag or fish net, transforming them into striking motifs that ripple with radiant energy.

“We still use dilly bags in Nauiyu today, to go and collect water lilies,” says Karritpul. “Fish nets aren’t used much anymore, although I remember people catching fish with them when I was little.”

“But my mother and other women in the community still make them as artworks and to teach the younger generation about our culture, showing them what our ancestors used to collect food.”

Dilly bags and fish nets are woven from strips of sand palm, or merrepen – which is how Nauiyu’s art centre gots its name. Yerrgi, or pandanus leaf, is also used to make mats and baskets.

“In our Dreaming, all of the weaving comes from one big golden-web spider and she lives in the jungle,” explains Karritpul. “When we go out fishing, if we find her hanging in her big web, we know we’ll get fish or turtle that day.”

“We’re very careful not to kill her or disturb her web. If we walk through the web accidentally, we say sorry because we know if the spider gets angry, she won’t give us fish or turtle.”

Kenbi – My Grandfather Story 2024-5 shows five didgeridoos, or kenbi in Ngen’giwumirri, against a shimmering gold background, which throws into relief the long skinny lines and thousands of dots Karritpul employed to bring the objects to life.

“This painting represents my grandfather and great-grandfather, who were both very good didgeridoo players,” says Karritpul. “Most of my works refer to my mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, and I hadn’t included anything of my grandfather’s side of the story, so I thought I would.”

One of the exhibition’s largest paintings, DeDe Ngayi – My Country, is a landscape in desert hues of deep red and orange, overlaid with finely dotted white lines in horizontal undulations.

“This painting is about my homeland, my Country, Malfiyin, which is about three hours by car west of Nauiyu,” says Karritpul. “We go back in the dry season, following the same tracks that my grandfather, uncle and great-grandfather followed.”

“When we’re there, we know they’re watching over us and guiding us, showing us the right tracks to go on to get fish or turtle,” he adds. “It’s a good place for swimming. There are lots of waterfalls and waterholes, and no crocodiles because it’s hilly range country.”

Karritpul lives beside the Daly River in Nauiyu and can see its bank from his house. While its waters are not suitable for swimming due to crocs, it is useful in other ways.

“The river provides us with barramundi, black bream, shark, archer fish and turtles, and we collect berries from the riverbank,” he says. “The women use berries as well as roots and even leaves to dye the merrepen or yerrgi before it’s woven.”

Karritpul is a master of line whose astonishing dexterity enables him to work at scale without sacrificing any detail.

“I like to use a fine brush,” he says. “If I’ve run out of brushes, often I’ll cut a length of my own hair and make a brush with it. Some of the line work in these paintings was done that way.”

Created over the course of a year, YERR WURRKEME MARRGU speaks to Karritpul’s burgeoning ambition as a contemporary Indigenous artist keen to share his cultural knowledge with as wide an audience as possible.

“When I go fishing, I watch the water flowing and the wind blowing and I ask my ancestors for help with something I’m painting,” he says. “Then I get an idea, go home and it comes out from my head and into my hand and straight onto the canvas.”

Karritpul has many totems, both natural elements and animals. They include stars, rain, clouds, lightning and rainbows as well as black bream, king brown snake, pelican and sand frog.

“The black and white paintings in this exhibition represent myself and some of my totems – clouds, rain, stars,” he says. “When I’m working on something and I need help, I’ll go outside and look up at the stars. They’re always watching and they give me ideas.”

Karritpul won the inaugural Youth Award at the 31st Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in 2014, and was named Textile Artist of the Year at the inaugural National Indigenous Fashion Awards in 2020.

Karritpul collaborated with Country Road Homewares on a collection of ceramics and textiles in 2023.