Yawkyawk

Michael Reid Sydney exhibited a body of work by Kuninjku artist Owen Yalandja, the winner of the Telstra Bark Painting Award at the 2023 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.

This exhibition pools a series of Yalandja’s carved Mimih figures alongside his intricate paintings on bark for a dazzling dive through the stories of the Ancestral female freshwater spirit, the yawkyawk. As a senior member of the Dangkorlo clan, Yalandja is a custodian of the sacred billabong where the mermaid-like yawkyawk spirits reside near his outstation, Barrihdjowkkeng.

Meticulously rendered, cascading water droplets play out alongside these shimmering scale effects, which Yalandja represents with the upsidedown v-chevron he developed while also applying the dotting style taught to him by his father, renowned artist Crusoe Kuningbal.