Author(s): Djon Mundine

Art

Mirdidingkingathi Juwarrnda Sally Gabori was born c. 1924 on Bentinck Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria – an island inhabited by the Kaiadilt people for thousands of years and the crucial subject matter of most of her dramatically idiosyncratic paintings. Sally Gabori’s oeuvre, begun in 2005 when already in her 80s and now known internationally, is dedicated to the coastal plains, salt-pans, fish-traps and other features of her homeland. The paintings relate directly, through memory and, as author Djon Mundine explains, to physical contact with the land, its features and its totems – such as Juwarrnda (The Dolphin) Sally’s own totem, which is contained in her name. Renowned art collector, Patrick Corrigan AM, has acquired a significant collection of Sally Gabori’s paintings which are now reproduced stunningly in this volume. It follows his earlier publication: Power + Colour: New Paintings from the Corrigan Collection of 21st Century Aboriginal Art (2012). Curator, art historian and author Djon Mundine and artist Fiona Foley went to Mornington Island to interview and photograph Sally Gabori, while editor Candida Baker has shaped the book’s account of the artist’s earlier island life and later career as an artist of international repute. This publication provides an unique opportunity to learn about the artist and revel in the colour and spontaneity of her art