Rusty Peters at GrantPirrie

The inaugural exhibition at GrantPirrie Gallery was also the first solo show in Sydney by Rusty Peters, an Aboriginal painter from the outback. The exhibition consisted of one single, spectacular painting titled Waterbrain. In eight 6-foot-tall panels totaling 40 feet in length, this work reflects an intimate knowledge of the land's ancient stories and an imaginative interpretation of human life and habitation.

Peters belongs to the Jirrawun artists, a group of Gija elders in the Warmun (Turkey Creek) region of the Kimberley, a remote area of dramatic landscapes and vibrant wildlife in the northeast corner of Western Australia. Like most older Aboriginal men, he learned traditional Aboriginal law while working as a stockman on large pastoral stations. He later became a friend and apprentice to the late Rover Thomas, the region's most famous artist. Peters himself only started painting on canvas in 1997, so even at 67 years old he is a relative newcomer to the medium.

Painted on linen using natural ochers, Waterbrain is unique in scale and concept: an unusual directness of content and form describes the "river of life" that derives from the ancestral waters of birth. Rounded shapes rendered in white and pale tones of brown are set against the deep browns and blacks of his landscape. The deliberate placement of forms and effective use of color create a fluidity of space and narrative.

The painting is based on the belief that human spirits are alive in water. It traces their journey from the water into the mother's womb, through childhood and adult life. The sweeping nebulous forms Of the first few panels contrast with the more detailed, figurative images in the last three. Drawn in the tradition of rock art, these last depict the weapons and utensils necessary for hunting and fighting--spears, shields, boomerangs, digging sticks, sharpening stones and tomahawks.

According to Tony Oliver, arts adviser at Jirrawun Aboriginal Arts, Peters "is a deep-thinking artist who contemplates for days and in some cases years on how he is going to translate a particular story to canvas.... He has been known to sit on a chair from daybreak sunset, occasionally glancing et an empty canvas." Waterbrain was a five-year project. The result is a clarity and resonance of form and color that make a poignant visual counterpart to Peters's story.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group