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Djambalula Bark Tree Essay

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The painting is done by artist Djambalula (1908-1960), the Aborigene from Northern Australia. Unfortunately there is no information about him, except few photos of paintings that he produced, all of which are expected in traditional style. Djambalula follows the artistic convention of Australian Aborigines that was established thousand years ago. The painting is done on the small tree bark, approximately 13 x 16 in. Bark tree is a traditional medium for Australian visual art, along with rock and cave painting.
On the paintings we see 24 human like figures organized in three rows. The artist use white paint against dark brownish background of tree bark. All figures look alike except five females in the middle register, who can be identified by protruding breasts. Women hold some kind of rope or curved stick, men are playing musical instruments and holding boomerangs. There are two figures on the left side of the bottom register, that look like adult and child (based on the different size). These two are placed in some kind of rectangular enclosure, it seems they are standing on a foreground in front of the procession. They might be just observers of the ceremony, or about …show more content…

Therefore life of such objects is quite short. It is unknown if Mimi Ceremony took part in any ritual, or the artist made it as an educational device or he aimed to preserve and continue the tradition. He might produced it for sale or someone acquired it after his death. The most important that Djambalula was the native artist who worked in the tradition of his ancestors. That is why the unique art of Australian Aborigines can survive. Mimi Ceremony represents a sacred event and can be almost identical to the painting produced centuries ago, since for Australians only the exact replication of visual patterns and performance can guarantee the response of the Dreamtime spirits (Anderson

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