Pwoja, Body Paint Design

2001

Australian Aboriginal, Tiwi people, Milikapiti, Melville Island, Northern Territory, born 1974

Body paint has been applied to a black ground, recreating the painting that Wonaeamirri frequently undertakes as an active participant and leader in his community. He uses very traditional means—for paints he grinds up ochres that come from deposits on the beach or inland sites on Melville Island and then uses a wooden comb (pwoja) to lay down rows of dots. Each pwoja creates a distinctive design that becomes the mark of the artist’s individuality. Pedro Woanaeamirri likens the pwoja to a bone in his body, a fundamental part of his identity.

--Pam McClusky, Curator of African and Oceanic Art, 2012

Natural pigments on canvas

61 x 41 3/4 in. (155 x 106 cm)

Gift of Margaret Levi and Robert Kaplan

2019.20.17

Provenance: [Alcaston Gallery, Victoria, Australia]; Margaret Levi and Robert Kaplan, Seattle, Washington, 2001

Photo: iocolor, Seattle

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection, May 31 - Sept. 12, 2012 (Nashville, Tenessee, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, June 23 - Oct. 15, 2017; Madison, Wisconsin, Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Jan. 26 - Apr. 22, 2018; Austin, Texas, Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, June 3 - Sept. 9, 2018; Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, Audain Art Museum, Oct. 5, 2018 - Jan. 28, 2019). Text by Pamela McClusky, Wally Caruana, Lisa Graziose Corrin, and Stephen Gilchrist. Cat. no. 44, pp. 140-141, reproduced.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

Learn more about Equity at SAM