BEN JANGALA GALLAGHER - Emu & Flying Ant/Termite

Ben Jangala Gallagher was born around 1970 in Yuendumu, a close-knit Warlpiri community on the edge of the Tanami Desert, approximately 290 km northwest of Alice Springs. In 1978 his family relocated to the smaller community of Nyirripi, where his mother took up painting with the Warlukurlangu Aboriginal Artists. Ben took a different path after school, working as a carpenter and moving around the country but the pull of Jukurrpa (English translation: Dreamtime/Dreaming) and country eventually brought him to canvas. In 2007 he began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists, the 100% Aboriginal-owned art centre in Yuendumu that has carried Warlpiri stories to galleries and exhibitions across Australia and internationally since 1985.

Ben works in the aerial, topographic tradition of Warlpiri painting a language of dotwork and iconography that maps country, story and seasonal life simultaneously. In this painting, concentric circles represent both rock holes and termite mounds (Mingkirri), the paired black lines among the dots are the Pampardu; the Flying Ants and Termites and the arrow-shaped marks trace the footprints of the Yankirri (Emu) as it moves across country in search of them. Emus are drawn to these insects, and that ancient relationship; predator, prey, country, sits at the heart of this Jukurrpa. The Yankirri Dreaming belongs to Jangala and Jampijinpa men, and Nangala and Nampijinpa women, a kinship connection that Ben carries through his skin name.

This painting is rendered in deep ochres and earth tones, the colours of the Tanami itself and is layered with the kind of dense symbol and story that rewards time spent looking.

We came to know Ben through his family, and he would bring his work to us during visits to Alice Springs.

This painting was purchased directly from Ben. It is accompanied by a gallery certificate of authenticity and Ben's signature, along with a photo of Ben with the artwork.