WERGAIA, WEMBA WEMBA
Robby Wirramanda, an artist from Chinkapook in Central Victoria, is one of Australia’s most significant contemporary artists, and a pioneer within the Indigenous Australian Art Scene.With a lyrical treatment of line reminiscent of the work of George Tjungurrayi, Robby generally paints the salt flats of Lake Tyrrell near where he grew up. What perhaps sets his work apart from many of his contemporaries is his emphasis on the parallel between the land and his own psyche. Although many Indigenous Australian artists - and indeed many landscape artists from the Western Canon – have expressed this dichotomy before, few have done so as overtly as Robby. Many of his canvasses can be read as veritable mind maps, topographical depictions of the land and natural processes that mirror his own emotional state.
Within the context of Robby’s own life, which has not been without grief and trauma, these vast canvases become even more dynamic and emotionally intriguing. His depictions of bushfires, for example, can be simultaneously read as a stylized illustration of a natural event, and as a metaphor for the inner workings of his own mind.It is ambiguous, however, whether this burning is to be associated with a sense of rejuvenation and psychological rebirth, or of trauma and hardship. Perhaps both. Robby’s genius ultimately lies in his ability to align the land and its near alchemic processes with human emotions generally, and his own specifically.
