Code: MASSK21207

Artist: Sarrita King

Title: 'Waterhole' Coolamon

Medium: Sculpture, Metal, Rust

Size: 89x20x7cm

Year: 2021

* Imagery on Outside of the Coolamon

* Hand Welded

With this sculpture Sarrita wanted to translate her 'Language of the Earth' imagery into a 3D object. The choice to use metal is a reflection on the strength and longevity of the Australian Indigenous culture and the stories passed down over the centuries. The rust is a reflection of the age of the markings and long history of these stories.

Sarrita King | Waterhole

Sarrita paints the naturally occurring waterholes she remembers travelling around Alice Springs and Katherine. The scarcity of drinking water in certain regions means specific knowledge of where these waterholes are located, as well as their preservation methods, is paramount to survival. Today, Aborigines speak of where waterholes once were as many of them have dried up due to drought or diminished maintenance. When Sarrita traveled to see the waterholes with her father she saw many of them dried up and this is what she paints. Represented by the concentric circles, the waterholes are fed by underground streams pushing through land and rock. Sarrita shows these streams by ribbons of wavy lines intricately entwined across the canvas as muddy and dried ochre colours, just as she experienced them.