William King Jungala | 'Big Water, 2005' | 120x180cm

Code: DDWK05046

Artist: William King Jungala

Title: Big Water

Area: Darwin / Katherine, NT

Community: Gurindji

Medium: Acrylic On Linen

Size: 120x180cm

Year: 2005

Water sits at the heart of William King Jungala's practice. Big Water looks down onto a vast body of it, the surface broken into countless patches of light and shadow. Deep indigo pools recede into near black. Brighter cobalt rises like froth where current meets current.

King built the surface from thousands of fine dots. Up close the technique is restless and alive. Step back and the field settles into something closer to aerial photography, the kind of view you get flying over a flooded plain in the wet season. The Gurindji artist spent his life in the Katherine region, where water transforms the land each year. His paintings carry that memory.

Country and the movement across it were the subjects he returned to again and again. Here there is no horizon, no landmark, no human figure. The viewer is placed directly above the water, held in the pattern of it. The dark passages feel like depth. The lighter clusters feel like breath on the surface.

King was a father of Sarrita and Tarisse King, and the layered dot technique the sisters are now known for was learned at his side. His own hand is quieter than theirs, more weathered. There is a patience in the mark making that rewards slow looking.

He belonged to the Gurindji people, whose Wave Hill Walk Off changed the course of Australian land rights. That history of belonging to Country runs underneath this work. Big Water is a painting of place, made by someone who knew exactly what place meant.