작품 상세

BAI BAI NAPANGARDI c.1939 - 2020 Palkalpayi (Coolamon), 2006 fused glass 42 x 12 cm; x 52 x 11 x 11 cm (with stand) etched verso: Bai Bai Napangardi, 1078/06 PROVENANCE Warlayirti Artists Cat No. 1078/06 Private collection, NSW Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Warlayirti Artists Coolamons are used for carrying food, water, and newborns, and are strongly linked to the Country from which they have been created. In glass, this familiar form transforms into a vessel of light. Its curved body catches and bends illumination so that it seems to hold shadow and brilliance in equal measure, like a desert rockhole after rain. Bai Bai's design translates the marks of Country into the object's surface. Subtle arcs and layered textures echo sandhills, soakages, and travelling tracks, grounding the luminous material in ancestral narrative. The work emerged during an early period of glass experimentation at Warlayirti Artists, when senior Balgo women embraced kiln-fired media as a new way to give shape to story. One of Bai Bai's glass coolamons was gifted to Australia's Parliament House during Sorry Day proceedings. The presentation underscored the work's power as more than an artwork: it became a vessel of memory, healing, and acknowledgement, carrying both the story of women's labour and the resilience of her community into the nation's civic heart. @ BAI BAI NAPANGARDI / Copyright Agency, 2025