Rosella Namok
Born 1979, KuukuYa’u, Wuthathi, Umpila, Kaanju and Uuthalganu Country, Lockhart River, Queensland. Kanthanampu and Aangkum people. Lives and works Gimuy/Cairns and Lockhart River.
"Going and coming to Cairns" 2000
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
Collection of The University of Queensland, purchased 2001.
Reproduced courtesy of the artist and FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane.
The title of this artwork is ‘Going and coming to Cairns’ by Rosella Namok. It is an unframed painting created in the year 2000, measuring 2.54 metres high by 1.71 metres wide. It is made of synthetic polymer paint on canvas. Namok has signed this artwork in the bottom right corner by scratching her full name into the paint in small print, with the words ‘Lockhart River’ underneath and 2 zeros, for the year the artwork was made.
The painting is orange and brown, and the paint is applied thickly in horizontal stripes and blended, so the surface is smooth. There are variations in colour with darker and lighter areas. In the top centre of the canvas a group of around 20 thin orange lines that extend down from the top edge briefly before splitting to curve out and along both side edges of the canvas. They meet back in the bottom centre and extend down and around the edge of the canvas. The central shape that is framed by the lines is a vertical oval with pointed ends.
The lines are made by scraping fingers through thick paint, revealing the layers of paint below and creating ridges of paint either side. The lines are loose and close, merging in some places. The lower surface of paint revealed in the lines are a light orange on the left with a small subtle stripe of green at the bottom, and a dark orange on the right.
Rosella Namok is one of the Lockhart River Art Gang, a group of Aboriginal artists from the east coast of Cape York. Lockhart River is a remote community, 850 km north of Cairns by road. This landscape artwork references travelling by road to Cairns and back. This road serves as a vital link to other areas and services, however during the wet season it floods, and the road can be closed as long as from December until June.