Sally M. Nangala Mulda
Born 1957, Titjikala region of the Northern Territory. Arrernte/Southern Luritja people. Lives and works in Mparntwe/Alice Springs.
"Two Police Toyota, Policeman Live Him Sleeping" 2019
synthetic polymer paint on linen
Collection of The University of Queensland, purchased 2019.
Reproduced courtesy of the artist and Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane.
The title of this artwork is ‘Two Police Toyota, Policeman Live Him Sleeping’ by Sally M. Nangala Mulda. It is an unframed painting created in 2019, measuring 61 centimetres high and 1.53 metres wide. It is made of acrylic on linen. This artwork depicts the artists’ lived experience of everyday life in her community and is unsigned on the front.
This artwork features a nighttime landscape of 2 police cars patrolling a campsite with people sleeping. The perspective is at a distance and sloping, with the cars, trees and foliage in profile and the people sleeping on a dry sandy creek bed viewed from above.
Working from the bottom of the artwork up to the middle are 4 horizontal rows of images – a road, trees, a dry creek bed, and another row of trees. The road is a slightly arched, wide, dark brown and black line across the bottom. Driving on the road are 2 white Police Toyota HiLux Utes facing to the right. They have a blue cage on the back tray and a blue light above the cab. The car on the left is slightly bigger and the cars are centred in their vertical half of the artwork. The police have pink circle heads with blue uniforms and are in the driver’s seat, and long horizontal yellow lines for the car lights extend from the front of the Utes.
Alongside the road is a row of trees and foliage, followed by a wide cream sandy creek bed, and then another row of trees and foliage – separating the creek bed from the sky above. There are 5 trees in each row, and they are roughly evenly spaced. The tree trunks are pink lines with round green circles on top, painted in light and dark green curved brushstrokes. The foliage between the trees is primarily vertical light green brushstrokes of varying heights.
The cream dry creek bed extends down in places between the trees to the road. There are 3 roughly rectangular beds beside each other on the left side, and 1 just right of centre. Under each blanket there are 2 or 3 people sleeping, with just their round heads visible, painted in black. From left to right the first bed is different shades of blue, the second is pink, orange and blue with blue pillows, the third is different shades of orange, and the fourth and last is yellow and light orange.
The top half of the is the sky, painted with dark blue over the top of light blue. Across the full length of the sky is the title of the artwork in large cursive yellow text that says: ‘two Police Toyota. Policeman live him sleeping’. The word ‘sleeping’ is underneath and centred.
The colours in this artwork are bright with a matt and slightly textured finish. The paint is applied thickly in solid colours with loose sweeping brushstrokes.