Susan Marawarr. Photo: Babbarra Designs.
Susan Marawarr was born in 1967 and is a Kuninjku speaker. She is an accomplished printmaker, sculptor, weaver and bark painter, known for her striking black and white palette. Marawarr is the sister of acclaimed bark painters James Iyuna and John Mawurndjul. She has exhibited widely, including as part of White Ochre, FORM, Perth (2017), The Dreaming Changes Shape, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne (2011) and in a solo exhibition at Suzanne O’Connell Gallery, Brisbane (2018). Her work is held in the collections of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Museum of Contemporary Art and National Gallery of Australia, among others.
Wak Wak in ‘Mud Flats’ [wallpaper] and Mud Ripples in ‘Wild Red Apple’ [ottoman], from the Bábbarra Collection. Photo: Martina Gemmola.
Susan’s design for our Bábbarra Collection is called Wak Wak (Black Crow Dreaming). The rarrk (cross-hatching) on this work refers to the crow totem ancestor, Djimarr. Today Djimarr exists in the form of a submerged rock at the bottom of Kurrurldul Creek, south of Maningrida. Both the rock and the area around it are considered sacred. The crow design was once used in the sacred Mardayin ceremony, now rarely conducted in Central Arnhem Land.
[L-R] Wak Wak in ‘Mud Flats’, and Mud Ripples in ‘Wild Red Apple’, on pieces by Zenith Interiors. Photo: Haydn Cattach.
[L-R] Mud Ripples in ‘Wild Red Apple’, and Wak Wak in ‘Young Leaves’, from the Bábbarra Collection. Photo: Martina Gemmola.