Paddy Bedford, photographed in 2002 at the William Mora Galleries, Melbourne
Paddy Bedford, Mud Springs - Yuwangeny, 2002
Courtesy of D’Lan Contemporary
Paddy Bedford Gija language group, circa 1922-2007
Further images
Provenance
The Artist, painted in the Kimberley Region, Western Australia
Jirrawun Arts, Western Australia, cat. no. PB 6.2002.127
William Mora Galleries, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 2002
Private Collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 2002
D'lan Contemporary, Melbourne
Collection of Steve Martin & Anne Stringfield, New York
Exhibitions
Jirrawun Artists - Painting Country (Part 2), William Mora Galleries, Melbourne, 19 October – 9 November, 2002
Paddy Bedford: Spirit & Truth, Frieze Masters, London, 9 October 2024 – 13 October 2024
Literature
Linda Michael (ed.), Paddy Bedford, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2006, p. 151 (illus.)Dr. Georges Petitjean wrote about this painting soon after it was created in 2002,
"The composition of the painting presents itself as initially symmetrical with two main coloured fields, one black (left) and one grey (right), divided by a dotted line with in its middle a black and red circle. A red ochre expanse, however, pervades the black area at the bottom left corner and distorts the seemingly symmetrical design. Paddy Bedford often revisits the same country in his paintings. This is the case for Mud Springs (Yuwangeny in Gija), an important Dreaming site on Bedford Downs that forms the subject of this painting. In this part of the artist's mother country, people were drowned by the rainbow snake. Women had left their coolamons with some termite larvae in them behind while they went searching for bush honey and went dancing. Termite larvae are only to be eaten by women. However, two boys stole them. Moreover, they tormented the owl Doomboony, throwing stones at him. When they finally hit him in the eye, Doomboony became so angry that he summoned Garboorroony the rainbow snake. A storm of wind and rain arose and Garboorroony swallowed the two young men. They never came out again of the waterhole. Also the women, who had run back to the site, were drowned. Many other people tried to escape the wrath of the rainbow snake by running into the bush, but they were drowned as well.
The central circle in the picture depicts the permanent waterhole in which the rainbow snake lives. This waterhole in muddy ground surrounded by palm trees is in consequence considered to be a very dangerous place. The protruding rounded red ochre mass at the bottom left corner of the composition represents a large hill nearby. Black and grey areas represent respectively black soil country and dry bull dust country. While the central circle seemingly dictates the focus and locus of the picture, the red expanse takes on equal importance as the black and grey fields loose in significance. Again the balance is as daring as it is accomplished. Yet, the dramatic developments of the story are translated onto the canvas through the relations between the different components of the composition. The red circle is a warning point, a mark of distraught, which is somehow eclipsed by the protruding red ochre shape. This apparition is suggestive of the hill whereupon the angry owl Garboorroony stood while he called up the rainbow snake. It is a spectre anticipating the disaster to come. In this the forewarning of danger represented through the circle is certainly matched by the red expanse standing for the imminent peril."