Paddy Bedford, Blanket Lizard – Motor Car Yard, 2004
Photo: Courtesy of D’Lan Contemporary
Paddy Bedford Gija language group, circa 1922-2007
Provenance
The Artist, painted in the Kimberley Region, Western Australia
Jirrawun Arts, Western Australia, cat. no. PB 6.2004.166
Paddy Bedford Trust, The Estate of Paddy Bedford
D'Lan Contemporary, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 2021
Collection of Steve Martin & Anne Stringfield, New York
Exhibitions
Paddy Bedford—Last Release From The Estate, William Mora Galleries, Richmond, Victoria, 20 April - 13 May 2017
I Am The Law: Final Release from the Estate of Paddy Bedford, D’Lan Contemporary in Association with William Mora Galleries, Melbourne, 12 November – 16 December 2021
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. 153 (illus.)
I Am The Law: Final Release from the Estate of Paddy Bedford, D’Lan Contemporary Melbourne in Association with William Mora Galleries, 2021, p. 31 (illus.)
Vanessa Merlino, Paddy Bedford: Spirit & Truth, Frieze Masters London, 2024, p. 5 - 7 (illus.)
The English name for the place relates to the abandonment, long ago, of an old car there. The outstanding feature of Barlooban is a small flat rock that stands high up on a hill. This is the manifestation of Wawooleny, the frill-necked or blanket lizard. In ancestral times, Barlooban was home to both Wawooleny and Girrganyji, the brown falcon who stole the fire and the food of Wawooleny as he sat cooking to keep himself warm. The two men fought, but Girrganyji took off and set fire to the land, leaving Wawooleny to transform into the rock, forever contemplating his loss. The figure rising from the bottom left-hand side of Blanket Lizard – Motor Car Yard (2004) is an unusual representation of Wawooleny – here he is suspended, drawn upwards by the surrounding halo within the composition. The vertical landscape is the focus of his gaze in lament for the battle lost. (Text by Vanessa Merlino, Head of Research, D’Lan Contemporary)