“Yam Dreaming” 2002, Acrylic on Linen

Artist: GREENY PURVIS PETYARRE

Cat#: PGUT009

Size: 270×120

Medium: Painting

Acrylic on Linen
Painted at Boundary Bore, Utopia where he was born, Greeny was the senior Law man in the community and thus responsible for important sacred matters and cerermonies for a range of subjects, including Yam Dreaming, which is the subject of this masterful and inspirational work. It is one of his great paintiungs.
The work incorporates design elements associated with ceremonial sand paintings on this subject which were the traditional means of celebrating the community’s connection with the Creation Ancestors described by the British as “Dreaming” or “The Dreamtime”.
Typically, the subject matter of traditional designs used in ceremony incorporated the habits and characteristics of the subject, in this case the Yam and – without compromising traditional Law – Greeny has painted the Yam whereby the range of colours and lines represent the various stages in the life of the Yam.
Yam was – and still is – a significant ingredient in the diet and lives of traditional living Aboriginal people.
Greeny was the blood brother of the great Emily Kame Kngwarreye. It is significent that he gave Emily the right to paint the Yam Dreaming – he being the formal custodian of the Yam – which resulted in some of her greatest paintings.