Sandhillsby Sarrita King

These artworks are inspired by the expanses of sand hills found through Australia. They striate across the land and their perpetual movement and varied colours have always fascinated Sarrita.

Sarrita recalls her father telling her how the patterns formed by the wind are repeated throughout nature; she reflects on this when flying over the desert and then over the waves of the ocean. Stylistically minimal, Sarrita leaves a lot of the canvas absent of paint and simply traces fine waves across the canvas. Undulating in their movement, they create a subtle hypnotic effect the viewer be drawn into. Sarrita depicts these topographically which is a very common way of painting or"mapping the land" amongst Central and Western Desert Aboriginal Artists.

Artist:Sarrita King
Title:Sandhills
ID:10042130
Medium:Acrylic on Belgian Linen
Size:90 x 120 cm
Region:Katherine, Northern Territory

Artist

Sarrita King was born in Adelaide, South Australia on the 5th March 1988. She is the younger sister to fellow artist, Tarisse King and daughter to the late highly regarded artist, William King Jungala (1966 – 2007).

Sarrita inherits her Australian Aboriginality from her father who was part of the Gurindji tribe from the Northern Territory. The Gurindji tribe came to public attention during the 1960s and 1970s when members employed by the Wave Hill cattle station led a landmark case which became the first successful land rights claim in Australia. It is this same strong sense of self and pride that Sarrita embodies and it fuels her drive to paint her totemic landscape.

Sarrita spent most of her youth growing up in Darwin in the Northern Territory. Not far from where her ancestors inhabited, it is here that her connection to her Aboriginality and subsequently the land was able to grow. Her exposure to the imperious weather and extreme landscape has provided the theme for her works of art, since she began painting at age 16. Rolling sand hills, cracking lightning and thunderstorms, torrential rain, fire, desert and tangled bush are all scathing environmental factors that shaped her forefather’s lives and also her own. Depicting these elements in her paintings, Sarrita provides a visual articulation of the earth’s language.

Sabine Haider, Gallerist of Central Art say" Sarrita King is an amazing artist and person. Full of life and optimism and is an example too all upcoming young Aboriginal artists."

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