Image credit: Desmond Taylor and Mariaan Pugh, Miminjarra nyurmna, 2021. Image courtesy Mariaan Pugh.
Sharing an important Dreaming story deeply rooted in Warnman Country
Jila Kujarra: Two Snakes Dreaming is an exciting cross-cultural collaboration between Warnman artist Desmond Taylor and Boorloo-based textiles practitioner Mariaan Pugh, commissioned by Fremantle Arts Centre in partnership with Martumili Artists.
Taylor and Pugh have worked together to transform Taylor’s Niminjarra paintings, usually seen on canvas or paper, into highly tactile textile works, animating the important Niminjarra Jukurrpa (Dreaming).
This body of work is born of Taylor’s desire to see his artworks reimagined through a textile medium and is a contemporary crafting of important ancestral stories deeply rooted in Warnman Ngurra (Country).
Niminjarra is the two brothers transforming into a snake so they can come back home to Ngayartakujarra (Lake Dora). They were in training for ceremony, those two brothers, but they were kept too long, and nobody was there to release them. They waited then they decided to transform into snakes to travel back to where they came from, because their mother was waiting for them. This is Jukurrpa (Dreaming story).
Desmond Taylor, 2019
Image credit: 1. Desmond Taylor and Mariaan Pugh, Niminjarra, 2019 & 2022. Photography by Dan McCabe | 2. Desmond Taylor and Mariaan Pugh, Jila Kujarra: Two Snakes Dreaming at Fremantle Arts Centre. Photography by Dan McCabe | 3. Desmond Taylor and Mariaan Pugh, Miminjarra nyurmna, 2021. Image courtesy Mariaan Pugh | 4. Desmond Taylor and Mariaan Pugh, Niminjarra (going home), 2020 & 2023. Photography by Dan McCabe.
UPCOMING WORKSHOP
Goldfields Arts Centre
Punch Needling with Mariaan Pugh
18 Jan 2025
Join artist Mariaan Pugh for a workshop that combines design and punch needle art. Read more
Join artist Mariaan Pugh for a workshop that combines design and punch needle art.
Click the titles below to find out more:
EXHIBITION DETAILS FOR VENUES
| ARTISTS | Desmond Taylor and Mariaan Pugh |
| MEDIA | Painting and textiles |
| INSTALLATION | Minimum of 26 running meters |
| MARKETING | Marketing Kit (includes e-invitation template, artwork for hard copy invitation, media release, promotional images, logos and acknowledgements) |
| INTERPRETATION MATERIALS | Exhibition and sponsorship panels Artwork labels and story panels Exhibition brochures (free for distribution) Short video documentry (AV equipment included with tour) Engagement activity |
| TOUR DURATION | Until 1 August 2025 Available WA and interstate |
| COST SHARE | ART ON THE MOVE Members: $3,000 (inc. GST) Non-Members: $3,500 (inc. GST) Interstate Galleries: Cost Negotiable |
WATCH
Video courtesy of Fremantle Arts Centre
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Image credit: Mariaan Pugh and Desmond Taylor stand alongside artworks Niminjarra (going home), 2020 & 2023, at the exhibition opening at the Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland. Photography by Amelia Blanco
DESMOND TAYLOR
Desmond Taylor is a Manyjilyjarra and Warnman man, who was born in 1964 1964 near the Oakover River, moving to Jigalong soon after. Desmond’s family were among the last Martu to live entirely in the desert without access to rations or western supplies. Desmond went to school in Nullagine and Perth and now works as a professional translater and educator, as well as maintaining an arts practice. Desmond primarily paints his family’s Ngurra (Country) around Karlamilyi (Rudall River) and the creation narratives for that Country, especially the Niminjarra Jukurrpa (Dreaming) stories, and the associated narratives of the Jila Kujarra, narratives as enduring as the continent we live upon, kept safe by Warnman people for all to share.
MARIAAN PUGH
Mariaan Pugh was born in the United Kingdom in 1993, but has spent much of her life in Western Australia. Mariaan undertook her formal arts training, majoring in Textiles at Curtin University, as well as further training in Fashion and Textile Design at North Metropolitan TAFE. Drawn to vivid colour, playful motifs, and seductive tactile surfaces, Mariaan’s work subverts traditional textile techniques such as rug making, embroidery and weaving, creating works that defy categorisation, sitting between textile and painting, while exploring themes of interpersonal relationships, longing and distance.
TOUR ITINERARY
2023
August 4 – September 13
Courthouse Gallery+Studio
2024
February 16 – April 12
Shark Bay Discovery Centre
April 19 – April 28
Victoria Park Centre for the Arts
May 16 – June 14
Carnarvon Library and Gallery
July 18 – August 24
Warwick Art Gallery (QLD)
October 19 – November 30
Dogwood Crossing (QLD)
2025
January 17 – February 23
Goldfields Arts Centre
March 15 – April 5
Joondalup Gallery
July 17 – August 31
Painted Tree Gallery
This project has been made possible through the Regional Exhibition Touring Boost managed by the Department of Local Government Sport and Cultural Industries, supported by Royalties for Regions and delivered by ART ON THE MOVE.
