작품 상세

According to Geoffrey Bardon, this painting is an interesting formalisation of the component elements of the Water Dreaming that include men in caves, rain, clouds, rainbow, running water, waterholes and underground water. Kaapa persistently integrated body decoration motifs of the Ceremonial Man into his paintings on hardboard. The undulating lines represent falling rain, the two U shapes the Water Dreaming Ceremonial Men sitting at the Dreaming site, Mikanji, near Mount Dennison, which is shown by the large concentric oval with radiating lines. The other ovals and concentric circles represent waterholes and are associated with both sand painting and body decoration. The intensive overall patterning and waves show the heavy rain that splashes onto the sand and flows across the land surface into rivers that will run further into the desert, to soak underground. The two Water Ceremonial Men have power and custody of these rockholes and the underground water that is found by digging; the dark spiralling line across the centre of the painting is the rainbow after the storm.