In very exciting news, the City has acquired a brand new artwork called Pulkartu Dreaming.
The West Australian artist, John Prince Siddon, is well known for painting with an eclectic energy and distinctive visual language to explore his connection to Walmajarri Country. Prince’s fascination with patterns, webs and weaving results in a cacophony of intertwining patterns to explore the interconnectedness of Country, people and animals.
Pulkartu Dreaming depicts a moth weaving a fish, wallabies weaving a basket and a collaborative weaving of a large kangaroo from a butterfly, ladybug and spider all while surrounded by intricate and complex patterns of country.
You're invited to come and see this incredible painting, now on public display at Joondalup Library. You'll find it amongst the study booths on the south wing of the ground floor, nearby other varied and intriguing artworks from the City's impressive collection.
A close up image of some of the painted detail in Pulkartu Dreaming by John Prince Siddon.
About the artist
John Prince Siddon is a Walmajarri man who lives in the remote township of Fitzroy Crossing in the West Kimberley. Prince’s psychedelic surrealist paintings bring some of the most urgent themes of our time into piercing view. His ironic combination of national narratives, current affairs and ancestral creation stories articulate some of the complexities of the present-day Australian experience.
Prince challenges traditional notions of Indigenous painting. Combining diverse influences drawn from television, the traditional Kimberley craft of boab nut carving, desert iconography and the epic characters of Narrangkarni (Dreamtime), he creates a ground breaking style of painting and sculpture that is eclectic, gothic and psychedelic. His diverse practice of vibrant paintings, 3D printed and painted bull skulls, and painted kangaroo hides explore his Country and history.
Images: John Prince Siddon, Pulkartu Dreaming, 2023. City of Joondalup Art Collection. Image courtesy of the artist and Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency.