Mutuka tjukurpa: Pila (spinifex plains) tracks
$3,200.00
My name is Shane Dodd. I’m from Mimili Community and I work at Mimili Maku Arts. I used to be a teaching assistant at the school, going on bush trips with the kids and helping with language. These days, I work full-time at the art centre, painting on car parts – bonnets, fuel caps – using glue and sandblasting to bring out the story.
This bonnet is one I found with my dad, Sandy. We went out bush together, driving for hours, sometimes overnight, looking for old wrecks. We bring the parts back to the art centre. I paint with glue first, putting down the shapes and lines. Then I use the sandblaster to pull the image through the rust – that’s how the story comes up strong.
This one is called Pila – it’s about the spinifex plains out bush. You can see the big round circles – that’s the spinifex. And there are people walking through it, kutjukutju, one by one. That’s how the old people used to walk, travelling from camp to camp, not side by side but in a line, all connected. Now we drive cars, but we’re still following the same tracks.
My family works in land management, looking after country. There’s a lot of buffel grass now, too much, and they’re burning it to bring the spinifex back. You still see spinifex far out bush. The women still use it for weaving – my mum and my nana did that, ngaḻṯutjara (dear passed one) – using spinifex to make tjanpi baskets. So this painting is for them too.
This way of working came from Robert [Fielding] — he gave me the idea to use the sandblaster and encouraged me to try it. Desmond [Woodforde] also helps me, he uses the same tool but in his own way. Everyone at the art centre backs me. I feel stronger every time I make a new work.
Last year I showed my work in Desert Mob for the first time. We all went – Desmond, Richard [Nelson], Angus [Webb] – and my wife and kids came to the opening. We sold everything and were so proud. I feel really happy with this way of working. It connects what I know from land management and family stories with this new way of making art.
This bonnet is part of a big story – not just mine, but all of ours.
Shane Dodd is one of the very talented emerging male artists at Mimili Maku Arts. He worked for almost ten years at Mimili Anangu School and still supports the inma (song and dance) program hosted at the art centre. Shane’s paintings depict Men’s Stories, and the connections running through his homeland of Sandy Bore. Shane’s family has been working in land management forever, most recently on programs to manage buffel grass and wild cats.
