Purli Wilpinya
- Artist Name: Sian Harris
- Dimensions: 100cm x 90cm
- Artist Location: NSW
- Medium: Acrylic on canvas
- Category: First Nations
For this piece, I had to look at a microcosm of existence within the larger spacetime continuum. I had to look at where I exist within Purli Wilpinya, the Dreaming. Then, I thought deeply about Paakantyi notions of Dreaming. The Paakantyi concept of Dreaming is Purli Wilpinya which means: the Birth of Stars. It is Creation. Stories of Creation. Creation of Time. Of Being. The Big Bang. The Metaphysical. We had this concept of the Birth of Stars before physicists thought of it. Before the discovery of the Higgs Boson. Before theories of black hole entropy. Before the Information Paradox.
Sian Harris is a Kurnu Paakantyi woman from Wilcannia in far west New South Wales. She is a contemporary Aboriginal artist, writer, and educator. Her body of work comes from the worldview of a Kurnu Paakantyi Nhuungku. The pieces are at once personal and political, in keeping with the artist's stance that her presence, as a self-presenting Blak Woman, in systems and structures built to exclude her, is a radical act. The work focuses on Paakantyi Spirituality; Aboriginal resistance; decolonising queerness; and connecting to Country.
*Please note artwork will not be shipped until after the 2024 Finalist Exhibition which ends in mid-October 2024.