Regina Pilawuk Wilson Ngan’gikurrungurr, b. 1948
16 1/2 x 23 5/8 in
Late in 2017 the artists of Durrmu Arts at Peppimenarti in the Northern Territory collaborated with Jocelyn Tribe and Basil Hall to create this magnificent series of silkscreen prints. Established artists such as Regina Wilson and Kathleen Korda, lead a small group of emerging artists through the process of printmaking and the exploration of tradition patterns, designs and basket stitch techniques. String figures are symbols made by forming shapes with string with your hands. They represent information relating to objects, implements, places, plants and animals, or abstract patterns and natural phenomena such as the forces of nature. As people made the string figures the symbols could change quickly from one thing to another as part of illustrating a story. Usually string figure games were played by the girls and women, sometimes at special times and for special purposes, such as during the first pregnancy and may also be associated with singing. String figure making also provided the opportunity to communicate ideas or knowledge and were performed as both instruction and entertainment.