The NGV design store has designed a range of merchandise to celebrate the diversity of mark making and colour in the Tiwi visual culture.
 
TIWI celebrates the unique art and culture of the Tiwi people of Melville and Bathurst Islands and explores the dynamic trajectory of Tiwi art across time and media. Tiwi art is intimately connected with song and dance and with jilamara, the idiosyncratic body painting designs with which performers celebrate kulama and conceal their identity from mapurtiti (spirits of the deceased) for pukumani ceremonies. The spirit of each work resides in the Tiwi notion of individual creativity, expressed through turtiyanginari (colour), patterns of marlipinyini (lines), kurluwukari (circles) and pwanga (dots).
 
This poster features Timothy Cook’s painting, Pumpuni jilamara and is an exclusive and enduring keepsake from the TIWI exhibition. Printed on luxury 170gsm Hanno Silk Art paper and presented on a grey-board backing card inside a cello bag; the poster is a standard A2 in size measuring 59.4 x 42cm. Made in Melbourne and exclusive to the NGV design store.
 
TIMOTHY COOK
Tiwi born c. 1958
Pumpuni jilamara 2005
earth pigments on paper
80.2 x 60.5 cm irreg. (image and sheet)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, NGV Supporters and Patrons of Indigenous Art, 2006
2006.424
© Timothy Cook/Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia