The Icy Spirit: The Structure of Punishment
Wartuma (Charlie Tarawa/Tjaruru) Tjungurrayi, The Trial, 1972

A striking 1972 painting by Wartuma Tjungurrayi known as The Trial receives detailed analysis. The painting is one of many that the artist did of this place and story, which inspires him in its many aspects, as it is the central source of his identity. The discussion dissects the ethnocentrism of the title attributed to the painting. It explores the visual structure that the artist gave to a mythological story of a punishing spirit, here represented by a circular figure that is confined by surrounding shapes into a dark center. The use of white dots in the painting is interpreted as combining reference to the “frost” identified with the ancestral being at this place but also possibly drawing on usages of white material in ceremonial body decoration.