GEORGE TJUNGURRAYI

IN AN INDUSTRIAL WAREHOUSE IN SYDNEY’S Alexandria, a slice of the Western Desert radiates and shimmers off an unstretched canvas in the centre of the room. It’s a seductive, optical ballet that characterises the work of Indigenous painter George Tjungurrayi. But the swimming, shifting forms that mesmerise are only one part of the magic to be discovered here.

Tjungurrayi is a Pintupi man from the Western Desert, around six and a half hours west of Alice Springs. Though he lives and works in Kintore, the place he associates with most is Wilkinkarra; an enormous, arid salt lake surrounded by rolling sand