Translation: Spirit Search

Photograph by Russell James. Collaborative art by Clifton Bieundurry (AUS).

James' photograph represents a character he imagined called 'Discovery', a powerful new being who emerges from the conflicted time of 'Inhibition'.

The spiral represents the journey of the pirlirr. The pirlirr often wander the earth searching for a chosen human with whom it becomes compatible. During the journey pirlirr may take the temporary form of an animal before it enters the human it bonds with. The animals that precede the human entity become the totem or jarriny (animal brother or sister of the human) and holds significance in the way the human interacts with that animal in the natural environment.

The art piece represents the desire for self-realization and of how identity is a complex and fluid idea, but also that this is linked to group identity in the unification of different people across cultures.