Yvonne Koolmatrie, Eel trap, 2015

Yvonne Koolmatrie
Ngarrindjeri people, South Australia
1944

Eel trap
2015
woven spiny-headed sedge (Cyperus gymnocaulos)

Place made: Berri, South Australia
Medium: woven spiny-headed sedge (Cyperus gymnocaulos)
Dimensions: 47.0 x 41.0 x 121.0 cm
Credit line: Acquisition through Tarnanthi: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art supported by BHP 2015
Accession number: 20155A24A
Signature and date: Not signed. Not dated.
Media category: Sculpture
Collection area: Australian decorative arts and design - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Copyright: Courtesy of the Artist and Aboriginal & Pacific Art, Sydney
Image credit: Photo: Jenni Carter

Created by the internationally renowned South Australian Ngarrindjeri artist, Yvonne Koolmatrie, these traditional Eel traps were made using spiny-headed sedge (Cyperus gymnocaulos), sourced from the banks of the Murray River. In 1982 Koolmatrie learnt traditional Ngarrindjeri weaving from the Elder Dorothy Kartinyeri, who at that time was one of the last people using the labour-intensive coiled-bundle technique. Furthering her knowledge through research in the South Australian Museum’s collection of Ngarrindjeri woven objects, Koolmatrie has been instrumental in reviving this tradition.

Koolmatrie makes both customary utilitarian objects, such as the Eel traps, and figurative contemporary sculptures, such as fish, turtles, lizards, echidnas and even a biplane and hot-air balloon. Through these woven sculptural works, Koolmatrie draws on her Ngarrindjeri cultural knowledge and responds to contemporary life.

Rebecca Evans, Curator of Decorative Arts & Design

Riverland: Yvonne Koolmatrie

Art Gallery of South Australia, 8 October 2015 – 17 January 2016