Yoomoo(snails)

Janangoo Butcher Cherel
Gooniyandi people, Western Australia
1920 – 17 February 2009

Yoomoo(snails)
2001
etching on paper
Place made
Fitzroy Crossing, Western Australia
Medium
etching on paper
Edition
38/50
Dimensions
45.0 x 64.0 cm (image)
71.6 x 90.6 cm (frame)
Credit line
Gift of Linnett Sanchez and David Turner through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 2023
Accession number
20233G75
Signature and date
Signed l.r. pencil 'BUTCHER'. Not dated.
Provenance
Created by Butcher Cherel Jananggoo, Fitzroy Crossing, Western Australia, 2001; printed by Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne, 2001; sold through Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency, Fitzroy Crossing, Western Australia, 2002; purchased by donors from Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency, Fitzroy Crossing, Western Australia, 19 August 2002
Collection area
Australian prints - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Copyright
Estate of Janangoo Butcher Cherel/Copyright Agency

  • Gooniyandi artist, Janangoo Butcher Cherel worked across several mediums including painting and watercolour, however it was printmaking the artist spoke highly about, once declaring 'I had a good feeling about drawing on that copper plate, it's a different way... to tell my stories...' [i]

    Cherel began printmaking in 1994 after participating in a workshop conducted by the Australian Print Workshop in Fitzroy Crossing and in 1995 his work was exhibited at the Australian Print Workshop in Melbourne in 'MANGKAJA: Old Mangkaja, New Prints'. In 1997, Australian Print Workshop printer Martin King visited Cherel at Fitzroy Crossing where they worked on a series of etchings together. In 1998 Cherel held his solo print exhibition 'Gamba Malami Dagoola' at the Australian Print Workshop.

    While known as a masterful colourist, that painstakingly mixed and diluted his paints, this print Yoomoo (snails) is a delicate exploration into lines and forms. From a bold centre roundel emanate lines in triangular forms that pulsate gently across the paper.  Yoomoo (snails) was drawn onto the plate at Mangkaja and then printed in Melbourne at the Australian Print Workshop by Martin King.


    [i]  Roger Butler and Anne Virgo (ed.) , 'place made: Australian Print Workshop', Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 2004 p.86