STRIKING SCULPTURES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22578, 17 November 1936, Page 17

STRIKING SCULPTURES

ABORIGINAL WOMAN'S WORK INTEREST OF SCIENTISTS Interest has been roused in the anthropological world by the discovery of an Australian aboriginal woman sculptor in Queensland, whose work is surprising because she has never seen any form of sculpture, and has never travelled beyond the bounds of her tribal domain. The woman, Kalboorli Yonngi, is a member of the Pitta Pitta tribe in the Boulia district, part of the wild central west, where the natives still roam in their primitive state.

Examples of her work have reached Sydney through the owners of the station on which Kalboorli Youngi has her studio, and the interesting models of her art are being shown at the annual exhibition of the PainterEtchers and Graphic Art Society of Australia.

Some of the figures, notably that of a man alongside a horse, bear resemblance to Mexican art. In others there is the stolid appearance of Assyrian and Egyptian figures. - This is particularly noticeable in the representation of flowing hair on the head and beard. Another head bears a distinct likeness to early pictures of the head of Christ. Kalboorli Youngi is So, the mother of a family, and has had no English education A pocket knife is the only instrument she uses for chiselling, and she digs for the clay from which her models are produced with the primitive "yam stick " Sho does most of her work in kopi, a substance containing gypsum, but sho also works in coloured clays.

Kalboorli Yonngi lias tho true artistio temperament, it is stated, and her inspiration varies according to her mood. The unique quality of her work lms aroused the interest of Professor lOlkin, professor of anthropology at Sydney University, and ho intends to visit the exhibition and make a careful study of tho aboriginal woman's art.