Originally from Yuendumu, Julie Nangala is the daughter of the famous Aboriginal painter Dorothy Napangardi, who gradually introduced her to her art before she herself began to paint her own vision of the mysteries of the Dreamtime, which she had come to possess.

In this work, the artist offers a ‘study in black’ of the sacred site of Pirlinyanu, which gives its name to the canvas. 

Pirlinyanu means ‘place near a rock’, and refers to a watering place carved out of the rock, whose existence is a symbol of life in the desert. Such a representation is fully in keeping with the pictorial tradition of the desert, whose representatives excel in evoking - rather than figuratively representing - sites that have become the setting for religious ceremonies.