Aboriginal Art: Story Behind the Dot

First time I noticed this wonderful Dot Art at Melbourne museum and from the description get to know that this Dot Art is world famousAboriginal Art of Australia which is now internationally recognised. Then at the Victoria market got the full scope to explore the Dots of the art. The Aboriginal Art painted in acrylic are a beautiful blend of traditional and contemporary form and the dot technique gives the painting an 3D effect and a sense of movement and rhythm too.

My collections

Photos from Victoria Market: 

There are many shops in the market where selling several Art forms at a reasonable price and … more importantly to me a great chance to know the story behind the Dots.

After taking with a shop owner he started to telling me whatever he knows about the Dot art and the artist of this artwork. This art is a team work because minimum 2 persons are needed to do the art. One will draw other person will do the Dots, finally the story of Art will emerge. So, bigger and depth story need more persons involvement.

The Dots are so powerful, as while the Dots connect together create the stories which depicts lifestyle, struggle for existence, an open and hidden massage, ecology...so many things. The colour and pattern of the dots are so significant to describe a community, carrying the history of ancestor, the migration.

Though the exact origin of dot painting is completely unlnown but since 1970's around the art form came to the recent world. Mostly the Dot paiting style of art are often Central and Western Desert regions of Australia. These art works in a form of dots, cross hatching, maps of circles, spirals, lines and dashes which is the long established pictorial language of Western Desert Aboriginal People.

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri the famous Aboriginal Dot Artist

The Aboriginal people who are the native of Australia used the dots in art of expression since prolong time. Alike other communities art and paint style in the ancient rock galleries dots can be seen in the symbolic pattern. They were used the dots in sand painting and during the ceremonies in body painting too. The entire dots might suggest an energy field or powerful aura around the design.

Few things want to mention about the Dot art: 

1. Basic colour - red, white, black, yellow.

2. The purpose was, telling stories and brighten up the culture. But the hidden purpose was somehow different. Through this simple form of art by the Aboriginal Artists abstracted their paitings to distinguish the scared designs so the real meaning could not be understood by Westerns. The Dot are actually symbol of message. The popular form of messageof this art are: boomerang 🪃, gecko, honey ants, rain, kangaroo trail, rain, people sitting, shield, digging stick, meeting place, man, woman, person, Emu’s footprints, star, curved line representing fire or smoke or water or blood, rainbow, clouds.

3. Firstly the dots were painted by cardboard or pieces of wood, which later replaced by canvas.

From Melbourne museum :