Dibirdibi Country 2008

Sally Gabori painted 'Dibirdibi Country' with bold strokes of acrylic, I think. Look how the red presses down, almost volcanic. I imagine Gabori standing there, not just representing a landscape, but feeling it, remembering it. The yellow seems to bleed into the black, like the sun struggling to hold its own against the night. It's like she’s wrestling with the paint, pushing it around until it surrenders some kind of truth. The application is thick and juicy, and the colours, they aren’t playing around—so decisive. It's kind of exhilarating to think of her just going for it, not worrying about getting it ‘right,’ but letting the painting become its own thing, you know? You can see a conversation happening here—a conversation with the land, with memory, with other painters who dared to be so direct. Painting's like that, a big, messy, beautiful conversation that never really ends.