Name

Timothy Cook

Culture

Aboriginal Australian

Gender

Male

Birth date

1958

Birth place

Melville Island, Northern Territory, Australia View on map Close map

Occupations

Artist (painter) | Painter | Printmaker

Summary

Worked: Australia (NT).Screenprints

NGA IRN

26318

Context

Australia

Biography

Timothy Cook

Timothy Cook began exhibiting his work in the late 1990s in group shows around Australia including Darwin, Melbourne, Alice Springs and Perth.

His work depicts the body designs used in the Pukamani ceremony, the traditional Tiwi burial ceremony, one of the cornerstones of the Tiwi’s traditional belief.

His art is also closely linked to stories of Purrukuparli, the Tiwi mythological ancestor and is characterised by a geometric structure of lines and dots with every line and marking having an important meaning. These geometric patterns, common in all Tiwi art, often depict sites of stories of mythological significance involving ancestors who were changed into animals or birds. Each Tiwi artist has their own individual interpretation of the designs.

Biography courtesy of The Australian Art Print Network, 2001.
© Australianprints

Affiliation

Tiwi people

Sub-region

Melville Island

Specific location

Milikapiti

Artist’s country

Goose Creek

Language

Tiwi