Malara

TAYLOR Cooper was born, as was his father, at Malara, a waterhole east of Pipalyatjara, located in the APY Lands of South Australia, very close to the Western Australia border.

An important senior tribesman and a recognised custodian of traditional law and culture, Taylor only started painting in 2009. His first work was acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria and he has since featured in over 20 exhibitions. Among them the important From Desert Across The Sea in Brussels, Belgium in 2019.

Malara, previously in a private collection, shows Taylor's expert craft and his extraordinary ability to make the simple profound. He has never married and serves his people as a custodian of the Water Snake Dreaming with the Malara Wanampi as his totemic ancestor.

Here he tells the story of his land and his art: “That Wanampi came from Malara. He went to Kunytjanu near Pipalyatjara. From Kunytjanu that Wanampi kept walking, walking. He came to Tjuntun near Watarru. He threw one spear and made that rockhole. He went in that rockhole and then he travelled back to Malara.”

His work continues to feature in both private and public collections.