Purkarari: Slow Down
'Purkarari: Slow down' is an exhibition of major new works by Zaachariaha Fielding alongside collaborative paintings created with senior artists working out of the APY Studio in Adelaide. Rooted in the Pitjantjatjara word Purkarari, meaning a deep calm through work, Fielding explores the meditative act of creation in partnership with celebrated artists Sandra Pumani, Yaritji Tingila Young, Nyunmiti Burton, Jennifer Ingkatji, Yaritji Heffernan, Margaret Richards, and Megan Lyons. Together, their work speaks to the restorative nature of painting—where movement, expression, and shared creativity quiet the mind and strengthen cultural connections.
“Purkarari is a sense of calm that comes over us as we work. Our Collective Art Centre provides the space for us to be able to do this. I have worked in our studio since the very start of COVID. When the world went quiet for a bit, my career as a touring musician was put on pause. At this point I turned to artmaking and started my career as a visual artist. This brought me so much joy and a whole new world opened to me.
When I work in the Studio alongside the senior women, I am grounded. I feel a sense of calm wash over me. Artmaking brings me clarity, it brings me calm and keeps me connected to my family, my Elders, and myself. I work alongside the senior women in our studio every day—these women guide and support me and the other young artists. I always feel the strongest when I am with them.
This exhibition is a celebration of our interconnectedness and our work. Palyo.” – Zaachariaha Fielding
Widely recognised for his musical achievements as one half of the acclaimed duo Electric Fields, Fielding is also an award-winning visual artist whose bold and expressive work continues to gain national and international recognition.
Presented by City of Adelaide as Adelaide marks 10 years as a UNESCO City of Music in 2025, and following Electric Fields being awarded the Key to the City on 12 May 2025, ‘Purkarari: Slow down’ is a powerful tribute to connection, creativity, and Country.
Exhibition catalogue extract by Rebecca Freezer
“Zaachariaha Fielding’s reputation precedes him: a commanding performer, radiant and assured, his voice rising with clarity and force – somewhere between earth and sky. As one half of Electric Fields — a duo who meld sound, language and movement with emotional precision — Fielding is magnetic. That presence carries into the artist’s studio. There’s a hum beneath the surface of his paintings. A sense of rhythm. Movement. Each mark a gesture. Each composition a kind of song.”
The full version of this text by Rebecca Freezer, Curator at the City of Adelaide, will be published in the 2025 Tarnanthi Festival catalogue, available from 16 October 2025 at the Art Gallery of South Australia.
‘Purkarari: Slow down’ is presented in the First Floor Gallery at Adelaide Town Hall, a dynamic civic and cultural centre, for Tarnanthi Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art. At times, the exhibition may be inaccessible due to events. Contact Adelaide Town Hall before visiting to avoid disappointment.
Zaachariaha Fielding & Yaritji Tingila Young, Tjungu (Together), 2023, acrylic on linen, 200 x 248 cm
In this painting Yaritji Tingila Young is teaching the west side songs to Zaachariaha Fielding.
Yaritji Tingila Young is a traditional owner for Tjala Tjukurpa (honey ant story). She is a senior cultural law woman and is from Amata community on the west Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in South Australia.
Zaachariaha Fielding is an early career visual artist and musician from Mimili community on the east APY Lands. Fielding comes from a strong family lineage of artists and storytellers. His energetic and visceral paintings exist as contemporary works whilst acknowledging and honouring the visual language of his culture.
Young holds the songs related to the Tjala Tjukurpa at Cave Hill and this site is also related to the Seven Sisters story, an important cultural story of the region. Young holds the cultural authority for these songs and in this painting she is teaching them to Fielding. Young calls Fielding her malanypa (young sibling) and this gives Fielding the authority to paint these songs with her.
Zaachariaha Fielding, Gremlins, 2025, acrylic paint, aerosols and pencil on cardboard, 125.5 x 125.5 cm each, set of 6
Zaachariaha Fielding calls these artworks his gremlins. He says, “I create these artworks in between my paintings which come with and require a different energy and commitment. My gremlins are more frenetic, they are like my anxious notes, insecurities, moments of panic and sometimes moments of joy. They have a different pitch, and they are created in short sharp bursts and allow me to be rid of elevated energy that isn’t helpful to my paintings.
The gremlins are the voices, internal and external - flattery and insult battling with each other. I used to avoid my gremlins, these moments of insecurity, moments of panic or unexplained moments of joy. I would hide from them, run away from them, now I play with them, I dance with them and paint them. My gremlins started as therapy, I needed to get them out to paint, but as my relationship with the gremlins changed and I embraced them, I found myself with a desire to celebrate them.”
Zaachariaha Fielding, Inma, 2025, acrylic on linen, 200 x 300cm
This painting depicts the sounds of Mimili, a small community in the eastern part of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. Fielding says, “This is a memory that I was able to document which happened in Paralpi. It’s a place that’s like the Sydney Opera House for the APY Lands! It’s where people come to embrace and celebrate children, teaching them how to move and mimic their clan emblem, and, for Mimili, this has always been the maku (witchetty grub).”
Fielding presents Mimili through a childhood lens, recalling observations of inma (song and dance) and movement. Fielding says, “The atmosphere of this work is full of sound, movement and teaching. All of the communities are coming together, sharing their storylines. However, this platform is only for children. This is for the babies and it’s about them being taught by the masters, their Elders.”
Adelaide Studio Collaborative, Purkarari: Slow down, 2025, acrylic on linen, 200 x 250cm. Image courtesy of AYACC
This painting is a collaboration between Zaachariaha Fielding and senior women artists from the Collective Art Centre in Adelaide. Zaachariaha says that this work centres on the feeling of purkarari – slowing down and working from a place of healing. Fielding says, “Some artworks are like the green light at a traffic light; they make you move fast and feel everything all at once. This work is a like a yellow amber light; it’s made from a position of resting and healing. Sometimes you need to exist in this space for a bit, so you can think, reflect and grow.”