Cyan began painting serpents as a homage to the creation story of the Rainbow Serpent - widely told in the Top End and other parts of australia.

The serpent represents not only creation and fertility but an on-going connection to the land and to each other. The circle motif is used to represent our home; the earth, the sun; our life force, other celestial bodies as well infinity and the cyclical nature of Indigenous belief systems.

Using these two motifs, an endless and inspiring series was born - different patterns and colours are used to represent different parts of our natural world and those beyond our current Western knowledge.

Through exploration of this series, the exhibition ‘gwalwa mamadlema’ was born.