David Malangi

One of the artists that I'm focussing on in my major essay assignment is Michael Riley. The significance of Riley's work is the skills he posses and that is able to employ in both the mediums of still photography and film. This is especially his ability to connect with his subject and use it to portray that subject in a light that is insightful and quite intimate and personal at the same time. This can be seen quite extensively in his 1991 documentary film Malangi for Blackout (SBS), which I watched to gain an understanding of Riley's film work, but was rewarded with the story of renowned Aboriginal bark painter David Malangi.

Riley travelled to central Arnhem land to make the film and meet with Malangi, to show the many important spiritual and ancestral elements to his life and his work. David Malangi who was of the Manharrju clan of the Dhuwa moiety, has worked featured in many international collections, like that of the Asian Societies gallery in New York which he visited in 1989. However, it's not the remarkable work itself that connected with me in this film, but everything in Malangi's lifethat made me respect that work and his role in creating it. What Riley is able to communicate really well in this film is the pivotal responsibility Malangi posses in looking after the different people and land he is connected with in central Arnhem land. His land of the Dhuwa moitey, Mulanja and Durrunyuwa on the eastern bank of the Glyde River of the Arafura Sea and Dhamala and Dhabilla on the Western side of the river, as well as his mothers and grandmothers land, Yirritja moitey lands around Yathalamarra billabong 20km inland from the Arafura coast, all form part of his responsibility.

Seeing Malangi hunt, play and source painting materials with his family from the land and animals around the waterholes, rivers and billabongs became something quite beautiful. What made this even more intimate for me was the dreamings Malangi shares in these sacred locations that present the strong connection and understanding he has of them, and that 'are' his work. As Malangi states in the film:
"The paintings are just like our sacred sights and dreamings. In doing paintings we are acting out our ancestral traditions. That's where they come from, our secret dreamings."
These dreamings include that of the Djang-Wuwa sisters who came from the east in Dabila and who walked slowly across the land with their digging sticks, creating water holes where they touched the land. Along the way Malangi explains how they named places like Gilmimgarri, as well as naming the tribes and languages along the way before leaving their digging sticks at the beach at Malwiningirr before walking into the sunset. The waterholes created by the sisters become places for the Dhuwa people to hunt tortoises to eat and survive on today. This all takes form in Malangi's bark paintings. What becomes significant to me is how this deep understanding of his people and land captured in these stories is told and shown to hundreds of thousands of other people in different cultures all around the world.

However, an issue explored in the film is the exploitation and misuse of these stories that ironically created Malangi's success. The dreaming of the ancestral being Gurrimirringu and the creation of the land around the Eastern mouth of the Glyde river. This dreaming is depicted in many of Malangi's paintings, a portion of which was printed as the design on the Australian $1.00 by the reserve bank in 1965. Malangi only found out about the design, that features Gurrimirringu at a funeral scene, when it first appeared on the notes in 1966. The came across to me as quite disturbing and disrespectful, especially understanding the significance of these paintings Malangi is creating. What makes this lack of understanding of Indigenous culture even more significant is the Reserve Banks attempt to acknowledge their mistake, when the administrator gave Malangi a medal, dinghy and $500 for using his artwork. The material rewards in exchage for taking and using the sacred stories of three generations of people I feel is unjustified and purely wrong. If Riley's film showed anything to me, it's how important these stories are to the people which Aboriginal elders like Malangi have responsability over, to look after them and their land. The end of the film highlights the importance of keepng this alive, as Malangi explains he looks to his three sons Albert, Charlier and Neville to understand the law of the people and carry on these responsibilities.

This film was made in 1991, 8 years before Malangi's death. After seeing this film, I really hope these responsibilities and impact Malangi has on the people of Yolnju and Balanda is kept alive through his family descendents. However Malangi's paintings will still remain, as a way to share to those all over the world, who aren't familiar, his land, people and the importance of the dreamings that keep them connected.

David Malangi, The Gurrmirringu Myth, 1982,  earth pigment on eucalyptus bark, 117.3 x 67.4 cm, Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide

Australian one dollar note featuring the artwork of David Malangi, printed in 1966

References:

• Brenda L. Croft, "Up in the sky, behind the clouds". In Michael Riley: Sights Unseen, edited by Kathryn Favelle, 17-47. (Canberra, A.C.T.: National Gallery of Australia, 2006)
• Michael Riley, Blackout - Malangi (Sydney, N.S.W.: Aboriginal Program Unit, Australian Broadcasting Corperation, 1991), DVD
• Susan Jenkins, "This is our story and this is our country", No Ordinary Place: The art of David Malangi, http://nga.gov.au/Exhibition/malangi/Default.cfm?MnuID=6&Essay=1, (accessed: 26/10/2011)  

The Work of Vernon Ah Kee

After watching an episode of Message Stick that focused on Indigenous artist Vernon Ah Kee, I was totally encapsulated in his work. Especially that of his drawings, which many other artists like Andrea Fisher and Richard Bell also respect for their incredible power and technique. However, what I think Ah Kee does well, which many other Indigenous artists strive to do, is break people's expectations and ideas about Indigenous art. However, how Ah Kee does this I really admirer, with intelligence and strong conceptual foundations to support this polished technique. Having studied life drawing myself, and understanding how hard it is to capture the anatomical characteristics of the human figure correctly, with expression and character, I could see the talent and skills he posses. The idea and images he uses to motivate a lot of his portraiture drawings are resourced from archival photographs of his grandparents on Palm Island, kept as scientific record of a dying race. By re-creating them as drawings, Ah Kee explains he's keeping the power, intelligence and intensity he sees in their photographs alive, very much encapsulated in their gaze. I think this concept and work is incredibly touching and strong, because I feel in a way its taking his grandparents out of that negative anthropological connotation and reinvigorating it with one of spirit, life and respect for a new age. As Ah Kee himself explains, he's making the subject of aboriginal people 'beautiful' by representing them in these beautiful drawings. The idea of aboriginal art and the people many people have is broken and re-established. Not only this but Ah kee is literally putting his family into his work, which not many artists do and can say, giving it I think a stronger backbone and more obvious meaning.

Vernon Ah Kee., Waanji Man (Mythread series panel, 3)., drawing, painted sketch, synthetic polymer paint, charcoal and crayons on canvas, 1770 x 240 cm 

What I find most interesting about Ak Kee's work is that this intelligence and message he is able to transcend into work that is of a completely different medium or material, like his text work. His first show in 2002, If I was White, contained large statements and passages of writing that present everyday philosophical and/or factual statements about indigenous people living in Australia today. Some of these are quite serious and confronting where as other are humorous and clever like,"If I was White I could find a bandaid to match my skin". What I have noticed about his text work and how I can relate to it, as a graphic designer, is the way he uses tight letterspacing a lot. I discovered this is part of his technique of getting the public to really look and understand the message he is communicating with it. Ah Kee describes it as a puzzle that people have to say out aloud, and which because of this they take away after seeing the work. I think this is incredibly clever and further shows me the calculated thought process he and his work actually has. This is something that exists in a lot of aboriginal art, but that we may miss because of a certain expectation or view.

Vernon Ah Kee, Panel 13, 2002, If I Was White series, computer generated inkjet print,  42 x 30 cm

Ah Kee talks about the artists group Proppa Now he set up with his fellow indigenous artists Richard Bell, who creates art to let people know what contemporary Indigenous art is all about: "The daily struggles against modernity and capitalism". I feel that this ideology is strongly communicated in Ah Kee's text based work. What I found also interesting coming out of this explanation of Proppa Now, is the way Josh Milani states that Ah Kee isn't concerned as such with the arguments around the label 'Urban Indigenous Artist' put on him and other contemporary Indiegnous artists like Tracey Moffat, which she very much fights against and that makes a presence through her work. Milani explains that Ah Kee is simply communicating the idea of empowerment instead, however I feel that there is a strong part of him which wishes to break from being recognised as this, and that becomes another layer to the idea behind his art pieces.

Earlier in the episode he states that his work is about his life and that he, "has to be considered an aboriginal artist". As Indigenous artists like Richard Bell explains, it's a way of Romanticising or anattatchment the industry have given to Indigenous artists, by using 'Urban Indigenous Artist'. It is considered to be used to add a spirituality to the work by dealers, using it to sell to particular markets. As Ah Kee explains further, pointing out that the art dealers and sellers are not aboriginal, and that their influence has dictated a meaning to the works, separating it from the artists. After hearing this I really begin to question the term, for the first time since hearing it. Previously, I had no issue with the 'Urban Indigenous Artist' label because I thought it was correct and justifiable in simply explaining the situation some contemporary artists have. However, to here from an Aboriginal artist that this label was in fact created and associated to their work by non-indegenous people for the sake of reinforcing to people there's 'meaning' and a 'spirituality' to the work, like found in the work that artists that paint in more remote regions 'have', to sell the work, I think is really wrong. It would feel incredibly disrespected and angry to have someone convince everyone and the industry at large that me and my work fit into a certain category, when they aren't the ones creating the work and will never be as connected to the work as I am. This is now a label that I know I will feel a lot more sensitive towards when I hear, read or see it in the future to describe an artist.

Further unsettling for me was when he explained how differently he was treated when he first travelled overseas to exhibit in major shows like the Venus Biennale. He explained that he was respected and considered as being part of a higher class of world cultures and native peoples, compared to the poorer response he gets in Australia. I think the 'Urban Indigenous Artist' label could be seen as part of this disrespect and disconnect Australian society has with Aboriginal people, which is quite troubling to hear and think about when we're talking about the treatment they're getting on their own land in a modern society.

Regardless of these issues, there is no doubting that Vernon Ah Kee's work is deeply rooted in his life, and a large part of this is showing his indigenous identity.  


References:

• Message Stick: Born in this Skin, Hindmarsh, South Australia: DECS Tape Services, April 2009
• 'Vernon Ah Kee: Australian Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Art', (2010) National Galler of Australia Online Collection, http://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Search.cfm?CREIRN=6109&ORDER_SELECT=1&VIEW_SELECT=4, (accessed: 20/10/2011)     

Aboriginal Art Diagnostic Reflection

Reading the Aboriginal Art Diagnostic in the June 2011 Contemporary Visual Art + Culture Broadsheet by Adam Hill and Adam Geczy, I found honest and at times a bit confronting as to the opinions and thoughts being stated. However, I did feel that Hill and Geczy used a very clever technique of stating 'keywords' and definitions as they apply to Aboriginal art positioned today to explore their main topic. This being, from what I took away from the article, the 'authenticity' and success of Aboriginal art in a culture that is primarily EuroAmerican, and it's position in Australia for a global art market. There are some very good points which made me reflect on this, especially because of my position as a 'white' Anglo-Australian studying Indigenous art and culture.

The main points being for me were:
".....Aboriginal art lives out a contradiction: it has been a constructive means by which Aboriginal cultures have stated their claim within Australian culture and yet it is only within culture qua culture that they are able to serve."
"The Western response has been to embrace this identity with a desire to correct former colonialist injustices, only on the unspoken condition that the 'Other' never forgoes his or her 'Otherness'."
How I felt about these points were that they are quiet correct from where I stand looking at the position of Aboriginal art. Whether we like it or not the fact is, as stated in this diagnostic, that yes Indigenous people were told in the early 1970's that their 'art and culture' was in fact an 'art and culture', and not just of the anthropological category. And also that the success of Aboriginal art today does have a lot to do with a Western culture that deems it's 'authenticity' and 'difference' as a way of giving it this successful status as part of an Australian identity. To study, critique or collect Aboriginal art as a non-indigenous person is to promote this situation, and may still pivot on this idea of 'fashionability' and 'progressiveness' that comes to establish the art world. I think the acknowledgement and purchasing of Aboriginal art may also still have undertones of 'charity' and 'anxiety' attached to it as well, whether it's selling for millions and considered a 'masterpiece' or work selling for hundreds in a small rural or inner-city gallery. I began to wonder to what extent and to what criteria our culture deems a work done by an Indigenous artists as 'successful' or worth a certain amount of money? Does this have anything to do with or give it more or less meaning and understanding when an Indigenous person makes it or looks at it? How much of a say and position do Indigenous people have when it comes to what is 'good' art?

Whilst I do agree with most of the arguments made in the diagnostic, that's not to say I think that a contemporary Australian culture and society would be better if we looked the other way to Indigenous art and culture. Although it was originally one culture telling the other what was and wasn't art, and today it is primarily still white Anglo-Australian's behind this, at least we are able to see it, buy it and make the effort to understand and appreciate it whether we are in the correct position to do so or not. There are many Indigenous or part-Indigenous Australian critiques, theorists, educators and curators like Hetti Perkins, Brenda Croft and Franchesca Cubillo that do have a say in what is what in the art world.

It is quite confronting and honest what Hill and Geczy have done in this diagnostic by stating the words  like 'authentic', 'dog', 'nepotism' 'prison', 'leech', etc., and giving them a meaning based on how they 'really' applied to Aboriginal art and how its positioned represented today. However I think they are quite correct in this respect, and at the end of the day it is another opinion or theory about art which is inescapable for artists and people in the industry. I'm still glad that Indigenous art and and culture is part of Australian culture at large no matter the issues, positions and opinions that have constituted it.


References:

•     Adam Hill and Adam Geczy, "Aboriginal Art Diagnostic", Contemporary Visual Art + Culture Broadsheet 40.2 (June 2011): 133-35

Spirit In The Land

This week I visited Spirit In The Land, an Australian art exhibition curated by Robert Lindsay held in the Sate Library of South Australia from the 27th of August to the 23rd of October 2011. The exhibition has put together the work of 11 well-respected Australian Indigenous and non-Indegenous artists, to explore this idea of how the Australian landscape has played an important role in the history of Australian art. The range of work that I encountered that all played tribute to this theme I found really interesting, especially because the Indigenous work was mixed within the non-Indigenous. I thought it was interesting to compare how the two cultures approached the same country and it's various landscapes.

The works Narrbongs by Indigenous artist Lorraine Cownelly really stood out to me beacuse of it's raw and contemporary take on this idea of the Australian land. The work presents a series of baskets made out of found materials like pressed rusted tin, fencing and barbed wire, fly-wire gauze, burnt roof guttering, mesh and even a bag with a saw blade for a handle. I thought it was really clever the way she translated the traditional method of aboriginal weaving, which uses natural elements like grass roots, to present a more contemporary representation of the land using urban/industial found materials that have aged and been left amougst the environment. The rusted, stained and warped forms the metals took on I think present a really nice testament to the harsh landscapes Australia is made from, but keeping a live an old craft.

Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Narrbong (string bag),
ring-lock wire mesh, 124 x 95 x 66cm

After hearing about contemporary Indigenous artist Lin Onus in this weeks lecture on 'Urban Based' Indigenous Artists, it was good to see some his work at the exhibition His piece Ginger and my Third Wife Approach the Roundabout (1914), depicts a very surreal scene of sting-rays floating above the dirt ground and a half-buried roundabout sign. Although the scene looks western in it's photorealist painting style, the back of the sting-rays painted with rarrk present the inclusion of aboriginal techniques and understanding in painting with their tradition of representing animal motifs. The 14 trips Onus has made to Maningrida region to learn the traditional painting style of their Indigenous people comes across very strongly and skilfully in this way, communicating this dedication and understanding Onus has taken on over his career. Whilst I appreciate how Onus has bravely experimented with this combination of art practices and cultures, personally I felt disconnected to the piece and to me I think it felt a little too forced and discreet. Part of the reason I felt this was was because I much preferred his approach in his other painting in the exhibition, Jimmy's Billabong (1988), that overlays a traditional aboriginal pattern similar to rarrk over the top of a realistically depicted landscape painting of an Australian billabong. The overall effect is quite significant where the direct aesthetic combination of the two painting methods results in a striking and almost 'pixelated' or 'digitally-enhanced' appearance of the scene. I think the result of a simple method like this creating this visually strong effect was quite beautiful and something I could appreciate and personally admire more. For me it raises questions of cultural ownership and marking the land natural sites in Australia.

Lin Onus, Jimmy's billabong, 1988,
synthetic polymer paint on canvas 114.0 h x 235.0 w cm 

Apart from the beautiful work by the other included artists like Rover Thomas and Emily Kame, I found Dorothy Napangardi's paintings of a more traditional Indigenous approach really powerful and inspiring. Her work Sandhills of Mina Mina (2000) presents an aerial view of the sand dune patterns of the salt lakes of Tanami in a dot pattern of yellows, greys and crimson hues. It was truly perplexing to me how much depth, form and shape was created just through this pattern which could only have been represented by someone who truly understands the nature of the landscape. Through this understanding Napangardi can show it's natural cycle and stages presenting sand ridges, erosion and, crystalline cracking and water rivulets all through the same technique and pattern. Dorothy Napangardi's other piece Karntakurlangu Jakurrpa (2000) also stood out for me, especially because it represents the digging stick possessing dreaming, or Karnta-kurlangu Jukurrpa, instructed in the ritual known as 'Woman's Dreaming'. This reminded me of the Djan'kawu Sisters dreaming story of Northeast Arnhem land that also involved digging sticks. I remember how fascinating it was seeing this ceremony of this dreaming carried out and how important the 'Yirindidi ' stripe painting was, as it was used across the artwork of the area and throughout many elements of the ceremony including being painted on participants bodies. Through the Yirindidi stripes the fascinating dreaming story of the formation of the Northeast Arnhmen land coastline is communicated. Going back to Dorothy Napangardi's painting, reading about how this other digging stick possessing dreaming forms the basis of a lot of her work, I felt I had a greater appreciation of how important this would be to her as part of her heritage. Whilst what I really liked about the painting was it's aesthetic quality of the painstakingly detailed and intricate pattern, I felt more appreciative of the painting because of how much more understanding and information it must possess for the artist and Indigenous people familiar with that dreaming.

Dorothy Napangardi, Sandhills of Mina Mina, 2000
synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 198.0 x 122.0 cm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Overall the exhibition, whilst smaller than I originally expected, was surprisingly diverse in it's selection of Indigenous artwork, giving me enough of a diversity to see the different modern and traditional approaches the Australian land. Each artists has his or her own way of showing what the country they live in means or evokes for them, and was a great reflecting point for me to think about how this could become represented in my work, and what it means for me.


References:

• Art Almanac, (July 2009), "Gallery Listings", http://www.art-almanac.com.au/page.php?page=100, (accessed: 15/9/2011)
• National Gallery of Australia, (2010), "Australian Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Art: Lin Onus",  http://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Detail-LRG.cfm?IRN=86644&View=LRG, (accessed: 15/9/2011)
• NETS Victoria, (2009), "Dorothy Napangardi: Sandhills of Mira Mira", http://www.netsvictoria.org.au/sandhills-of-mina-mina?PHPSESSID=bde7f3122e71649a08a1c02c51e52197, (accessed: 15/9/2011)
• Robert Lindsay., "Spirit In The Land" (Exhibition media release digital form released August 11th, 2011), Flinders University: Art Museum, http://www.flinders.edu.au/artmuseum/documents/Media-SpiritintheLand.pdf, (accessed: 15/9/2011)

Lecture 5: Felicity Fenner reading and 'Aboriginal Modernism'

After the debate in tutorial this week over the statement: "Appreciation of Aboriginal art by non-Aboriginal people is pointless because they can never know the true meaning of the work.". I think the debate began to raise serious questions and issues about the validity of our appreciation of art and our understanding of its 'true meaning'. The debate was centred around felicity Fenner's essay which points out that our collection and showcasing of Indigenous artwork is still questionable and has political and philanthropic undertones. Supporting this argument, Fenner outlines the differences between Western art and Indigenous art, where Indigenous artists paint to keep a culture and tradition alive in contrast to western art where the artist is motivated by personal or intellectual motivation. On top of this Fenner argues how this application of Indigenous art and culture into normal Australian culture has been based on unbalanced cross-connections between Indigenous and 'Western-art'. Where non-Indigenous artists who have the luxury of travelling took a Western and modern approach and used Aboriginal painting as an influence, where as Indigenous painters don't have this luxury and in fact have been denied in some cases exposure to contemporary international art.

After thinking about this reading, and tutorial discussion, I came across the essay Designs On Aboriginal Culture by Steve Miller who argues and brings up some very good points that supports that of Fenner's. Miller's main argument being that the modernist art and design of Australia has used and disrupted the work by Indigenous artists in an effort to preserve an Australian culture and heritage. Where the term 'Aboriginal Modernism' is applied but contradicts the tradition and nature of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Art as well as our past colonial encounters with Indigenous people. Miller uses many examples to back this up like the boomerang which was embraced in the Australian modern era by designers because of its geometric form. Amongst these other Indigenous artefacts and handcrafts became re-produced for the tourist trade as a result of Indigenous communities still making initial contact with westerners during a time of change of socio-political awareness of Indigenous people. The manufacturing and fashioning of Indigenous motifs then completely missed the point and was often instead how non-Indigenous designers thought they should be like.

Another example Miller uses is an exhibition held in a david Jones department store in Sydney in 1941 called Australian Aboriginal Art and its Application. In this exhibition artists like Margaret Preston featured work that advocated for the inclusion of Indigenous Symbolism to take presence in a 'National Art' and be recognised. Again this was a naive attempt, as Indigenous curator Hetti Perkin's explained in response to the work: "to aboriginal eyes... reads as a scrambled orthography of vaguely familiar works, or a discordant symphony where the notes don't quite ring true. Preston's passionate attempts, while well intentioned, were doomed to fail ultimately because they are meaningless to Aboriginal people-not unlike the contemptuous government policy of assimilation.".

It's through these examples I am convinced that the initial tutorial question about non-Aboriginal people never knowing the true meaning of the work I think is justified and correct. The result is, as Miller explains, products, artefacts and works that were mainly being made by non-Indegeous Australians during the Australian Modern era as an attempt to make a tribute to Australia's 'natives', but that in fact isn't recognised by Indigenous people and doesn't support why they make art. And in doing so calling Aboriginal art by Aboriginal artists 'modern' or expecting them to be appreciative of it inspiring the work of non-Indigenous artists, as Fenner and Miller state respectively, is I think also inappropriate and does need to be considered. However I feel that to say it's pointless for non-Aboriginal people to 'appreciate' the work is incorrect. Whilst we can't 'appreciate' Aboriginal and Torres Straight islander Art on the same level as an Indigenous person may be able to, that's not to say a non-indigenous person can't make the effort to understand and acknowledge the work. I feel though when it becomes used and made to promote false meanings and suite a kitsch Australian image, a true appreciation becomes lost.

Australian Home Beautiful Magazine article "Stone Age legends in modern design",
showing the 20th century attitudes to Aboriginal culture.

References:

• Felicity Fenner, "Thinking Beyond Abstraction", Contemporary Visual Art + Culture Broadsheet 38.2 (2009): 133
• Steve Miller, "Designs on Aboriginal Culture", in Modern Times: The untold story of Modernism in Australia, ed. by Ann Stephen, Philip Goad and Andrew McNamara, 30 (Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing, 2008)    

'For Doomadgee, laptops promise a future' and 'Indigenous kids get the plot' by Sarah Elks

"Indigenous kids get the plot" by sarah Elks, The Australian ( Mon August 22nd, 2011)

I came across Sarah Elks articles in The Australian newspaper, about remote Indigenous schools and communities getting the chance to improve their reading and writing schools through different programs and methods. One of these is the literacy program in the small remote school St Michaels Catholic School on Palm Island, which encourages students to read and write at their grade level, not employing 'dumbed-down' books and materials. Since 150 students are indigenous at the school and have English as their second language, it can be difficult for them to read and engage with english. However, this new literacy program has challenged and accelerated Indigenous students understanding and learning of how to read and write. This I think is obviously a great step in uniting all students together and letting them help each other by having them all read the same material. I think that at other schools, children that are given material intended for a students of lower literacy or an earlier grade, would make them feel more isolated and possible form slower learning in the long run.

"For Doomadgee, laptops promise a future" by Sarah Elks, The Australian ( Mon August 22nd, 2011)

Another program reported on is the One Laptop Per Child program where small cheap laptop computers with wireless internet access have been given to children in remote and regional communities throughout Australia. One of the biggest deployments of these hardy kid-friendly laptops was to Doomadgee, an Aboriginal community in northwest Queensland, 2250km from brisbane and isolated by flooding three months of the year. What I personally really like as a designer looking at these laptops is how they've been made especially for kids to engage them witch technology. Not only do their fluorescent green appearance make them more vibrant and interesting but the two antenna's on each side of the screen called "dingo ears" add another element of interest and fun. Again what's good to see I think is the element of inclusion the internet brings to the students, where an isolated community can engage with not only the rest of Australia but the world, despite extreme physical distances and barriers.

Current issues within Australia of a social, political and ethical nature are more than ever a part of some Indigenous artists work as a platform of commentary. Destiny Deacon I think is one artists who does this really successfully, drawing on her background in social activism to make sometimes satirical but always carefully and beautifully composed work to make these comments subtle and reflective. One of the techniques she employs in her photography/installation work is the juxtopositioning of materials and objects that form Western stereotypes and transforming them to reflect back on colonial Australia whilst still examining contemporary Indigenous Australian identity and views. The fact that Deacon uses a Polaroid camera a lot to create her constructed imagery, like through the photography of artist Ricky Maynard, maintains a connection to Colonialism. The misrepresentation of Indigenous people the camera served in creating as an introduced Western tool, Indigenous artists like Maynard and Deacon have taken as their own to produce work which constantly reminds us of these past injustices.

I think it's interesting the connections made between Western technology and Indigenous people or communities. The laptops supplied to children have been a great tool for them which will help them explore and learn about contemporary Australia and also it's development from the past. This is something at the heart of Deacon and Maynard's work as well, but they do in different and unique ways as contemporary Indigenous artists.


References:

• Sarah Elks, "Indigenous kids get the plot", The Australian, August 22nd, 2011
• Sarah Elks, "For Doomadgee, laptops promise a future", The Australian, August 22nd, 2011
• Blaire French, "Destiny Deacon", in Twelve Australian Photo Artists, 42 (Annandale, NSW: Piper press, 2009) 

Lecture 4: Franchesca Cubillo Speech

After first hearing Franchesca Cubillo's (Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Art for the National Gallery of Australia) at the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Opening 2011, during the lecture, made it hard for me to take all of what she was saying in whilst also trying to take notes. Going over her speech again and really listening to what she was saying, I am completely taken by how well and how encouraging she was of not only her people but also non-indigenous Australians and the connections between the two that has made Indigenous art an culture so well represented and respected today.

Based on this, Franchesca makes several really great points and brings to speculation some really important moments in Indigenous art history. One being 1888, where Melbourne held the first exhibition of Indigenous artwork, appreciated as fine art and not as anthropological evidence of a dyeing culture. And in the 22 years since Indigenous artwork has taken place in galleries and museums collections all over Australia and even all over the world. One thing Franchesca said that I found really important is the way she acknowledged how these Indigenous communities worked with non-indigenous people, missionaries, anthropologists and governor officials. She explained how selected Indigenous leaders of various communities took the opportunity to help teach these non-indegeous people their culture, stories and their artwork, which they took to be seen by the rest of the world. For me I found this really important because the way she acknowledged this unity between indigenous and non-indigenous people, put aside any association or feelings to the horrific past between the two cultures in Australian history, making us look forward in a sense because of the art.

Another point which made this clearer and that I found really interesting was how the councils involved in the Aboriginal Arts Board, formed in 1973 by the Australian Government, donated the amazing artwork of Indigenous communities across Australia, to Institutions around the world because they weren't being bought. Franchesca notes that during a time when Australia wasn't appreciating this work, it was shown in 40 exhibitions overseas during the boards first 5 years, where the donations meant that other countries and cultures could understand and appreciate the true spirit and heart of where the work came from and the culture behind it. Australia then began to acknowledge the art for what it was. This really astonished me, to think that the work had to be taken to other countries, just to get it appreciated in it's homeland.

One point Franchesca makes that showed me how much more acknowledged Indigenous art has become over the last 35 or so years was about the Papunya paintings. That then, paintings by Papunya artists on masonited boards were $25-$30, and the same works depicting the same stories and heritage of it's people are now easily worth $600,000 at the least. It's here I began to connect the tutorial questions from this week (week 5), where I feel the statement by Susan McColloch pulled from the preface of her book Contemporary Aboriginal Art: A guide to the rebirth of an ancient culture, can be justified:

"The revitalisation of Australian Aboriginal art has been one of the greatest success stories of modern art." (pg. 10)

When putting the points Franchesca makes into consideration, I completely agree with this statement, and it still amazes me how valuable the work has become now, that only a few decades ago was donated because it wasn't being bought. As McColloch also presents, it's thought that the sales of Indigenous art is greater than $100 million annually. I would definitely associate many successes have been made surrounding Indigenous people that have centred on their artwork. As Franchesca draws back on, Art Fair's like the one in Darwin with the 43 art centres represented there, make this possible and tell people to stop and take a look at this truly rich diversity of Indigenous art that is now being made. What this speech has represented to me, is that events like this is another step in our history that lets Indigenous people teach us even more about their heritage, history and stories, another way we are looking forward.

References:

• Susan McCulloch, Contemporary Aboriginal Art: A guide to the rebirth of an ancient culture (NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 1999), 10-11