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)