Julie Dowling and HJ Wedge

For the final assessment I want to look at urban aboriginal artists, who work in the field of painting, who have different styles and backgrounds, but explore common themes. Along with Daniel Boyd, I wish to look at the paintings of Julie Dowling and H.J. Wedge.

H.J. Wedge was born on Erambie Mission near Cowra in central New South Wales. He works with acrylic paint in a colourful childlike style to explore issues in Aboriginal life today.

'Alcoholism-2' 2008 acrylic on canvas 60 x 90 cm

Julie Dowling's heritage is Irish, Russian, Jewish and Aboriginal, but she identifies mostly with her Aborginal side. She combines a western style of portraiture painting with dot painting, to explore political issues within Indigenous culture today.

Self Portrait Blackbird

Final Assessment

On this blog i have looked at art from a variety of indigenous australian artists whose work interests me. An artist I wish to research further for the final is Daniel Boyd, who I have looked at in this blog before. Boyd is an urban artist who employs a western style of painting to look back at the colonisation of Australia, and reveal the truth, that the colonisers were not heroes, but stole the land from it's indigenous inhabitants.

Self Portrait by Daniel Boyd

Michel Riley

In the tute last week we looked at a reading that discussed the works of photographer micheal riley. His works often look at the effect of the impact of christianity on indigenous Australians, particularly in the series 'Sacrifice'. This series of 15 haunting images suggest the damaging effects of the introduction of christianity. The works explore the truth behind colonisation, revealing that the way in which the christianity robbed indigenous Australians of their culture.

Untitled from the series Sacrifice [palms with stigmata], 1992

Michael RILEY Untitled from the series Sacrifice [stone cross/crucifix], 1992

Sources: 1

Daniel Boyd

Reading the extract 'Cannot buy my soul' from the book 'Culture Warriors: National Indigenous Art Triennial' I was intrigued to look up the works of Indigenous artist Daniel Boyd from the descriptions of his appropriations. The text describes the work 'King No Beard' which is a direct appropriation of a portrait of King George III by Nathaniel Dance (1773). King George III was associated with the early days of Australia's colonisation, and the painting refers to this by replacing the gold orbs on the necklace with gold skulls. Also included in Boyd's work is a self portrait in the form a depacitated head in a jar. This is a reference to '18th-century Dharug/Dharuk resistance leader Pemulwuy', who led uprisings against the colonisers before eventually being caught and beheaded. His head was bottled and sent back to England as trophy. The inclusion of a parrot on the figures soldier suggests that King George suggests his true status as a thieving pirate, who robbed the Aboriginal people of their land and way of life.

'King No Beard', Daniel Boyd, 2007

'Portrait of George III' Nathaniel Dance, 1773

Some other works I researched include 'Governor No beard' which also uses pirate emblems, a parrot and eye patch, to suggest the figure is a thief. Boyd re-appropriates images which portray these men in power as 'heroes' to reveal the truth behind the colonisation of Australia.

'Governor No Beard' Daniel Boyd, 2007

'We call them Pirates out here' again shows the colonisation from the perspective of the Aboriginals, who see the colonisers as villians, not noble figures.

'We call them Pirates out here' Daniel Boyd, 2006

Another work by Boyd I found that i really liked was 'Fall & Expulsion' (2006), which is below.

Sources: 1, 2, 3

Spirit in the Land

The Spirit in the Land exhibition currently on display at the Flinders City Gallery features a range of works relating to the Australian environment.

"Spirit in the Land explores the connection between eleven Australian artists, historical and contemporary, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and their special appreciation and engagement to the spiritual ethos and power of the land."

The majority of the works represented the Australian outback as a dark isolating place, as was discussed in the tute, which can be seen in the works by Russell Drysdale and Sydney Nolan. This theme is also seen in the work of such Aboriginal artists such as Rover Thomas. Here in 'Bedford Downs' (1984) the representation of the landscape is also dark and threatening but is not figurative; and rather is painted in the abstract style of traditional aboriginal art. Thomas "combines an aerial and profile view of the enormous space and landform once used for farming, hinting at a tragedy that Thomas fully fully explores in another painting titled 'Bedford Downs Massacre' 1985."

The Crow Trap, Russell Drysdale, 1941

'Bedford Downs', Rover Thomas, 1984

One artwork which stood out from the depictions of a harsh threatening land was 'Kame Colour II' by Emily Kame Kngwarreye. Kngwarreye is from Alhalkere which is home to her people the Anmatyerre and the Yam Dreaming. As such she is a custodian of the Yam Dreaming and knows all parts of and the growth cycle of the atnwelarr pencil yam. Kngwarreye paints all parts of the yam in her painting 'Kame Colour II'. She calls this way of painting 'whole lot' and uses it to "describe the physical, cultural and spiritual associations of her country in the one painting". This painting stood out for me as it depicted a vibrant expressive image of the Australian landscape, in contrast to much of the darker works in the collection. The pictures twisting lines almost seem to come to life.

'Kame Colour II', Emily Kame Kngwarreye, 1995

Source: 1

Brenda Croft

In the lecture we watched more of the program Art + Soul, this time about the artists Lin Onus, Yvonne Koolmatrie and also the works of Brenda Croft. The thing I found most interesting in this episode was when Brenda was talking about an image in a book she owns called Aboriginal Australians which depicts 10 women in a line, who are positioned according to their 'percentage' of Aboriginality. On the right hand side there stands a 'full blooded' Aboriginal, and on the left hand side a white European women. Unfortunately I was unable to find the orginal image, but it has influenced Brenda so much that she has co-opted it into some of her photographic pieces.

Don't Go Kissing at the Garden Gate, 1998 from Colour B(l)ind Ilfochrome print

She Called him Son, 1998 from Colour B(l)ind Ilfochrome print

The images are combined with old photographs of her father, who was taken away from his family as part of the stolen generation. In one She Called Him Son he stands reunited with his mother. These photographs are combined with words and the image of the ten Aboriginal to European women. The use of this image seems to suggest that this scientific analysis of how 'full blooded' is not relevant to how an individual feels, or their connection to their family.

Sources: 1, 2

Ricky Maynard

Broken Heart 2005 silver gelatin print 43 x 41.5 cm

In My first post about this subject I wish to talk about an image that struck me in the lecture where we watched part of the ABC documentary written and presented by Hettie Perkins, Art + Soul. This is an image by documentary photographer Ricky Maynard called 'Broken Heart', from the collection 'Portrait of a Distant Land', which depicts the artist himself looking across the water to the his homeland. Here he is honouring his ancestors who were banished from Tasmania by white settlers to surrounding islands. Researching further into this history I learnt how the settlers had attempted genocide on the Indigenous Australians and when they tried to defend their land they were subject to violence, and were eventually forced from their homeland. This picture really stood out for me, as you can feel the sense of a tragic past that he is looking back on. The collection is made up of 10 images that celebrate the history of Aboriginal Tasmanians, from an Aboriginal perspective. He aims to tell the stories of his people from their perspective, and in doing so reclaim Aboriginal history from the European point of view, which we so often hear about. I have included a few more images from the collection I liked.

Vansittart Island’ from the series ‘Portrait of a Distant Land' 2007 ‘The Spit’ from the series ‘Portrait of a Distant Land’ 2007

‘The Mission’ from the series ‘Portrait of a Distant Land’ 2007

Sources: 1, 2