A reflection upon things learnt

Over the past semester Iam amazed as to how much I have learnt in my Indigenous Culture class. Having known pretty much nothing about the cultural side of Australias first residents, I now know a whole lot. I can confidently identify the differences between different Indigenous Art movements, such as Western Desert, Arnhem land paintings and work from Torres strait Islanders. I can also say that I have diverse knowledge upon political and social reasoning within Indigenous culture. That being said, there is still a whole lot I don't know and I am keen to learn more. I think out of all the classes I have done at Uni, this is the first where I want to conitnue my learning once the semester is over. I have utmost respect for Indigenous Artists, whether they be Urban, Traditional, Torres Strait Islanders, movie directors, musicians etc. Their work is so diverse and I can't wait to see what contemporary influences will effect their practice in the future.

Thank you

An outing at the SA Museum

Today we went for a trip to the SA Museum to see the new collection of Yuendumu school doors. These doors were quite fascintating as they were created in 1983 for school doors to encourage children to go to school. They are from a remote community 250km north of Alice Springs in the town of Yuendumu. There were 30 original Doors, Nine that were on display at the Museum. They not only reveal ancient stories and beliefs, but also the scars of graffiti of exposure to the elements and the school yard.

Another thing I liked was the Tindale masks. These extrodinary masks were used by young Aboriginal men in a series of performances during 1947 preceeding their initiation. The masks combine ancient elements and modern materials and subjects. Traditional headdresses in the Pilbara region framed the face with rolls of grass wrapped in hair-string. these masks, cut from old iron are similary framed with rolls of grass wrapped in hessian. Images taken by Bridget Anderson

Torres Strait Islander Art

Today in the lecture we looked at Torres Strait Islander art. I have to say out of all the different branches of Aboriginal art, this is my favourite. There are three different types of Torres Strait Islander Art, that being, Traditional, Urban or Traditional crossed with urban.
An example of a traditional TSI artist would be James Eseli. Without understanding of any TSI artworks, my first impression was that he was a ubran contemporary artist. His work of the fighter pilot plane is acutally a traditional head piece about a traditional story/dance about the plane that crashed in WWII. Every single part of this piece is traditional, down to the fine detailing.

Urban TSI artist are ones that have moved away from TSI or are descendents from TSI and include reference to Western art theory in their work.

An example of a mixed Urban/traditional TSI artist is Ricardo Idagi whose dance machine won the Telstra new media award. This piece is a massive head piece with traditional moving parts to be worn in a traditional dance from TSI. What makes this new media is that inside the head piece is a video of the artist dancing with the headpiece on. It really is amazing to look at.

There is now a new wave of TSI artists coming out of cairns. These artists include Dennis Nora, Alick Tipoti, Ken Thaiday and Ricardo Idagi. These arists lack their cultural knowledge of their elders, and tend to explore issues of identity by referencing to traditional histories and 19th century objects.


Images can be found from : http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-12/ricardo-idagi-with-his-winning-work/2836148

Indigenous Design and Architecture

In the lecture today we had a look at the themes, designs and motifs that appear in Architecture around Australia and around the World.
One major piece we looked at was the Mosaic outside Parliment house in Canberra. This piece was designed by Michael Nelson Jagamara from Pupunya from a Sand Painting showing the tradition of the Walpiri People. It is suppose to represent the associated with particular places and of the moments of meeting and coming together.
What was something controversial about this work was that the artist did ask for the piece to be removed due to the lack of Government treatment for the Aboriginal People.
It's very odd to think that White Australians believe that to represent who they are, they need Aboriginal art to do this. It's as if White Australians identify Aboriginal art as theirs.

Later in the lecture we looked at the video about the Indigenous art museum being created in France. Here they asked many Aboriginal artists to create work for the walls, ceiling and flooring for the design of the building. I have to say that the works looked amazing!

Image from: http://www.genkin.org/cgi-bin/photo.pl/australia/canberra/au-canberra-0001

Mangjaka Arts

Went to an exhibition today at Tandanya about the Mangjaka artists. Theses are a group of artists from Fitzroy Crossing which is one of the most isolated Art Hubs in Western Australia. These works were extreamly bright and each was one unique in story and style. I like their use of contemporary themes and medium in their images as well.

You can find more information about Mangjaka artists at

http://www.mangkaja.com/ or

http://www.tandanya.com.au/ed98/mangjaka-arts/

How Aboriginies invented the idea of Contemporary art.

Today I found a really good book by Ian Mclean, the UWA Proffessor of Aboriginal Art and History. This book inlcudes many expcepts about their opinions about Indigenous Art in Australia written by Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
One article I was intruiged by was called "Aboriginal Acrylics are the fictional voice of white history" by Nicholas Baume.
This article is basically saying how Aboriginal Art cannot be authentic if they are not created with traditional medium or symbols. Therefore is Tracy Moffat an Aborigianl artist? She uses a camera and hides Indigenous symbols in her work? Is Emily Kame Kyngwarreye an Aboriginal Artist? She doesn't use tradtional mediums like ochres in her work, she uses acrylics.

Another article that drew to my attention was called "Becoming an Aborigianal Artist"by Lin Onus. This article addresses the issues with tryin to bridge the gap between Urban and traditional Artists. Onus states that "Although the artists materials may change, the images and stories will remain stronge and everlasting".

Adam Hill- Message Stick

Today I watched a video from ABC's message stick about artist Adam Hill. Adam uses his artwork as a way to explore his own identity. He uses white icons in is work to represent his opinions upon society. Alot of the works he states are really just to "take the piss".

In the video we see him at his new exhibition "Assign of the Crime" which he describes as an Indigenous perspective of Australia and how it is time for a change.

When Adam was growing up, his parents didn't really talk about Aboriginal culture when Adam was growing up. Bob Hill, Adam's Father states "If you want to come to this country, you are Australian. I'm proud to be Australian and I'm proud to be an Aboriginal and I can't change that."

However, Adam states "You can't play the white fellas game ina Black fellas uniform" This could be much why Adam walks around in a suit as if he is a white business man.
This is what Adam is exploring in his work. He uses alot of lines to show his spirituality much like they were his songlines along with brightly coloured european influences.


Image from: http://www.aboriginalartdirectory.com/shop/artist/adam-hill.php "Wallaby Ted's Cousin"

Spirit in the Land

Today I went to an exhibition called 'Spirit in the land' at the Flinders Uni Art Gallery. This exhibition is a reflection of indigenous and non indigenous artists who explore and reflect upon the Australian Landscape. The depiction of the Australian Landscape has been an enduring tradition throughout Australian art and remains great interest to Contempoary Australian Artists. Artists in the exhibition include Lin Onus, Rover Thomas, Fred Williams, Sidney Nolan, Rosalie Gascoigne and Emily Kame Kngwarreye just to name a view.
A work that really caught my eye was the work titled 'Ginger and my third wife approach the roundabout' by Lin Onus. I really respond to the traditional indigenous and non indigenous themes running in this work. Also the juxtoposistion of realism and Aboriginal styles really enhances the piece. This work is a reflection of Onus's incorporation of white and non white themes. Onus was brought up in a white environment and never learnt any of his traditional ways. Onus has explored these missing cultures in his work as he also incorporates the White cultures he was brought up with.

image from: http://www.artnomad.com.au/artworks/artwork.cfm?id=50351 titled: " ginger and my third wife approach the roundabout" , 1994, 200x250cm , Lin Onus

Susan McCulloch- Abstraction

In class today we had to reflect on an article by Susan McCulloch. In the opening line of her preface she says; "The revitalisation of Australian Aboriginal Art has been one of the great success stories modern art."
From this statement we had to either agree or disagree with statement and what does it mean?

This is somewhat of a hard question to answer. I don't agree that Aboriginal Art has been revitalised at any moment in time. I agree that Aboriginal art is one of the great success stories for Australian art but to say that Aboriginal art has been revitalised to make Australian Art better, is not right. Maybe non-indigenous people have utilized Aboriginal art better ( i.e exploitation?)


This brings me onto another topic Aborginal art is now fuelling itself from what has become a large industry where indigenous communites and non-indigenous people benefit from. However, some would say that non indigenous people benefit more. In Richard Bell's article, Aboriginal Art "its a white thing" he states that Aboriginal art is purely made to benefit White demographic. Do Aborginal artists make art to tell their stories and reflect on dreamings? or do they make art to sell to non indigenous people so it will benefit their community.
This requires more investigation:

the link below is for Richard Bell's "It's a white thing" article: http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/great/art/bell.html

Where do we put Aboriginal Art in the world of Contemporary Art?

In an article we read in class called “Thinking about Abstraction” in talks about where to place Aboriginal Art in the world of Contemporary Art. It also talks about the assimilation of Indigenous art within non-Indigenous artworks.
Is Aboriginal art abstract or not? That is a question that many people have been trying to answer. Most Aboriginal art does look abstract however have a story and meaning that needs to be explained to be understood. Big Yam Dreaming by Emily Kngwareye could be seen as an Abstract work of just white lines on Black, however, this piece represents important Aboriginal stories. Abstract art really doesn’t have a meaning, as it is created to just be essentially abstract. So this can maybe justify not putting an Abstract title on Aboriginal art. But do we simply just title the work as Aboriginal Art even though there are many different styles of Aboriginal art. For example do we place a work such as traditional dot painting against a more modern work such as Kngwareye in a gallery?
To me , its not Abstract, its contemporary as it has an underlying theme and concept which can only be 100% appreciated if you understand this concept. However this, I believe that Aboriginal Art should be displayed and titled under what ever the artist states it should be. If they say its Contemporary art, Then it is contemporary art.

image from http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/utopia_the_genius_of_emily_kame_kngwarreye/behind_the_scenes/ ( Big Yam Dreaming by Emily Kngwareye)

How to put a value on Aboriginal Art?

On reflection upon Art and Soul by Hetti Perkins, I was really intrigued by one topic that was brought up about how to value Aboriginal Art. Rover Thomas stated on the film that a painting that has a strong dreaming is a good painting, thus it should cost more. However, how does one judge if they paying the correct price for indigenous work if they do not understand the dreaming value. This brings me to another question, can we guarantee that the work we are viewing or purchasing is an authentic Aboriginal painting. According to my tutor there have been many situations in which Artists have been charged for fraud after producing works about non-authentic dreaming, or by artists that have not in fact created the work. It is also harder for non-indigenous people to determine whether the work is 100% authentic( including the context or the work) as to us, these works seem somewhat abstract without knowing the underlying context.

Art and Soul- Lin Onus

Today in our lecture we watched another film by Hetti Perkins called Art and Soul: dreams and Nightmares. The main aspect of this film that I was really taken away by was how Hetti was explaining about her father being apart of the Stolen generation. He was taken to camp with many other Aboriginal Children where Christianity was forced upon them and their Aboriginal heritage was frowned upon. It was from here that a lot of these children lost their tradition of who they were and the laws and beliefs of their country. We learnt about an artist who has reflected about losing his history in his work. Lin Onus is a Victorian born artist who grew up in a white community and was not allowed to pursue anything to do with Aboriginal culture at all. In his artworks he reflects upon the Indigenous culture that he never learnt and the tradition that was never brought down to him. Because of this, Onus’s work reflect a completely different style to that of stereotypical indigenous art. In his pieces, Onus has searched for traditional Aboriginal styles and stories and incorporated them with stereotypical White Australian references.

The artwork above is titled Fruit Bats (1991) by Lin Onus. this peice relfects the use of Traditioanl Aboringal references but also stereotypical white Australian influences such as the Australian hills Hoist.
Image from: http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/work/395.1993.a-c/

Destiny Deacon

For our Tut today we had to do a reading on Destiny Deacon who we were introduced to in the Lecture. For those who don’t know anything about Destiny, here I a bit of information on her. Destiny Is an Aboriginal artist who specializes in series of Photographs reflecting the influence of the urban Australia on Indigenous Australians. Her photographs are usually crudely portrayed highlighting them as your run of the mill family photographs at mundane events such as holidays, birthdays etc. The main characters in these photographs are her black dolls, put into situations that make the viewer question the context of their nature.
In the tut we were asked the question would the viewer appreciate the work if they did not know the political ideas Deacon is referencing in her work?
After much thought I would have to agree that it would be incredibly hard to appreciate these pieces without knowing the context. To me they were just seem like crudely made photos of dolls that a child has made. But in saying this, I guess this is a reference to much of Contemporary artwork today. It is hard to appreciate with out knowing the context. However, to compare this form of Aboriginal art to that of traditional art were are somewhat expected to appreciate the traditional forms even without knowing what it is about. Something to ponder on…

Home and away featuring Hetti Perkins:

Today in my lecture we watched the remainder of the tv program Home and away, hosted by hetti Perkins. Hetti is an art curator and very enthusiastic about indigenous art as she herself is an Aboriginal person. In the film she takes us around Australia showing the many different styles of Aboriginal art, such as that of the Western desert at, the Northern Australian Art and that of Tasmanian Aboriginal Art. I was quite intrigued at the rock paintings in the northern Australia and the ancient stories that they told. To the people there, these stories are just as relevant and important as they were thousands of years ago as they are now.
I also learnt about the Pupunya art. These people were taken from their homes and taken to the Pupunya refugee area in the 1970’s. It was here that these people created drawings and art work reflecting the stories and longing to go back to their country and home.
We were also introduced to Destiny Deacon, a indigenous photographer who creates down to earth photos of black dolls in different situations. This reflects to me of the urban influence on Aboriginal people. This is quite a contrast from the rural work that I commonly associate with Aboriginal Art. However it could be quite hard to appreciate Deacons work if you did not know the context behind the works.

Betty Pumani

Today i went to an exhibition as apart of the Sala festival at AP Bond Gallery. The artworks on display was by Artist Betty Pumani who is apart of the Mimili Maku Arts group. She has created a series of wonderful works which depict the country of her Mother's Milatjari's tjukurrpa. A Tjukurrpa is hard thing to describe but it has alot to do with a persons "dreaming"or ancestral descendants that have different meaning and story for each person.
Her works are colourful and include both modern and tradtional aspects and colour. I was quite impressed with the paintings and her representation of her country. They were very different to traditional western desert dot paintings but also had a hint of this style included.

Image from: http://tunbridgegallery.com,

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

Size: 152 x 107 cm

Below is the Sala festival websites details of the exhibition. It is well worth a look.

Betty Pumani

Betty Pumani is Pitjantjatjara artist from Mimili Maku in South Australia’s APY Lands. Her superb paintings depict the country of her mother Milatjari’s tjukurrpa (dreaming).

Participating Artists

• Betty Pumani
• 
  

Collective Artist Group Name

Mimili Maku Arts

Artist Experience: Established

Category: Traditional (Realistic works)

Medium: Painting

Opening Night: 04 Aug 2011 6pm - 8pm

Exhibition Hours

Opening Date: 04 Aug 2011

Closing Date: 27 Aug 2011

Days of the week: Tuseday-Saturday

Opening Hours:
11am- 5 pm

Warwick Thornton

After discovering that Warwick Thornton directed Samson and Delilah, I have started to do some research on the man. I originally discovered Thornton at the Samstag gallery earlier this year with his 'Stop the Gap'3D piece of an Aboriginal man floating on a cross. I was quite happy with they exhibition as I got a free bucket of popcorn with it ( maybe just a little joke Thornton wanted to throw in). This work was quite moving as it crossed the issues of religion in the aboriginal community and the relation it plays with the non indigenous community. There were many other artworks on display in this exhibition and it was real clear that there is still a massive gap between indigenous and non indigenous communities and that maybe this will one day be hopefully closed.
A quote about the exhibition from Kryztoff " idea of closing the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous worlds, whether as another Government slogan or through exhibitions such as this, is a worthy goal (as I am unsure what an alternative is that is also worthy) and this exhibition is a valuable contribution to that goal."
Below is a news link to this exhibition http://www.kryztoff.com/RAW/?tag=warwick-thornton

Image from http://www.kryztoff.com/RAW/?attachment_id=2640 (2011) A still from Warwick Thornton's Stranded

Another thought i was pondering (after all the questions that were put before me at the first lecture) about is I wonder how contempoary Indigenous Artists feel about their ancestors work being on display in museums as anthropological collections. Should they have these peices recognised as art as much as a Da Vinci ?

I found this quote interesting

"How do Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, previously captive to the anthropological gaze and to unequal power relations, not only interrogate the histories that defined them as 'other' and ‘lesser’, but also regain their voice and agency over historic cultural objects that reside in collections around the world" (http://www.artlink.com.au/issues/3120/artlink-indigenous-231-br-beauty-and-terror/#articles) (2011)

Samson and Delilah

Today I watched Samson and Delilah, a film by Warwick Thornton. First thing I have to say about this film is that it is heart wrenchenly sad and I kind of have this real sense of shame hanging over my shoulder after watching it.
Samson and Delilah is a film based upon two Aboriginal teenagers in a remote community in centreal Australia. The two teenagers are persacuted by their cumminity after the death of Delilah's Grandmother and flee to Alice Springs. In Alice, they find more persecution from White people in Alice Springs and after an incident where Delilah gets kidnaps and raped they both results to Petrol sniffing. ( Samson had been petrol sniffing since the beginging of the film). As the Petrol sniffing gets worse, Samson doesnt realize when Delilah gets hit by a car. Samson gives up on life and sits for weeks on end under a bridge and sniffs petrol continuously until Delilah returns with Samsons Brother from their community and takes them home. Delilah takes Samson to a remote station house to rehibilate himself from the petrol sniffing. Life at the end of fim is better for Samson and Delilah when they are togethor and rebuilding their lives.

I highly recommend seeing this film as it really opens your eyes to what is happening in central Australia.
Check out more information at:
http://www.samsonanddelilah.com.au/

27-07-2011- First Lecture

Hello, for my Indigenous Culture course for semester 5 this year i need to produce a blog that will correlate with my studies for this course. For this course I need to involve myself within different forms of Aboriginal culture such as films, art, wrtiting and performance and then reflect my thoughts apon the matter.

Today we had our first lecture and having known really nothing about Aboriginal art before, I have learnt quite alot in just an hour. Things that interested me were the Wonjina (the oldest figurative painting in the world-85-65,000 years old) and the introduction and acceptance of Aborginal Art as art and not as folk art or part of anthrapology studies. I was also intrigued about the way aboriginal art in the 21st century is challenging the notion of the identity of Aboriginal art (google Proppa Now for more info).

For homework this week i have rented Samson and Delilah from the local video store (along with 127 hours for a bit of gore). This should get me started on surrounding myself within Australias Indigenous culture.