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.