One of my favourite things we have done this semester in our tutorials was to take a tour of the Art Gallery of South Australia with curator Nici Cumpston. Nici was fantastic at showing us how increasingly Indigenous artworks are being integrated with the European-style art, particularly throughout the historic Elder Wing. It is fantastic to see that this other side of history is being told and simultaneously quite sad that it is only a new development. I loved hearing Nici reason why the works on display, such as handmade baskets, were art works rather than just museum pieces, and her enthusiasm for promoting these works was infectious. It was the little things she pointed out to us, such as the fact that previously many uncredited pieces were labelled "unknown" rather than "unknown artist" which made me realise how hard we need to keep working to achieve Indigenous equality in all respects.
She showed us some fantastic pieces that have been integrated into the Art Gallery collection, including beautiful shell necklaces (which had been cleaned by ants and then poked with tiny holes to be strung together), bark paintings from the mid-twentieth century which visualise the similar historic exploration of Indigenous Australians, and Totemi Poles from the Tiwi Islands. Nici explained that these poles had been sitting in storage but could now finally be viewed and appreciated. When a person dies another person is selected to make the poles, although they don't generally end up representing the deceased individual's personal designs as the artist doesn't want the pole to be recognised as the deceased's body by the spirit leaving. The final pole can then be rejected by the family if it is unsuitable. I was really glad Nici explained all this to us as it increased my appreciation for the reasoning behind their form and design. I sometimes find it difficult to understand things without learning the story behind them, so to have everything explained made me grateful for the experience.
I think my favourite part of the tour was right at the end when Nici took us into the Big Country Display, which unfortunately is only the walls surrounding the western stairwell, but which I realised hosts paintings by all three of the artists I am studying for our final Indigenous Art essay. Within the display was Clifford Possum Tjalpatjarri's 1972 work Honey Ant Ceremony, Rover Thomas' 1991 painting Paruku (Lake Gregory) and Emily Kame Kngwatteye's 1994 series Awelye I-V. All of these artists are now favourites of mine for their use of form, colour and narrative. I think each of these works is not only visually stunning, but filled with content.
One of my favourite works I saw apart from that of these artists was Jonathan Kumintjara Brown's Poison Country, a moving painting which draws to attention the persecution and massacre of Indigenous Australians by white Australians and more specifically the act of nuclear testing in sacred Indigenous country and homes throughout recent history. The painting appears like what could be considered a "traditional" painting in a superficial western understanding linking Indigenous art to the iconography of Central and Western Desert style paintings, but which has been wiped over with paint to marr, obstruct and destroy the image. This is both a symbolic and literal act of violence to link to this bloody past, which ended the tour on a spine-tingling reflective note. I simply loved listening to Nici, being someone who is both incredibly passionate and knowledgeable about her field of art, which I find inspiring in a person any day.
No comments:
Post a Comment