Week 4 - 'Roads Cross' Exhibition
This week, we visited an exhibition at the Flinder's Gallery in the State Library. The concept behind the exhibition was to showcase pieces of work from 16 non-indigenous artists who have been exposed to Aboriginal culture and life over the past fifteen years; both in person and through art and books. Some works have co-creaters with indigenous heritage. I found this to be a unique twist on Aboriginal art as we know it. It is intriguing to see how others chose to interpret their experiences of the culture in the art. Some works being similar to that of an indigenous piece whilst others rather modern and with little resemblance to traditional art.
'Rainstorm over Kununurra' - Franck Gohier, 2003 synthetic polymer paint on board, 80x61cm This particular painting by Franck Gohier was one of the pieces that had the most resemblance to indigenous art. He painted this piece as a homage to various artists from the Kimberley that he had worked with. This piece is him imagining those artists telling their stories as a great rain pouring over the landscape of the Kimberley. "I remember being overpowered by the pure colour fields and the physical texture of the raw ochre." This is how he describes an exhibition he saw in Darwin that inspired him to start this work with these artists. It is also what drew me to this painting in the exhibition.
A collaborative piece, taken from a previous exhibition by Jonathan Kimberley and Pura-Lia Meenamatta (Jim Everett) also caught my attention at the exhibition. Below, in the top left, is the artwork 'Meenamatta walantanalinany - beyond the colonial construct: meenamata map of unlandscape' that was on display at 'Roads Cross'.
The other 3 pieces are taken from the exhibition 'meenamatta lena narla puellakanny: Mennamatta water country discussion' The whole series of artworks is a collaboration of image and words an is a series that really appeals to me. I think it is the way in which the type is treated over the top of the beautiful textures, intricate patterns and colours of the artwork.
From the website of the exhibition, this is a statement about the pieces of work and their meaning.
The artists' responses to the north east landscape of Tasmania was brought together in a series of paintings with images and text. Through this process, the artists navigated a series of journeys that traced past into future. Their journey was an opportunity to make redundant the distinctions between black and white and to realise a new journey of reconciliation and unity.
http://www.devonportgallery.com/index02.php?id=49
I find that this unity they are trying to convey shows through in the work with the overlapping lines, text and image with elements of a more modern art and aboriginal art.