“My Place, My People, Myself.”
Our identity is the integral part of who we are as human beings, what sets us apart from others of our kind. This identity has countless aspects to it, such as cultural identity, national identity and sexual identity. Opinions of these various identities is often confined by social conventions and dominated by stereotypes set by mass media. These labels are a confined view of identity and do not amply represent the complex nature of identity. The stereotypes also ostracize individuals who do not fit the set typecast. Thus, many contemporary artists, through contemporary practice, strive to produce artworks that challenge these stereotypes and present alternative views of identity.
The first artwork featured in this blog is Mount Analogue by Imant Tillers. Painted in 1985 on 165 canvas boards, Mount Analogue is an adaption of Eugene Von Guerard’s North-east view from the northern top of Mount Kosciusko, 1863. Tillers, 66, is one of Australia’s most famous artists, his small canvas board style is recognised both nationally and internationally. His artwork focuses predominantly on the land, as shown in Mount Analogue. Tillers adapted work, is set in the snowy mountains region of Southern New South Wales. The adaption utilises small canvas boards combined into one larger painting. This provides a new spatial orientation, making the artwork seem paradoxically closer yet further away. There are several incongruities between the canvas boards, this creates a push pull effect with distance and proximity. Tillers may have chosen to adapt from the original “as a result of his own experiences visiting the region and walking in the Snowy Mountains” (National Galley of Australia, 2014). This connection to the land is a key theme in many of Tillers’ artworks, such as Mount Analogue and Hiatus (1987). Mount Analogue, challenges contemporary perceptions of identity, through the idea of connection to the land. Contemporary identity revolves around wealth and superficial love, Tillers contests this through his contemporary practice of producing an artwork with a focus of identity being that of the land.
Furthermore, William Robinson is an Australian figurative expressionist that views the concept of identity as a connection to the land. Robinson’s oil painting Creation Landscape: Man and the spheres, 1991, is a deeply personal depiction of the Australian landscape. The painting incorporates numerous perspectives of Robinson’s environment. It was painted in reflection of the grief of losing two young children in the space of 18 months. The artwork represents anguish and searching for hope. The painting moves across a “dark, implacable terrain.” (Darkness & light: the art of William Robinson, 2001). The sorrow in the painting is shown through the figure of Robinson’s wife, Shirley, swimming in the creek reflecting the night sky. Robinson describes it as “in the early works we were swimming in a joyous carefree manner but here we are swimming in a different way.” William Robinson challenges contemporary perceptions of identity by moving beyond “conventional notions of ‘landscape’ to encompass a fluctuating environment … his multidimensional grasp of time and space also suggests metaphors for states of mind and being.” (Darkness & light: the art of William Robinson, 2001). Robinson in Creation Landscape: Man and the spheres, invites the viewer to engage in the painting, to move inward and establish how subjective vision is. The highly theatrical landscape references biblical themes of creation and the “deepened sense of the mystery of life.” (Darkness & light: the art of William Robinson, 2001). By means of his unique expressionist practice, Robinson challenges perceptions of identity.
Likewise, hailing from Brisbane, Anthony Lister is one of Australia’s most renowned street artists, his unique, scratchy style combines painting drawing and graffiti. The artwork of his featuring in the blog today is titled Birds of a Pleasure, 2014, it is an artwork combining multiple birds of paradise into the one, birdlike creature. Lister does this through the use of water colour paint, spray paint and the use of water to run the paint down the canvas. The artwork promotes sense of unity through its balance and space remaining on the canvas. The idea of unity and strong deep colours implicitly support issues of identity, the artwork hints at something more, this is a desire that is at the core of our being. This is the message that Lister intends to convey with this artwork and many others; that he wants to “to make beautiful things that I fall in love with” and he wishes to share this with the viewer, as he says, “I am the viewer”. Lister is notorious for challenging both contemporary perceptions of identity and the law, in recent times, both elements have crossed over. The artist is currently engaged in a legal case that surrounds the concept of identity in street art, something Lister claims is “final frontier of artistic integrity.” (News.com, 2015) Through his artwork and public persona, Lister himself is at the forefront of highlighting how contemporary art practice challenges perceptions of identity.
Wang Gongxin is new to the scene of contemporary art and differs from the previous three artists in that his work is not two dimensional. Rather Gongxin relies on light sculpture to express his view on issues of identity. Relating - It’s About Dream, 2010 is an installation consisting 200 MP4 players with their screens “in a deep sleep”. The slowly shifting, mesmeric colours in unison is truly unique. The artwork focuses on “examining the general absurdity and anxiety of our time.” The room that it is installed in also has audio of snoring, making it clear that the artwork is about dreaming. In the constant rush of our world, it is imperative to find time to just switch off and Gongxin has conveyed this message through the process of switching on hundreds of devices in his instalment. At the same time, the instalment is highly metaphorical, stressing that we as a race must open our eyes to the problems we are facing. The sculpture enraptures the audience and encourages conscious thought about the unconscious state and how our identity can change during periods of rest. Thus the contemporary sculpture questions what we perceive as human identity.
“My Place, My People, Myself” revolves around the issue of identity. Identity is often lost in the rush of our new age, and when it is found it is frequently muddled with limited stereotypes of who we should be, how we should behave, who we should like and how we should look. The four artists featuring this week challenge these views. Their artworks strive to break free of the shackles of society, to promote supressed thoughts, even new ideas and concepts for identity, through contemporary practice.
