Donna Chatfield lives in Warrnambool, Victoria. She is a young Aboriginal artist who uses a blend of traditional and contemporary styles to tell her stories within her artworks.
Her piece ‘Measured Journey’, the turtle represents her life so far. She feels most of the time, her life goes around in cycles. This is shown in the circles both in the body of the turtle, and the surrounds. The turtle moves slowly and plods along, yet reaches it’s destination and goals.
Donna is a very interesting and talented indigenous artist. I feel she is inspiring to not only indigenous Australian but also non-indigenous Australians. I believe her artwork is respectful to her culture but also contemporary in its delivery.
Richard Bell has been called the "bad boy of Aboriginal art", however Bell himself sees himself as a propagandist and his art as liberation art. coloured synthetic polymer on canvas works His artwork addresses the Aboriginal oppression, government policies in Australia. The way the art industry has started a feeding frenzies on collecting Aboriginal artworks and Aboriginal art industries and non-Aboriginal Australia’s fascination with the natives artwork. Background:Richard Bell was born in Charleville, Queensland, in 1953 the eldest of two boys, the family moved around in search of work. His father was often absent due to working as a drover and cane cutter. His mother died when he was 17, he and one of his younger brothers were fostered by Nellie and Harold Leedie in Bowenville in south-east Queensland after the Queensland government treatren to put them into government run homes. Nellie Leedie is a cousin of “Sugar” Ray Robinson the renowned Aboriginal activist from Charleville.After dropping out of high school he became a toolmaker with an apprenticeship with Napier Brothers in Dalby. After two years with Napier Brothers in 1974 he moved to Redfern, Sydney. There he associated with and became part of the political movement. Many years later he moved to Toowoomba to work as a Office Manager with the Aboriginal Legal Service. In the 90's in Brisbane he was crafting boomerangs and postcard style prints for the tourism market. http://www.daao.org.au/bio/richard-bell/biography/?
Richard Bell – Masterpiece, 2003
Richard Bell, Now my black people kill! from Psalm singing series, 2007, acrylic on canvas. Featured in Sunshine state smart state, curated by Djon Mundine, at the Campbelltown Arts Centre until 26 August. Courtesy the artist and Bellas Milani Gallery, Brisbane.
I found Richard Bell's work very inspiring, I like the use of the cartoon images made famous by Roy Lichtenstein in the 1960's. The message with each artwork is blunt and scream his views. I feel it shows that he is passionate and his country and culture and wants Australian to see how the Aboriginals are and have been treated.
Thursday, 18 October 2012
Aboriginal projection art, Parliament House
I found this beautiful photograph of an installation by Australian Indigenous artist where the image is projected onto the western style building. There is very little information as to who the artist was but the information I have found the piece was part of the Spirit Festival held in Adelaide.
The movement began in the 1970's in a small called Papunya near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.
Contemporary Aboriginal acrylic paintings once seen by western individuals coined the term ‘dot painting’. The style of painting arose from the Papunya art movement in the 1970s.
Papunya Tula artists artwork reflected their spiritual ceremonies. These ceremonies would include the soil to be smoothed over to act like a canvas. The contemporary artists use dark boards to represent the earth to create their artwork. Their artwork would contain sacred designs, often replicating the movements their ancestors upon earth. These artists involved in the movement changed how aboriginal art was seen in Australia and internationally.
The paint used for the artworks were naturally accruing colours of red, yellow, black and white produced from ochre, charcoal and pipe clay. Once the ritual paintings had been taken from the ground to canvas; circles, spirals, lines, dashes and dots, the visual language of the Western Desert Aboriginal People appeared like maps upon the canvas. Consequently representations of sacred objects were forbidden or concealed through the dotting technique.
Whether a concealer of deeper, spiritual meaning or simply symbols of fruits, rain or feathers the acrylic dot paintings of the Aboriginal People become increasingly complex and innovative artistically. Acrylic Aboriginal paintings are highly emotive incorporating an innovative balance of traditional and modern. The dot technique, whether as a concealer or a signifier offers a sense of movement and rhythm causing the flat canvas to sing, jump and dance with energy and life, much like the rituals which inspired them.
Welcome to my blog about my experiences with Australian Indigenous Art and Design.
My aim is to see and discover as much Indigenous art and design locally in South Australia and research other states within Australia.
The above picture is a photograph of a performance piece by the Bangarra Dance Theatre group.
A brief History: Bangarra Dance Theatre is Australia’s leading Indigenous performing arts company which combine the spirituality of traditional culture with modern story-telling. The dance theatre group tours internationally as well as extensively to national, regional and remote centres across Australia. Stephen Page has been their artistic director since 1991, Bangarra is committed to developing the next generation of Indigenous storytellers through mentoring and training of creative Indigenous young people
The Bangarra organisation is inspiring to non-Indigenous and Indigenous alike, with their commitment to their culture and talented individuals. http://www.bangarra.com.au/vision
Finders University Art Museum and City Gallery South Australia.
Exhibition: Roads Cross Contemporary Directions in Australian Art
Since the late 20th century, opportunities to engage with Australian Aboriginal art, its makers and their communities have increasingly informed Western approaches to art-making. roads cross explores how this development has left traces and echoes in recent Australian art - literally, in terms of subject matter and direct collaboration, and formally or conceptually, as expressed through art and ideas. More broadly, the project underscores the place of art as a means of dialogue, a platform for communication between Australia's Indigenous and settler peoples. http://www.flinders.edu.au/artmuseum/exhibitions/
The art displayed gives a broad view of how the artists felt they had crossed roads with Aboriginal art, I thought the exhibition to be thought provoking. I also then read reviews written by the Adelaide Review http://www.adelaidereview.com.au/article/1694 and the Australia Art Review http://artreview.com.au/exhibitions/851264161-eloquent-intersections . Both I found reflected on the issues around and associated with Australia's shocking treatment of the Aboriginal people, there was very little comment on the art works within the exhibition.
