Nickolls Wrestling With The White Spirit Analysis

Trevor Nickolls

Describe the elements of Nickolls work that reveal his Aboriginality.

Nickolls uses many signs, symbols and techniques, unique to Aboriginal culture, within his work, often appropriating these elements and juxtaposing them against european influences. In unison the aboriginal and european elements give his artwork its idiosyncrasy and clearly display the physiological and spiritual conflict within himself regarding his sense of identity and physical belonging. Nickolls style of painting and the colour palette both reflect and subvert traditional Aboriginal dot paintings. In his work ‘Wrestling with the white spirit’ the traditionally earthy Aboriginal colour palette is subverted by the predominant use of blue amongst less potent

The juxtaposed integration of both western and traditional techniques in his art highlight his personal difficulty to combine such contrasting cultures within his own identity. Nickolls use of multicultural symbolism, unique to his heritage, plays a major role throughout his art, expressing the internal challenges he faces due to his dichotomous heritage. Many of his works include area’s in which he has lived, such as suburban Adelaide, Yass and urbanised cities such as Sydney and Melbourne, Nickolls purposefully portrays these places with a sense of suffocation and overcrowding. The urbanized sections of his paintings are often convoluted and intricate, painted using dull sterile greys and blues, reflecting his personal experiences and feelings toward the time in his life spent living in urbanised Australia and what it means to him. This is clearly evident in ‘Dreamtime to Machinetime’, due to the contrast and ‘mirroring’ of central Australia and a urban dwelling. The top half appears spacious and open, with the head of the subject and the horizon depicting the Aboriginal flag, this image is then integrated amongst the upside down depiction apartment scene to illustrate his internal conflict. Area’s such as Arnhem Land in which he has lived throughout his life also featuring in many of his works, often encompassing a greater level of

This convoluted sense of self and a widely held perception of colonisation is clearly portrayed through his artworks, particularly in his work ‘Self Portrait, but I always wanted to be one of the good guys’, 1990, this portrait depicts the distinctive scene of American Indians and cowboys, framed by the works ‘I AM’. This artwork is a recreation of Colin Mccahon’s work also titled ‘I AM’, which is a work with religious connotations painted only in shades of black white. The text within the work reads ‘I am light, I am dark’, this statement paired with the title expresses the division between who he is and who he wishes to be, or who he feels society wishes him to be. In the story of cowboys and indians the cowboys are typically depicted as the ‘good guys’, due to their self imposed white superiority, despite committing an attempted genocide of Indigenous Americans, which initiated huge injustices still present in todays society. Bennett has used the scene as it is a universally applicable event, not dissimilar to the injustices forced upon Indigenous Australians after the arrival of European settlers and many other global conflicts. Bennett’s personal struggle for identity, between his ‘light’ and ‘dark’ self is convoluted by the way society has