Requiem Of Grandeur Empire Visual Techniques

‘Triptych: Requiem, Of Grandeur, Empire’ by the contemporary artist, Gordon Bennett in 1989 is a series of three artworks that depict the Australian landscape through stylised means in combination with appropriated and geometrical imagery. Through this series, Bennett effectively showcases the impact Western European culture had upon Indigenous lives and cultures post colonisation and how it has led to the destruction of Aboriginal culture as a whole. This is portrayed through the excellent utilisation of appropriated imagery, diverse art styles, and visual metaphors within his work.

Within each composition of the three individual pieces, there is at least one example of appropriated imagery that is manipulated so as to further convey Bennett’s

Observation of the first piece in the series showcases the warm Australian desert tones contrasted against a cool blue night sky. This creates a different tone compared to the other pieces, which is enhanced with the inclusion of Truganini’s image in the sky, who is often historically known as ‘The last surviving Tasmanian Aborigine’ (Krischer 2012, 123). Therefore, the addition of her faded image in within the composition constructs an evocative feeling of loss, portraying the destructive impact of colonisation in Indigenous culture. Similarly, the geometric lines and perspective shapes contrast with the other painted styles of the artwork, and with Truganini being at the central vanishing point, it furthers that sense of loss. Thus, through the design principle of contrast, Bennett effectively conveys the historical and cultural impacts that colonisation had on Indigenous people across Australia and the concern over his personal

Through the three pieces, the landscapes reflect a painting style is more often associated with European Romantic art, however, unlike the others, the central piece showcases the sky painted with miniscule dots, a technique common within Indigenous art (Lingard 2014, 44). However, the fact that the sky is the only piece of the composition painted with this technique and is placed in the background while more European inspired art and images are placed in the foreground is potentially symbolic of the marginalisation of Indigenous people and their culture in contemporary Australian society. Within Bennett’s own life, he was brought up without his Aboriginal heritage ever being spoken of, describing it himself as “overwhelming Euro-Australian” (McLean 1996, 20). Thus, within his artworks, a dotted circle at the top of each composition includes black footprints facing away from the circle, which matches his personal experience of Indigenous culture being ‘left behind’ in contemporary Australian society. The artist lived in a time where he was connected to a variety of Indigenous experiences including his own as well as the servitude of his mother, and thus through the combination of these varying art techniques, Bennett evokes both discord and further represents the marginalisation of Indigenous culture