Julie Dowling is an Indigenous Australian artist born in Subiaco, Perth, Western Australia. Through her artworks, she communicates issues between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. At a young age, Dowling was introduced to art by her family, and since then, her work has become a powerful tool for addressing social and political issues. Dowling's paintings frequently incorporate symbols from her Indigenous heritage, which she combines with Western art techniques to create captivating narratives. Her work reflects the ongoing struggles of Indigenous Australians while revealing hard truths about the country's history and its impact on modern society. One of Julie Dowling’s paintings, “In Our Country,” expresses her feelings about returning …show more content…
The colour is used in the painting to depict the sky, symbolising peace, and tranquillity. This soothing colour serves as a gentle reminder of nature’s capacity to heal and create harmony, emphasising its essential role in maintaining a sense of balance and calmness. Texture is used in Dowling’s artwork to add a sense of physicality, making the artwork look more realistic. This allows people to connect and feel the emotions in the artwork, while adding depth and meaning to the artwork. Another technique used in Dowling’s painting is symbolism. Symbolism is used to showcase Dowling’s enduring bond with her ancestral homeland. The arms placed on Dowling’s grandmothers communicate this by representing her need to connect with her Indigenous heritage and culture. Even though some may argue that she doesn’t fit the stereotype of an Aboriginal Australian, her profound connection to her ancestors and cultural heritage greatly shapes her identity and self-perception. Dowling's grandmother has a proud expression, indicating that she is a source of inspiration and strength, representing resilience and cultural pride. Her gaze reflects generations of wisdom and determination, demonstrating Indigenous peoples' strength and perseverance in the face of
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
Jedda, Australia’s first colour film, created in 1955 by Charles Chauvel deals with an Aboriginal child adopted by a white grazing family. As she grows up, Jedda is tempted more and more to return to her people. Seduced by the wild Marbuck, she partakes in the film's tragedy, played out against a spectacular landscape. This essay seeks to discuss the representations of the Australian landscape as portrayed in the film Jedda, highlighting the use of filmic techniques in these representations.
Anne Zahalka was born in 1957 and comes from an immigrant background with Jewish Viennese and Catholic Czech heritage. She grew up in Australia at the time when immigration was increasing and people were becoming more aware of the range of cultural groups, which evidently influence her works. Due to this, her artworks revolves closely around Australian culture, focusing on themes such as traditional cultures, activities and relationships within a place. Zahalka intends to invent artworks which not only connect to her but to the audience culturally and personally, such as her series of work ‘Welcome to Sydney’ and ‘Hotel Suite’. Zahalka tends to have staged quality within her works, through the process of utilising computer technology to underline her concepts and manipulating imagery, ergo emphasising her intentional meanings, aswell as constructing a temporary studio on location.
Contemporary art is the art that has been and continues to be created during our lifetimes, which can include and represent the Australian culture, politics and music as well as in art forms such as portrait and landscape. Contemporary art is defined as art that is current, offering a fresh perspective and point of view and often employing new techniques and new media. Current art means work by both emerging and also established artists. Rosalie Gascoigne and Imants Tillers are honoured for their contribution showing the Australian landscape in fresh, new and transformational way. Whilst both are similar in their use of text and original interpretation of our landscape they are vastly different in their approach and creating meaning for their
The National Picture gives a completely different idea to the original, now showing instead of the Indigenous Australians being a more prominent culture and population in Australia, it instead shows a more mixed culture but a majority of white Europeans, which is true in the time of the painting, being in the 1980’s. This shows the journey of diversity in Australia, for better or for worse is debatable as to get to where we are now took a long and unfortunate process for the Aboriginal culture which was mostly lost due to the many deaths caused due to many political
Indigenous Australian artist Gordon Bennett re-contextualises the work of Colin McCahon by borrowing and transforming key visual features. Bennett’s work challenges the viewer and gives them an alternative perspective of the culture and identity of Indigenous Australians. The quote by The National Gallery of Victoria states, “Often describing his own practice of borrowing images as ‘quoting’, Bennett re-contextualises existing images to challenge the viewer to question and see alternative perspectives.” This quote is clear through analyzing the visual features as well as the meaning behind the work of Gordon Bennett’s appropriated artwork ‘Self-portrait (but I always wanted to be one of the good guys)’ (1990) and comparing it to Colin McCahon’s
Rosie Gascoigne, is an artist who has aspired an appreciation for undiserable remnants and utilised with them in purpose to produce an assemblage of work that sees into a reflection of the past and present landscape of Australian society. Her growing motivation has taken further interest and development as the founding layers of her work through her deliberate perception, subject to the preservation of the environment and surrounding landscape. Gascoigne’s work offers an insight into deep country outback life of an Australian individual and introduces conceptualities that mirror a focus situated about ‘re-using’, ‘ recycling’ and understanding the insightful meaning present within everyday remnants. Her work is a collective gathering of selected materials to form a composition or an
Unlike Gordon Bennett, who grew up struggling from his Aboriginal heritage, Tony Albert, a founding member of Queensland's Indigenous art collective proppaNOW explores political, social and cultural issues that are relevant to Indigenous Australian in today’s society. Albert’s artistic practice has a range of media and applications producing 2D wall art, sculpture and installation based works. According to Albert, he began to see the ‘problematic representations of his identity’ (Art Monthly Australia, 2015, p.55) after discovering the work of contemporary Aboriginal artists Tracey Moffat and Gordon
Before 1919, Aboriginal/indigenous art and artifacts were virtually non-existent in the world of art, with almost no representation whatsoever and was “thought to be dying under the waves of white cultural encroachment on their lands, languages and cultural practices.” (The Canadian Encyclopedia, paragraph #4). After returning from a trip to England in 1899, feeling “cheated by 'bad health and circumstances'”, Emily felt isolated in Victoria, being in her mid-thirties and single, grouped with her sisters critical opinions of her and old friends having moved away or joined private groups such as 'The Married Ladies' Club' that she could not join. In 1905, she visited a small Aboriginal village by the name of Ucluelet, where she had often been to in her teen years and had been known as Klee Wyck, meaning “laughing one” in Kwakiutl (Tippett, Maria, Emily Carr: a Biography, p. 63-65).
Starting with a brief introduction about our artist, Norval Morrisseau; he is an Aboriginal Canadian who lived from 1931 to 2007, and had been raised by his maternal grandparents. They were Christian devoted, who taught Morrisseau the religion's dogma. Morrisseau
The composition of this painting forces the eye to the woman, and specifically to her face. Although the white wedding dress is large and takes up most of the woman’s figure, the white contrasts with her face and dark hair, forcing the viewer to look more closely into the woman’s face. She smokes a cigarette and rests her chin on her hands. She does not appear to be a very young woman and her eyes are cast down and seem sad. In general, her face appears to show a sense of disillusionment with life and specifically with her own life. Although this is apparently her wedding day, she does not seem to be happy.
Australia is a very unique place, along with our multiculturalism there is also a strong heritage surrounding us. At first thought of Australian heritage we think about such landmarks as Uluru, The Sydney harbour bridge and The Sydney opera house, The Great Barrier reef and other internationally recognised places. But our heritage goes much deeper than that; it is far more than outstanding icons. Along with these icons there are also unsung places like the old cattle stations, Aboriginal missions, migrant hostels, War memorials, our unique wetlands and the towns and cities we have built. Adding all of these things together, helps to tell the story of who we are and how we have shaped this land in the unique identity it has today.
showcases the loss of the Aboriginal Australian culture, ceremonies and way of life that defined their identity as a whole as well as what will be lost in the future if Aboriginal people aren’t respected and valued. Using metaphors such as “We are the corroboree and the bora ground” and “ We are the old ceremonies, the laws of the elders,” the poet expresses the emotions of anguish and anger felt by Aboriginals for being treated as foreigners in their own land and stripped of their culture which makes up most of their identity. These two quotes also show the deep relationship between the people and their customs and culture as they identify themselves with the Corroboree, an Australian Aboriginal dance ceremony and the bora ring, the old ceremonies and the laws of the elder have been their way of life since the beginning of time that has now become something apart of their identity they are trying to
Bright and vivid colors such as red, blue, green, and yellow help the sculpture become more eye-catching. The “Grandmother Figure” shows just how much talent Frey holds within the world of ceramics and what amazing works of art you can create with the material. The inspiration behind Frey's "Grandmother Figure" stemmed from a deeply personal place within herself. Drawing from her own experiences and observations, Frey wanted to dive deep into the complexities of familial relationships and the role of the matriarch within society. Through her art, she aimed to challenge prevailing stereotypes and redefine notions of femininity and
Judith Wright wrote about many things in her poems, which are necessary for Australian students to be taught which apply to learning about Australia. Australian culture is something Judith wrote about very strongly and this shows through her poem Bora Ring. Bora Ring is about the Aborigine culture and how it has been lost by the invasion of Europeans.