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

browns and yellows, to reflect his mixed heritage. The inclusion of distinctly aboriginal symbols such as the campfire and serpent are contrasted against the neat ordered fencing typical to suburbia. The fencing is representative of the entrapment and restriction of aboriginal culture within a predominantly conservative white society. The traditional Arnhem technique of cross hatching is employed within the subjects face, drawing reference to his aboriginality, whilst in other areas an appropriation of dot painting can be seen. He has used a combination of fluid and elongated lines to create his own unique spin on the more traditional style of dot painting to reflect his heritage. His work ‘Tightrope walking’ also encompasses many aspects of aboriginal art making and culture, particularly present through the aerial depiction of the landscape and the dreamtime style dot painting of the sky. The Mimi spirit figures, symbolic of Aboriginal cave paintings, are placed within a modern urban landscape to depict the contrast and struggle between Indigenous and european societies and cultures.

How is Nickolls work autobiographical?
Nickolls work represents his struggle between his Indigenous and Anglo-European heritage, resulting in his convoluted sense of belonging.

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

comfort and freedom, once again reflecting his own personal emotions through the style of depiction. The autobiographical nature of Nickolls work allows him to portray his own personal feelings and past experiences by means of art, with each individual work retelling a different narrative. He manipulates painting styles and techniques in order to explore and reflect upon both personal and social issues related to identity.

How does Bennett’s work communicate meaning and messages to the audience? (consider the use of signs and symbols)
Bennett conveys meaning through his work with the use of signs, symbols and text often representative of colonisation and indigenous culture, to question Australian identity and eurocentrism. The words and text he uses contribute another layer of meaning to his art, further emphasising his conflicting identity. He draws attention to aspects of Australian history that are often overlooked within white society, in order to convey an alternate perspective and understanding of past events, such as the colonisation of Australia. For example the salient image in his work ‘Possession Island’ 1991 depicts an indigenous male as a butler to the colonial Europeans. The recontextualisation and appropriation to what is typically associated with indigenous clothing and behaviour represents the manipulation Aboriginals were subjected to. Whilst the dots and slashes surrounding him symbolise his imprisonment within a society of chaos and confusion. Through these visual techniques the viewer is able to extract and observe a sense of confinement and isolation radiating from the Indigenous man who stands in a place that was formerly his home.
In Bennett's self portrait ‘I AM’ text is used as a framing structure, as well as to build layers of meaning for the viewer to decipher. The text encapsulates the distinct images of American Indians and cowboys, symbolic of an attempted genocide and clear division of cultures. Bennett relates his struggles to events on an international scale, as the injustices placed upon the American Indians is not dissimilar from Indigenous Australians. Through this his work presents a level of meaning that can be related to universally.

How are words and text used in bennetts artworks?
Text is included in many of his works to add layers of meaning and depth. He uses text to reference both european and indigenous history. The text used in his work emphasises the alternate perspective he is presenting, that of the indigenous peoples, a perspective which has not held a large role in Australian history due to the ‘superiority’ of the eurocentric viewpoints. Historical events such as colonialism are typically illustrated and taught from a biased perspective, one that favours white society, this is the prominent issue Bennett wishes to challenge in his artwork. For example in his work Untitled, 1989 a series of six images have underneath them the words Dismay, Displace, Disperse, Dispirit, Display and Dismiss. The images themselves are familiar and would have little impact alone due to societies desensitisation of our past colonial events, but with the pairing of a word below each image the feelings and emotions associated with the word resonate in the viewers mind. Thus allowing the viewer to perceive this historical injustice from the perspective of the victims, in this case the indigenous Australians. The last image, an entirely black square paired with the word Dismiss, represents white societies tendency to forget and ‘dismiss’ our past wrongdoings in order to move on with our own lives rather than trying to make amends. This technique inflicts a sense of guilt and shame upon the viewer, resulting in the urge for change.

Outline Bennett’s use of appropriation and re-contextualisation (consider specifically Bennett’s reference to other artists and their works)
Bennett draws from various influences whilst creating his artworks, often appropriating styles or images of other renowned artists. Bennett often recreates the work of artists whom he admires and those that have similar intentions and technical styles to him. Both Van Gogh’s ‘starry night sky’ and ‘The bedroom at Arles’ have been re-contextualised in Bennett’s ‘Outsider’ 1988, the sky appears to stem from the blood of a severed head from within a bedroom scene. The placement of the sky above a scene of gore adds shock value and a subversion to the conventional which would typically be a visually pleasing landscape. In the series Notes to Basquiat Bennett has re contextualised issues explored through Basquiat’s art, using the style of pastiche, for example in The coming of light 2001, 9/11 is examined in an international context, as a way to discuss cultural identity. The easily distinguishable image of the twin towers, representative of pain, destruction and devastation, indicates the potential certain events hold to impact people on a global scale, such did the 9/11 tragedy. This same idea can be reflected onto the injustices Aboriginals faced through colonisation as as it is not just a national but an international issue. The included reference to jackson Pollock's Blue Poles on the right side of the painting symbolises a time of great political change in Australia, with the ‘cross-connected’ style of painting interlinking a global issue to a national issue, present within our own society. Bennett’s use and methods of recontextualisation and appropriation add universal relatability to his work, to draw similarities between global injustices and their ramifications.

Essay Q: Analyse the work of two Australian artists (Gordon Bennett and Trevor Nickolls) who have made personal statements on racial issues or social conflict.

The conflicts and difficulties surrounding the concept of race and identity are often expressed through artworks on both a personal and universally applicable level. Cross-cultural artists often manipulate a pastiche of mediums and styles in order to represent their personal struggle for identity, whilst investigating aspects of racial discrimination. This is significantly relevant in the works of both Gordon Bennett and Trevor Nickolls, two Australian Indigenous artists from European and Aboriginal descent. The concept of self is torn between the dichotomy of western and Indigenous cultures, an issue explored on behalf of all Indigenous Australians throughout their work. The underlying political messages within their works urge the viewer to become aware of this cultural issue, and aim to portray the detrimental nature colonialism and its effect on the indigenous population, as this view is not largely prevalent in white Australian society.

The representation of Aboriginal culture and history as told by Europeans has, over time, covered up the injustice inflicted upon indigenous Australians, in doing so this ‘white’ perspective has manipulated societal perceptions of our past wrongdoings. This major issue explored through the work of contemporary artists lays emphasis on the need for an increased awareness of the implications created by biased perceptions of Aboriginal culture, and the necessity of change. These implications being the complex struggle for identity and a sense of belonging.

After discovering his Aboriginal origins at age 11 Gordon Bennett experienced a transformation of his self identity, and a realisation of the difficulties he would have to face in order to integrate his two alternate cultures.

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

historically depicted whites as ‘good’, and his inability to change his heritage places him in a position in which he must learn to accept and appreciate the part of himself that he has previously been taught to believe is ‘bad’. This is represented by the words I AM, as they are a statement of his dichotomous identity and a symbol of pride or acceptance. Bennett’s art expresses a personal evaluation, aiming to draw attention to the misconceptions presented by historical teachings of colonialism, in order to initiate change and equality toward Indigenous persons. The confrontational nature of his works display this cultural issue in a blatantly unconventional manner to draw attention to its reality and prominence in today’s society.

Similar to Bennett, Trevor Nickolls also creates art of an autobiographical nature, whilst encapsulating concerns of humanity in todays urbanised and industrialised world. Nickolls work ‘From Dreamtime to Machinetime’ 1979, is painted in two segments, the top half depicts an indigenous individual surrounded by open land, whilst the bottom half is flipped, showing three figures in a cramped urban dwelling. The dull grey and blue colours used in the bottom half represent sterility and monotony, often associated with urban life. Whilst the warm, traditional palette of the top half indicates the freedom and comfort possessed by traditional Indigenous living spaces. This work portrays Nickolls inability to feel comfort in our modern urbanised society, whilst simultaneously feeling disconnected from a close knit aboriginal community due to his predominantly western upbringing. The claustrophobia of today's industrialised world explored in Nickolls work, highlights the potentially detrimental attachment of our race to materialism, resulting in personal isolation and alienation. This acts as a political statement challenging societies increasing disconnect to the landscape and our natural world, whilst portraying the ramifications of our actions.

Art is manipulated as an effective medium to express concerns and challenge societal views on certain issues related to race and culture. The work of both Trevor Nickolls and Gordon Bennett draw attention to their own personal issues whilst also referencing universal issues and events. This allows the viewer to connect with the artwork and artist on a personal and emotional level whilst simultaneously experiencing an awareness of worldly injustices. Their works present aspects of confrontation, highlighting social injustices particularly against Indigenous Australians with the hope of initiating change and greater cultural acceptance in our modern world.