Antinuclear

“My Country” – sophisticated and disturbing art from Black Australia

Sophisticated, disturbing Aboriginal art on show, National Business Review, NZ John Daly-Peoples | My Country, Contemporary Art from Black Australia Auckland Art Gallery Until July 20

The new exhibition My Country at the Auckland Art Gallery is an opportunity to see art by contemporary aboriginal artists. While there are a couple of examples of the dot paintings which have generally been regarded as the first style of contemporary work produced by Australian aborigines, most of this exhibition has a more challenging approach. This is art which gives an insight into the social, political and personal; aspirations and reflections of aborigines.

The exhibition features the work of 46 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, including film, photography, installation, painting, drawing and sculpture. Highlights include The Oyster Fisherman, a photographic series by Fiona Foley who has received the Australia Council Visual Arts Award; I Forgive You, Bindi Cole’s work of Emu feathers made in response to Kevin Rudd’s 2008 apology; and Stranded, Warwick Thornton’s epic and immersive 3D film.

“The exhibition covers three core themes of history, contemporary life and country in which ancestral myths the response to colonisation are combined with the politics of life today.

Michael Cook’s series of photographs called Civilised, some of which were exhibited at last year’s Auckland Art fair are included in a reflection on the cultural divide between the early settlers and the indigenous people. Cook’s images imagine aborigines as being incorporated as part of European society wearing clothes, using weapons and accepting the myths and history of Europe.

This implies an acceptance by the European colonists of aborigines being their equal, which was not the case, with the indigenous people being regarded as lesser people, not even offered a treaty as happened in New Zealand………http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/sophisticated-disturbing-aboriginal-art-show-jd-154483

April 12, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized