Entries Tagged 'IN PERSPECTIVE' ↓

This boomerang was once owned by Daisy Bates, and was acquired by her at Ooldea, south-east of the Spinifex Peoples‘ lands, some time in the years prior to 1935.

What makes this example distinctive is not so much its connection to Daisy Bates, but how it carries signs of a provenance of another kind. Each side has been carved in distinctively different styles, suggesting that it was owned, traded, and used by more than one desert-dwelling family long before it fell into Daisy Bates’ hands at Ooldea.

In a trade of a different kind, in 1938 Bates gave it to the Carr family in Adelaide, in return for favours rendered.

By contrast, this plastic boomerang was designed and manufactured by Frank Donnellan (“Champion Thrower”) and (apparently) marketed by Stephen Silady (“Champion”) in the 1960s.

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The Bear Grylls of Art Journalism is back at it again! While I love the fact that Aboriginal ladies like Nyurapaia Nampitjinpa gain due recognition for their work in the pages of the national press, one wonders at Nicolas Rothwell’s adoption of The Bear’s hyper-effusive style as he romanticises the complex historical realities of his subjects. Or is his version of the history of inter-racial contact in the Western Desert crafted to suit his own discovery of Nyurapaia Nampitjinpa’s work in the art gallery of a friendly Alice Springs enterpreneur with a smooth sale pitch? See his not-unsympathetic update on the Alice Springs market for Aboriginal Art in December last year? Sets the scene for this particular review…

History aside, what is most disturbing about his mode of review is the sense that the artist subject’s days are numbered, and the suggestion that she is the sole member of her generation to carry such collective knowledge. And so, he suggests, when she goes, “the last custodian”, “the climax of a great tradition”, it’s the end of the line, the end of the authenticity he sees “embodied” in her art. But this is a recurrent theme in his writing: “…what live[s] on in their artworks: they are obituaries of landscape cast in paint” (“Remembrance of things past” April 1-2, 2006, cute title). And as he wrote in 2007: “Death is calling the great painters of the Western Desert”  (“In Remembrance of Times Passing” Nov 24-25 2007, title now a little over-worked). Or, see his “dying man” story of Spider Kalbybidi: “She [Emily Rohr] has come to believe that the disappearances of old northwest desert Aborigines, which are relatively common events, can best be understood as elevations.” (“The Vanishing”, December 13-14, 2008). This is not only a false trope of art historical discourse, it’s a well-established trope of art market promotion. In this case it’s disrespectful of the bodies of work which continue to be produced by the other senior women of the desert.

Wondering what they look like? Here is a recent painting by Nyurapaia Nampitjinpa, painted at Warakurna in 2009.

P.S. And if you really want to know how fortunate we all are to have someone like The Roth gracing our shores, read on…

Read the backstory on the ABC The Drum. Then read Lindsay Murdoch in The Age on Saturday, then Bob Gosford: “Yesterday Geoff Scott, CEO of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council made a gift to the Alyawarr people that was both symbolic and ironic and will ring a loud and clear rallying call to the Alyawarr people who just a few months ago walked off the literal cess-pit that the Ampilitawatja township had become after years of neglect from all levels of Government.

Geoff Scott gave the Alyawarr people a bright and shiny brass bell inscribed with the following message:

This Declaration Bell is presented to the Elders and families of the Alyawarra Nation by the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council on February 14, 2010 in recognition of their principled walk-off and continuing fight to uphold their land rights, culture and heritage. May it ring for justice and change.

Banjo Morton and Frank Holmes with the Alyawarr Declaration Bell

(a) How not to lift a painting. (b) How not to transfer your DNA to a work of art. (c) How not to let the punters see how you treat their treasures…

See ArtDaily for the full catastrophe story.

from the pen of Robert Thomson, editor of the WSJ, via The Australian.

What the? Iconophilia wonders what set of smarts idiots thought that Fascist Realism would be the right style to stir up the annual jingoism around the Australia Day holiday? Yes, multiculturalism has slipped out of political fashion, but what other-than-Ayran ethnicities (with the exception of the designer boy-girl with olive complexion and well-plucked eyebrows) might feel included in this “celebration”? Indigenous? Indian? Anyone? Who is the Government Minister responsible for the creative genius on the Australia Day Committee who thought is was a good idea? At least some lowly layout designer at The Oz got it right: Think Again… And maybe patriotic Indigenous Australians like Maria (below “XOZX”) have another apology coming?

PS. We haven’t seen it since – perhaps its been pulled? Nothing on the official site… Or does this Australia Day advertisement mean Sam Kekovich has gone mainstream? Only The Punch seems to have noticed…

PPS. Ad agency CEO Russel Howcroft (George Patterson Y&R) takes the credit for it. See the comments below…

PPPS. Yesterday the blog for ad enthusiasts The Inspiration Room posted a story claiming it’s just great, and have reproduced better images, if you’re interested, and name all those who actually did the work: executive creative director Ben Coulson, copywriter Annie Egan, art director Ryan Fitzgerald, illustrator Mark Thomas and retoucher Hung Nguyen. Makes you wonder…

Iconophilia was excited to receive this contribution from anthropologist Lindsey Langford, (Central Desert Native Title Services), via a mutual friend Bill Kruse. Lindsey’s account of his encounter with this spectacular drawing makes enticing reading. But then again not many of us are likely to make it all the way down the Gunbarrel Highway…

“Wongawol Station station is located close to the Western edge of Lake Carnegie [north east of Wiluna]. The area is known as Pukutu country by the Martu [-speaking] people who are the traditional owners and custodians for the area.  These photos were taken during a Return to Country trip with Martu elders from Wiluna and Jigalong [once a Mission, now a community] who related their stories of  working on cattle stations as young men and women.

The photos are from the inside of the old station quarters where several Martu station-hands had spent their nights while mustering at Wongawol from the early to middle part of last century. Pictured here is Mr Frank Wongawol who grew up and worked on Pukutu/Wongawol. By the late 1970’s most of the Aboriginal stockmen in the area  had moved into Wiluna and mustering was no longer performed on horseback but with motorbikes and 4WD’s.

Watabu Handley’s art was pointed out by some of the elders in attendance who remembered him as a good stockman with whom they had worked  with on Wongawol and other stations residing on their homelands.

[One of the visitors on this occasion was Mr.] Friday Jones [whose] name [was] inscribed there [and dated] 1972. Friday was born on Carnegie station, which is just east of Wongawol, and worked as a stockman all through the area. What makes the autograph special is that Friday was with us on this trip and stood squinting  up at his name and picturing his younger self in that act.”

What’s this on the wall? Find it on the NYT’s Lens blog.

Iconophilia admires German photographer Michael Wolf’s work: this time it’s the vernacular Chinese Chair in his sights. This is one image from the series the bastard chairs of china, from the book “Sitting in China” published by Steidl in 2002, distributed by D.A.P. in the United States. See the 27 others on his website here:bastard chairs. Be patient, they’re slow to open, but it’s worth it… If you missed the previous post, see his spellbinding 100×100 here.