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Figure-Ground and Occlusion Depiction in Early Australian Aboriginal Bark Paintings

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Figure-Ground and Occlusion Depiction in Early Australian Aboriginal Bark Paintings Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 152, part 2, 2019, pp. 251–267. ISSN 0035-9173/19/020251-17 Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in early Australian Aboriginal bark paintings Barbara J. Gillam FRSN Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Email: [email protected] Abstract Aboriginal painting has been largely treated as conceptual rather than perceptual and its visual impact little examined. In this article, the author shows the perceptual skill and innovation demonstrated by Aboriginal bark painters in depicting figure-ground and occlusion. This has heuristic value for studying occlusion perception and adds visual meaning to the conceptual meaning of the paintings. Introduction1 was the success of the Dreamings exhibition boriginal people lived in Australia for at the Asia Society, New York, in 1988. Aover 40,000 years before European set- Australian Aboriginal painting is now tlement in 1788. They had a rich ceremonial widely regarded as a serious form of modern culture with beliefs and stories about crea- art (McLean 2011, Petitjean 2010) with a tion, ancestral beings and the land. These strong visual impact. Aboriginal writer stories had longstanding visual expression Djon Mundine describes an exhibition he in rock art, body painting and sand drawing. curated in Dusseldorf in 1993 as follows: Beginning in the early 20th century, “Antjara was hung as a visual art show. It Aboriginal people in several locations mini- was supposed to generate a visual-emotional mally affected by European settlement were response; to engage the senses and the imagi- encouraged by anthropologists, missionaries nation” (Mundine 2013). and others to depict their stories in a more Although the visual impact of Aborigi- permanent form. In Arnhem Land, in the nal painting is often mentioned (Tuckson far north of Australia, painters developed an 1964, Ryan 1996, Coleman 2004). it has existing tradition of using natural ochres on received surprisingly little analysis. As Ryan bark stripped from trees, while in the desert says, “most of the writings on Aboriginal art regions of central Australia, acrylic paints … tell us what it is about rather than why it on boards were used. Remarkably, these compels the viewer as great art compels the early paintings aroused international inter- viewer” (Ryan 1996, p. 128). An empha- est among institutions and collectors, not sis on “what it is about” is characteristic of as cultural artifacts but as art. A critical step anthropologists, who study Aboriginal art as an expression of cultural and spiritual themes (Berndt et al. 1982, Sutton 1988, Morphy 2010). In line with their focus on 1 A reprinted version of Barbara Gillam, “Figure- meaning, anthropologists have described Ground and Occlusion Depiction in Early Australian Aboriginal Bark Paintings,” Leonardo, Vol. 50, No. 3, Aboriginal painting “as having a more heav- pp. 255–267, 2017, reprinted courtesy of The MIT ily conceptual than perceptual approach to Press. 251 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Gillam — Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in Australian Aboriginal bark paintings representation” (Sutton 1988, p. 36). Simi- this is true, Aboriginal art is nevertheless larly, Morphy, the foremost expert on the art perceptual. It depicts real-world properties of the Yolngu peoples of Eastern Arnhem and relations. Like all art, Aboriginal art Land, says: draws on the responses of the human visual Yolngu, rather than using techniques of system, honed by evolution and experience visual representation to imitate the real- to register properties of the environment ity of the seen, are more concerned with relevant to our species. Cultural factors and conveying the reality of the unseen. In this skill determine just what aspects of visual respect, then, Yolngu art might also be experience are emphasized in any given art deemed more conceptual than perceptual tradition, but all traditions must draw on a (Morphy 2007, p. 88). common repertoire of visual responses, and these go well beyond our ability to perceive Both authors deny that Aboriginal paint- 3D layout from linear perspective. ing is “illusionistic,” by which they seem to Aboriginal painting strongly empha- mean that it does not attempt to create an sizes the ground, which is of paramount illusion of reality. While I fully acknowl- importance for hunter/gatherers. Ground is edge the conceptual and spiritual purpose depicted both on a small and a large (even car- of Aboriginal art, as a psychologist working tographic) scale, but usually as if below rather in visual perception, I also see it as strongly than receding from the observer (Berndt et perceptual in ways I describe here. al. 1982). Not surprisingly, the perceptual Despite stressing the essentially concep- responses Aboriginal painting draws upon are tual nature of Aboriginal painting, anthro- those relating to perceiving figures, surfaces pologists nevertheless do mention visual fea- and locations (or their symbolic representa- tures.2 To understand the apparent paradox tives) on or in the ground, interacting with here, it is necessary to unpack what is meant one another and often overlapping (partially by “perceptual.” Traditional western art has occluding) one another. Aboriginal paint- tended to depict vistas; scenes receding into ing uses occlusion relations rather than linear the distance as projected to a single view- perspective to depict depth. It may also com- point. To do this, Renaissance artists suc- bine local perceptual effects to create visual cessfully analyzed the mathematics of linear impressions and conjunctions that could not perspective (Alberti 1435). When anthro- exist in the real world. pologists say that Aboriginal art is more con- Here I analyze the depiction of figure- ceptual than perceptual, they seem to mean ground relations and surface occlusion in that it is not “perspectivistic” — it does not early (mid-20th century) Aboriginal bark attempt to depict the projection of a scene painting from “the classical period” (Sutton from a single viewpoint nor even a single 1988, p. 36). time frame. It does not attempt to simulate Unlike linear perspective, which has a retinal image of the real world. Although received a great deal of attention in the art history literature, the depiction of occlu- 2 Morphy (2007) has drawn attention to the shim- sion, although ubiquitous in painting, is mer produced by rarrk, or cross-hatching, in Yolngu painting, as well as figure-ground reversals and other surprisingly neglected (Kanizsa & Mas- visual properties to be discussed later. Sutton (1988) sironi 1989). These authors attribute this discusses symmetry. 252 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Gillam — Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in Australian Aboriginal bark paintings neglect to a misapprehension that occlusion properties of the two-dimensional represen- relations are cognitive interpretations rather tation to create the impression that one of than immediate perceptual responses (Kah- two adjoining surfaces is the foremost one neman 2002). A similar view may account and thus “owns” the common border and for anthropologists being aware of certain that the other surface does not end at the depictions of figure/ground relations in Abo- border but extends behind the front surface. riginal painting without considering them How can these impressions be conveyed “perceptual.” in a painting with an immediate phe- The perceptual problem to be solved by nomenological (perceptual) impression of painters is that an object or surface intended occlusion relations? This requires the skilled to appear partially behind another (i.e. par- application of perceptual principles, which tially occluded by it in the field of view) must have been the subject of scientific study. accommodate the fact that the two surfaces These considerations apply to Aboriginal will often be adjoined in a two-dimensional art, which as I shall show is very concerned representation, sharing a common border. with occlusion and depicts it with consider- In real-world viewing, the depth cues of ste- able sophistication and imagination. Figure 1 reopsis and motion parallax are available to shows some quite early Aboriginal paintings resolve the depth order of surfaces. However, that seem to have occlusion depiction as the a painter (or even a photographer) must use major feature. a b Fig. 1. Early bark painting featuring occlusion. (a) Water basket, 1905, 69 × 38.5 × 29 cm, A338, South Australian Museum; (b) David Malangi, Serpent at Gatji waterhole, 1969, 45.1 × 28.9 cm, MCA (© Estate of the Artist licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd.) 253 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Gillam — Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in Australian Aboriginal bark paintings terson and Salvagio found that if the ground color between c aa c successive convex shapes, like those in Fig. 2c, is varied, the figural dominance of those shapes is reduced [21]. a Occlusion at T-junctions Figure-ground research examines the shape factors that cause d b one area to take possession of a border and appear as a figure. b However, shape is not the only factor that influences appar- dd ent occlusion. The boundary of an occluding surface often cuts off more remote contours forming “T junctions” at the intersection. The occluding surface edge forms the top of the Ts and the occluded contoursb form the stems (see Fig. 3a) [22,23]. T-junctions become much stronger occlusion cues when the line forming the top of the Ts is curved or when it is not at right angles to the stems [24]. This can be seen by comparing Fig. 2. Illustrating some figure/ground principles. (a) Parallel contours define Fig. 3a with Figs 3b and 3c, and reflects the ecological fact that Fig. 2.figure; Illustrating modeled after W. someMetzger, Gesetze figure/ground des Sehens (Frankfurt amprinciples. Main: an edge cutting off a set of contours is more likely to be an Waldemar Kramer, 1953) pp.
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