Alluring (Clockwise from left) ‘Untitled’ by William Barak; 'Red Plains Kangaroo' by Yirawala; 'Bush Plum Country' by Poly Ngal. National Gallery of Australia innocence comes apart when we look closer. William Barak (1824-1903) belonged to the Wu- rundjeri/ Woiwurung peoples, of Port Phillip. His work bridges the divide between the tradi- tional and the contemporary. He moves away from the traditional geometric patterns in the work of the Aboriginals that did not depict humans, but were a means to seize the animal spirit. In Barak’s painting ‘Corrobo- ree’ we have people of cooler regions, dressed in Possum skin cloaks. Barak was a child when Eu- ropeans began to make incursions into Port Phil- lip and he represents the transition of cultures in his works. The Europeans referred to him as the ‘last chief of the Yarra Yarra Tribe.’ Three sisters The video room has works of the Bidjara artist, Christian Thompson. Three large monitors at the centre show three women of mixed ancestry. An off-screen fan blows their hair and they are bathed in a yellow light. The idea is that they are in the Queensland desert, buffeted by its arid winds. A lilting piece of music — hypnotic, calm- ing and sensuous — accompanies the images. I learn that the three are not just any women — they are three sisters whose grandfather is Char- SPOTLIGHT lie Perkins, the first Aboriginal person to gain a degree and become a permanent head of federal government. His parents were of mixed blood. His daughter, Hetti Perkins, is an influential cura- tor. Thompson chose the trio to comment not just on their mixed heritage but also on the harsh desert landscape of Central Queensland to IN THE BEGINNING which they belong and which is also his own father’s country. “I love the mysticism and the seductive cruel- ty of the desert, my home, and how it can be so elusive, alluring and potentially life threatening,” writes Thompson. The artist is currently Lon- don-based, with a multidisciplinary practice that WAS THE DREAM explores notions of identity, cultural hybridity and history. Placing Australian aboriginal art within the context of the distant The exhibition also includes haunting black- and-white photographs by Ricky Maynard titled past and the more recent history of racism ‘The Healing Garden’, ‘Wybalenna’, ‘Flinders Is- land’ and ‘Tasmania’. His photographs act as BY GEORGINA MADDOX drawings done with natural pigments on euca- cles and stars in the foreground while thick documents, recording the everyday lives of Abo- lyptus bark, decorated shields, carved boome- bands of colour in the background evoke the sur- riginal Australians in Tasmania. The landscape he struggle of aboriginal artists to have rangs and masks. face of the earth. in his photographs also becomes a topography their work accepted as art, worthy of There is also a striking collection of paintings The Warlpiri-speaking Yuendumu people of healing and loss. museums and galleries, reflects in many on canvas and fabric made by contemporary were the first Aboriginal community in the West- don’t know why Aboriginal people cannot look Moving to the centre of the next gallery, one T ways the arc of our own Warli, Madhuba- Aboriginal artists: intricate paintings that speak ern Desert region to begin painting for the art after their houses properly… and I am not racist encounters Lin Onus’s work, ‘Dingoes’, made ni and Gond artists, although in the case of Aus- of creation myths, in which ancestor spirits market. Although they made a hesitant start, but… they are very ungrateful people and… I am from synthetic polymer, paint on fibreglass, wire tralian Aboriginal art, the transition has been bring the world into being in a state of dreaming. they now have their own organisation, the War- not racist but they never wore any clothes until and metal. It may seem like a simple depiction of more rapid. This is represented in a stunning work, ‘Yanjily- lukurlangu Art Centre. the coming of the whites… I am not racist, but dingoes, the wild dogs indigenous to Australia Aboriginal culture goes as far back as 60,000 piri Jukurrpa’ (Star Dreaming), made by three se- you know there are poor white people too…” and that were much-maligned and hunted in large to 80,000 years ago, when these communities nior Warlpiri artists, Paddy Sims, Larry Spencer Inverted view goes on to take apart the bigoted beliefs of the numbers by the colonisers. first settled in Australia. The first evidence of and Paddy Nelson. Interestingly, the gallery showcases the contem- coloniser. But Onus has spent time at Lake Eyre studying their culture is to be found in the still visible rock It is one of the first large canvases to emerge porary voices first. As you go further inside, you the habits of these animals. Having observed art, more than 20,000 years old. It is heavily from Yuendumu in the Northern Territory of encounter the works produced by Australian Kitschy complicity them keenly, he recognises their resourcefulness coded with symbolism, mythology and the sym- Australia. It relates to the fire ceremony of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from Another disturbing work is ‘Ash on Me’, by Tony and ability to survive in the wild: they seem to pathetic magic performed by shamans, who Warlpiri. According to folklore, participants of the late 1800s. This inverted view is a homage to Albert, who belongs to the Girramay/ Yidinji/ Ku- share these qualities with the Aboriginal people, sought to conquer animal spirits before the hunt the fire ceremony shook smouldering branches the concept of the ‘usable past’ — of making ku Yalanji peoples from Townsville, Queensland. who have also suffered incredibly rough treat- or appease forces of nature. and specks floated into the night sky to create sense of a national experience in ways that unify The installation is made up of ‘opportunity shop’ ment in the hands of the colonisers. The injus- NGMA’s New Delhi exhibition, ‘Indigenous the constellations — these are represented by cir- rather than separate peoples. The arrangement (charity shop) ceramic and metal ashtrays deco- tice of history is brought out through five vig- Australia: Masterworks from the National Gallery of the artworks underlines the issue of racial dis- rated with kitschy images of Aboriginal people nettes, from that of a mother with her pups to a of Australia’, gives a valuable insight into this art crimination that has dogged the country for and culture. dingo lying dead in a trap. with a wide range of works on display, featuring Specks of fire floated into the years. The old found objects, arranged in a way that <> ON SHOW: ‘Indigenous Australia: Masterworks both traditional Aboriginal artists and contem- night sky to create the In the contemporary section, one is struck by spells out the word ‘Ash’, underline their original porary practitioners, with a special emphasis on ‘Austracism’, by Vernon Ah Kee, from Brisbane, use and the casual racism hidden in them: ciga- from the NGA’ at National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, till August 26. artists of mixed ancestry. The exhibition is constellations — represented Queensland. Ah Kee represents the Kuku Yalanji/ rette butts are to be stubbed out on the faces of drawn from NGA’s extensive collection, among by circles and stars in a Yidinji/ Waanyi/ Guugu Yimithirr/ Koko Berrin Aboriginal men, women and children. the largest of its kind in the world. peoples. His moving text-based work talks of ra- When seen in a curio shop, these items may The writer is a critic-curator by day, and a creative The work on show includes intricate ‘dot art’, painting by Warlpiri artists cism. It begins by saying, “I am not racist, but I look kitschy enough to seem innocuous, but the writer and visual artist by night. .