James Tylor

http://www.jamestylor.com

James Tylor’s Photography is also primarily through the use of old photographic techniques with 19th century processes in particular such as Albumen, Argyrotype, Cyanotype, Daguerreotype which are both wet and dry glass plate. He uses such techniques as he has a strong interest in Australian history focussing on Aboriginal identity in a modern westernised civilisation as he is too from an Aboriginal community.

His series Voyage of the Waka and the origin of the Dreaming plays on the ideas of stereotypes western culture has towards Aborioginal history and Charles Dawrin’s journey through Australian and New Zealand indigenous tribes and Darwin’s journeys within these tribes that link to Tylor’s background. His

His images are ideally a copy of historical Aboriginal artefacts that he would have people try and identify in relation to objects from museums int he 1950s.

Again an extremely old and tedious process these images require and having seen these process first hand I have such a huge level of appreciation for the quality in these images as glass plate processes are extremely unpredictable.

Nici Cumpston

Leopard tree IV  2011

Breaking down stereotypes of who they are as Aboriginal people

“I don’t think about selling it, its about expressing something deep within myself, I cant work under that pressure showing it in a way I didn’t intend for it to be shown. My work is more important to me, it sounds tough but that’s where I’ve come too.”

She works on medium format, works in film then scanned in high resolution and printed on canvas on transparent polymer paint, photo paper or mounted. Hand coloured since 1987 understanding of where you are and what your seeing and your reaction to that.

Her lecture was great, informative, direct and full of emotion and personal experience about the land, the gripping stories of her mother and father struggling for acceptance and almost being an orphan due to the race she was born into out of wedlock.  I especially loved her speak about the experiences she has had within exhibitions and gallery spaces, I found it really intriguing and significant to understanding the journey of an artist in Australia. As a photography student I could appreciate her efforts and dedication to getting the best photo possible, working with a medium format camera in the forgiving outback of Australian is not a task for the faint hearted. Going through the process of film to then scan the images in high resolution, digitally manipulate them, spend days if not weeks going through the printing process to then manually hand colour them in is a practice I could not get my head around. She has not only changed the way I view the Australian outback but the photography process itself.

Warwick Thornton Dark Hearts

Seeing one of Warwick Thornton’s works in person was a great experience and I personally loved this work. Combining techniques of photography and charcoal is great but then turning it on its head by leaving lout portions of the image and keeping the fall out from the charcoal into the exhibit brings it to a whole new level. I could not fault anything with the Dark Hearts exhibit early this year at the Gallery of South Australia, it was spectacular.

The Art of Appreciation

Such a wonderful thing for SBS to recognise and Drawing on Heroes with Damien Shen and Daniel Connell  to let them speak of the tribute they have made to pay homage of the struggles of their elders, the heroes in their world. To then encourage school students to produce a homage to their heroes also and understanding the appreciation a person has when you honour and respect their life through images and works of art.

Damien Shen

 

“You have to go out and try something different”

Personally Damien Shen’s lecture was the best I had seen for a while, it was personable, structures, funny, engaging, relatable and real. His honesty toward life as an artist both in the commercial/corporate world and visual world was really inspiring to hear. I loved the way he spoke of the sudden jolt he had in his everyday family life to pick up that pencil again, he said it was 10 years of a lul in his drawing which really surprised me given his talent. He is extremely passionate about being self driven and said to be “open mind to all the different things around you, successful people are driven and prolific with the work they produce.” I took his advice when he said travel, go to Gallery’s and take in what you see, absorb the work of others to help feed our own artistic inspiration. I related to his story that touched on a drawing that he stared at for 15 minutes because he was captivated by its beauty, people struggle to comprehend starting at a still image for 15 minutes, its easier than you think. Plus the work he happened to be looking at was Vernon Ah Kee’s pencil portrait called Neither Pride Nor Courage 2006.

I loved his work Drawing on the Heros that Shape Us, it was beautifully executed and you could see the level of commitment but my favourite was his Self Portrait done in Prospect and is one of his most successful portraits as shown above. He is so modest, all he said was this image was getting a lot of mileage.

ABORIGINAL ART – It’s a white thing!

Bell’s Theorem

“There is no Aboriginal Art Industry. There is, however, an industry that caters for Aboriginal Art.”

The use of comparing the Western Art Industry to religious sacrifices and is simply a manifestation of European art with Picasso’s inspiration coming from African masks then Australian’s copying Picasso with no acknowledgement to the Africans.  These statements are hard to respond to subjectively as I can not relate all to well to this particular matter but I have always enjoyed Richard Bell’s work and can appreciate his non restrictive writing style.

Aboriginal Art is considered a “movement” and as yet has not graduated to ISM status by being “named. I shall do so now. I name Aboriginal ArtHIEROWISM. It is the modern hieroglyphics.

I like his interesting take on hieroglyphics and conforming the “movement” to a typical artistic name with “ism” at the end, clever, yet without ever hearing someone argue it I wouldn’t consider Aboriginal art a movement, its a 40,000 year old tradition, how is that a movement? Honestly.

The number of artists holding the knowledge is declining rapidly and the younger people are reluctant to take up the “Old Ways”

I agree with this problem of a generation gap that Bell has excellently put as not wanting to take up the “old ways” and being heavily influenced by the Western World that older generations do not feel enticed by. Artists such as Nicci Cumptson also touches on these struggles with not allowing this 40,000 year old tradition die off due to the urban way of life.

“That the lack of Aboriginal input into areas of concern is continually overlooked has created the feeling that the culture is being stolen, etc”

The last statement made by Bell I want to touch on is this:

“Urban artists have rejected the ethno-classification of Aboriginal Art to the extent they don’t participate in Aboriginal shows. They see themselves as artists – not as Aboriginal artists”

I understand these artists to an extent with their hesitance to incorporating too much of their heritage into their work for the easy label that will come with such a desire, the label of Aboriginal artist, instead of an artist that just happens to be Aboriginal. Again I can only offer my own opinion on this matter as I am neither Aboriginal nor an artist (yet). All I can condone is my own opinion on the matter and that is, I sympathise yet I don’t agree that any artist should be afraid to be subjected or categorised. I never considered being an artist and being called a Successful Female Artist under 30 or whatever, I just would like to think if it were the case I would just be an artist and if I chose to incorporate femininity into my concepts they would still call me an artist, not a Female Feminist Artists. Or if I chose to discuss what its been like as a member of Generation Y would I be labelled a Young Merging Female Artist.

The term “Aboriginal Art” was created by the European settlers and to the Indigenous community its just art, Dreamtime, story telling, a way of life, not an Art Movement. Which is Bell’s main focus saying Aboriginal Art is a white thing, because it is, we have labelled it,  given it a price tag and allowed the art to grow wings and cross the globe in hope of international recognition. That, is an art movement.

Jonathan Jones – The Barack Commissions

Barak Commissions

This particular exhibit has been shown at the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) by Jones in memory of William Barak and his life journey, and the individual light boxes represent the different aspects of his life as a friend, political activist, leader, father and artist. They also started to represent the 5 different nations within the 5 boxes and the working with light felt dominant to Jones in reference to the land. The simplicity is amazing they are “slick and minimal” according to Jones yet hold a huge sense of importance and bravery and almost hierarchy through the way these lights are standing and their size, it feels harmonious and I would love to see them with the yellow light also so help develop the concept further.

Richard Bell further

About Richard Bell

The way he approaches the positions a lot of Aboriginal people within the art world find themselves in is both comical and political delving into the pre misconception many have towards Australian Indigenous people. Like the work of Vernon Ah Kee Richard Bell incorporates his contemporary paintings with text often containing political phrases targeting Aboriginal community’s struggles with acceptance and the way we choose to deal with the past. These work named Worth Exploring? exhibited at the MCA in 2002 which contains two separate documents that use European legal language and logic against itself which is a statutory declaration challenging the legitimacy and legality of European colonisation along with a certificate of authenticity document which is common practice in the Aboriginal art market. Bell is conveying this notion racial classification using his own art paintings as a statement against these classifications toward Aboriginal’s making art and Aboriginal Art itself.

Richard Bell

“I can’t get away with all kinds of stuff as an artist”

“My work is deemed Aboriginal, and that in itself is racist”

“Make work with minimal effort, Ive developed styles of painting that look like they take forever but I can do really quickly”

Very political, pop culture art with ideas of addressing racism, I like it a lot. He docent mind telling people how it is, its brave and hilarious, this guy keeps it real. All though he does say we need to watch what we say he openly admits he’s a racist, a sexist and a homophobe and is trying to undo what we was taught to be like. There is a lot of self discovery in his work that cultivates his journey of seeing beyond the surface of people and not judging them on face value or what you have been grown up to think and feel toward certain people. And his life has become richer for it, great way to end this video on a bigger idea that stems from a place of personal and spiritual growth.

“Look beneath the surface of the direct statement and contemplate other meanings”

Warwick Thornton – Aborigine making art or an Aboriginal Artist?

“When you make art, do you make it as an Aboriginal Artist?”

“Whether I was a plumber or an wrist Im still Aboriginal, I reckon it would have to be, I can’t really get rid of my Aborigine, its fed through everything, every breath I take is a political statement in a sense of being Indigenous, every brush you stroke you have this Indigenous way you can’t get rid of”

I love that quote, everything he does is connected through the Aboriginal way. Its hard I guess to an Aboriginal person that just wants to make art and is called an Aboriginal artist simply because they are aboriginal even though they are not applying any Aboriginal painting techniques to their work. I guess its up to them as the individual to label themselves as they see fit.