Colour Power Review

24 March 2006

Exhibition: Colour Power: Aboriginal Art Post 1984
Wollongong City Gallery
18 February 2006 to 23 April 2006


A celebration of the daring and visionary use of colour by Indigenous Australian Artists.


Colourful indeed! Every piece in this exhibition challenges the traditional use of colour by Australian Indigenous artists.

There are very few earth tones – even in the beautifully elaborate woven object by Mati (Bridget) Mudgidell (1935 – 2002) of Balgo WA. This piece which was made for the opening of a cultural centre, features woven fibres decorated with paint, bright woollen threads, painted eucalyptus nuts and painted feathers.

While most of the pieces in this exhibition are paintings on canvas, there are also included a set of woven figures which incorporate such materials as hair, grasses and colourful wools by Kantijupayi Benson.

Of the many intriguing works I found three of particular interest. Preparing for Ceremony (Artist deceased) Garadalpurru – The Kangaroo 1988 Ngukurr NT has contrasting lime green and red animal figures. The artist was the caretaker for a kangaroo ceremony where the performers dance and hop.

In this work the red kangaroos appear to be defending themselves against attack by lime green dogs. The colours are highlighted by the surrounding cross-hatch pattern of white and lime green over a black background. The patterns and placement of figures and trees make it a traditionally aboriginal work while the outstanding colours bring it right into the contemporary art world.

Bessie Liddles’ Iltjiltjari Country (2000 Alice Springs NT) depicts everyday life. The use of blocks of bright primary colours of red and blue with black is as far from traditional colours as possible. The subject is very contemporary showing a truck on a road to a few buildings. This is an interesting juxtaposition of aboriginal mapping of a story and almost Cubist depiction of a village.

Lumbanbardee by Nancy Naninurra Napanangka (2004 Balgo WA) would be a traditional work if it wasn’t for the brilliant colouring. Representing water rock holes of importance to her people, the bright contrasting colours are almost fluorescent. The water holes are depicted in black and surrounded by white which in turn is surrounded by oranges, yellows and a vivid pinky purple. The colouring brings a new focus to the work. It is no longer telling a story to the artists’ people alone. It now brings to the non-indigenous viewer a sense of place and an appreciation of pattern.

It would have been helpful to the viewer to have more information available to interpret these works. The catalogue was not readily available and was relatively expensive to order.

Several questions go unanswered. Was there a relationship between the different works or are they purely examples of the new use of a colourful material? Was the use of colour significant to the story being told?

Certainly the viewer can appreciate both the Aboriginal traditions of pattern and story as well as the original use of colour in this exhibition.



References:

Personal notes from viewing exhibition.
Gallery advertising card

Websites:

http://www.wollongongcitygallery.com/
http://gallery.discoverymedia.com.au/artzinePub/story.asp?id=271&section=ExNews