journal photo's

Reko Rennie

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Reko Rennie

I just don’t know what to say about Rennie’s work. I kind of hate it, and I struggle to justify the statement.  The coulours are horrible the patterns rarely compliment the work his compositions don’t seem to be much other than sticking something right in the middle of the piece. If there is an intelligent or witty reason behind his many of his juxtapositions I sure can’t see them. Maybe we’ve just been spoilt by the likes of Banksy.

Now we I will be nicer, his use of icon is like many street artists is exceptional and as in aboriginal art where these icons are used extensively his art uses them to effect, although the effect may in many cases have lost its integral story which made the work significant in the first place. I search for something more in his work something personal. And I don’t know why because generally much graffiti has little more significance than showing how skillfully you can jump an fence and paint your name on a wall, I just want his work to mean more than that to me, I feel as though it should mean something more.  I think it is great that he doesn’t try to make his art aboriginal in any traditional sense but rather focuses on his identity as a modern aboriginal. “I’’ve grown up in the city, I’m an urban dude an these are also part of my roots”

Although I do seem to like his work the more I look at it, (maybe my eyes are just getting used to the colors) although I do have one nagging thought, his constant repetition of exactly the same images over years and several exhibitions but simply in different colours. As a graphic designer I think that he has created an immensely strong visual identity (branding for himself) you can tell without doubt that the work is his. But does that make him an artist? My answer is yes, there is no reason an artist can’t reproduce the same work over and over again, but as an artist isn’t the whole point pushing the boundaries and creating an experience for the viewer? At least he is copying his own work unlike Thierry Guetta “Mr. Brainwash" the eccentric Frenchman made famous from the film exit through the gift shop.

Piece HOMEBRAND solo exhibition at Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute 2011.

I really like this piece mainly because it is smart and different, but also because it works as an interesting juxtaposition, not because it is some ridiculous colour.  The replacement of  the badge of each Australian state on the shield with the image of an aboriginal man, suggests that that Australia is indeed aboriginal if the replacement of the word Australia with (Ab)original isn’t clear enough for you.

HOMEBRAND solo exhibition at Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute 2011.

This  piece also from the HOMEBRAND exhibition is probably my favorite piece of work by Rennie. The silver line work is light yet still suggests volume I find it similar to aboriginal x ray art. This piece is one of the very few where the patterns pained in the background greatly compliment his work instead of detracting from it. The ‘waves or ripples’ instantly give the bird a connection to the surface it is pained on rather than sitting in the middle all out of place.

One thing I do like about the work of Rennie is it’s political nature and it’s fight just to have aboriginal people thought about rather than swept under the rug.

I was amazed and greatly impressed when I found this image on Rennie’s site it is an amazing piece it is creative, playful and different, unfortunately after a little research I found that it’s not his work it is the work of Bujangan Urban, if only Rennie did work as original and unique as this!  Although I almost think the tags all over the piece detract from the main text I certainly think they bring interesting colour to the piece similar colours to those which I dislike in Rennie’s work seem much more at home on this style of work instead of in blocks behind otherwise interesting imagery.

Albert Namatjira

Albert Namatjira

Albert Namatjira | Arrernte (Aranda) language group Australia 1902-1959 | The Finke River Gorge at entrance to Glen Helen c.1945-53 Watercolour and gouache over pencil | on thick wove paper | 53.4 x 36.8cm | Gift of Lady Trout 1981 Collection: Queensland Art Gallery © Legend Press

I really enjoy the work of Albert Namatjira, mainly because I love the Australian landscape, and that is his major subject matter  of most of his paintings. I think his use of watercolors, to create such realistic landscapes  is amazing as I know how hard they can be to work with compared to oil based paints where you can simply pain over and change details with comparative ease. I think his use of colour is simplistic, understated and provided a rather accurate yet somehow romantic portrayal of the Australian outback. I particularly like the way he uses a blue hue to represent the distance of far away mountain ranges not only is it accurate but is joins the landscape with the sky which I find is a primary aspect of the landscape. It is also interesting to me that after his success as an artist became substantial that he chose to (as he was expected to do) share his wealth with his extended family in this case being his entire community. Although it may have been what he was expected to do in his culture I can imagine that it would have been quite easy for him to take his wife and live like wealthy white rich man after the government  ‘granted’ them basic rights which were not given to normal aborigines.

MT HERMANNSBURG

ALBERT NAMATJIRA
Australia 1902 - 1959

MT HERMANNSBURG
watercolour on paper
39 x 56.5 cm
Collection: Ngurratjuta Pmara Corporation Collection
Araluen Galleries Alice Springs

ACUALLY DO SOMETHING?

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Today I had a rather despondent experience that made me think about the isolation and cultural separation shown in the movie Samson and Delilah, which I wrote about in my precious reflective piece. I was sitting on the bus on my way home surrounded by business men and women in suits desperate to get away for their shitty jobs, stuck in a metal sardine, can stuck in peak hour traffic when a woman hails the bus just before south terrace on our way out of the city.   The poor woman looked like she was wearing everything she owned layer upon layer even though it wasn’t cold outside. She seemed rather confused about weather or not she wanted to get on the bus.

I use public transport nearly every day so I’m fairly used to seeing people dunk out of their minds or too high to function and how they are treated, and this was different. Instead of the usual 30 seconds of grace before people yelling at them telling them to make up their minds if they want to be on the bus or that the bus driver telling them to get off, no one said anything for quite sometime. The bus driver asked the woman if she was ok, and she replied that she was fine and asked the bus driver if this was the bus to the city, to which he replied we’re in the city this bus is going out of the city the bus that goes to the city is on the other side of the road. Where in the city do you want to go? To which she said; I just want to go into the city. Why wont you take me to the city? Bus driver: we’re in the city and this bus is full of people that want to get home, please get off the bus and just walk across the road and get on one of the busses that are going the other way. Woman: (the woman at this stage is getting quite angry and leaning over the change dispenser) Why can’t you turn the bus around and take me into the city?  Bus driver: I’ve just told you, because this bus is full of people who are trying to get home… The woman cuts the bus driver off and says it’s because I’m black them starts yelling that she is a smart strong aboriginal woman, this goes on for another minuet of so. Everyone on the bus has gone from pretending the woman doesn’t exist to being extremely angry at the woman but unwilling to tell her to get off the bus like you would with any other drunk abusive person. I found it rather strange that no one said anything to her, was it because they feared her, she was after all a rather tall well built woman. Or was it that they feared that asking her to get off the bus they would be seen as racist?  If being racist is treating someone differently because of their race: isn’t not telling her to get off the bus like we would if she was white racist?  Are we all guilty because we have undoubtedly driven this poor woman to the point where she has to turn to alcoholism to deal with her problems? And if so why do we not feel so bad for a drunk white person? Why instead of making our selves feel a little better by not telling her to get of the bus do we not ACUALLY DO SOMETHING to help those aboriginal people that we chose to ignore and shun for our society? Maybe one day the woman sneering at the drunken woman over her nail as she painted them will be the one who doesn’t fit into society.  On a lighter note here is a almost completely unrelated video of how classy people are on public transport which may brighten your day.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sPKWhsBh-Zs

Ronnie Tjampitjinpa -Bush Fire

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RByDM5zXtY&list=UUyk6JFcn7hd2sM_GPM4g_OA&index=1&feature=plcp

Artist: Ronnie Tjampitjinpa
Dreaming: Bush Fire
Painted: Alice Springs 2012

Seriously don’t bother watching the whole 26 min you’ve probably seen similar videos before.

Although I have no idea of the meaning of this painting other than it is a bush fire it was almost memorizing to listen to the music as he painted line after line parallel line. There is a hilarious part at about 15 min in where Ronnie looks at the camera with what I assume is disproval/ Disdain and makes a circle with his thumb and forefinger and stares through his imaginary camera at the camera man, almost as if to say how do you like it? Piss off and let me paint in piece.  I don’t know why I chose to the most ‘abstract’ of the videos but I did so I guess I’ll try to make my own meaning out of it. The parallel lines look a lot like a burnt rows of spinifex or the black lines could be scorched tree trunks. It’s interesting that when I goggled the painting the painting that comes up looks very different painting with many more colours and cropped differently selling for $20,000 not bad considering by looking at the video it was all painted in one day.  Ronnie’s art is a good representation of the characteristic Pintupi style: repetition of forms, which are geometric, simple and bold, and pigments which are often restricted to four basic colours of black, red, yellow and white.
Ronnie also is known to experiment with other colours as well.

From the  desertartcentre.com.au

“ABOUT THIS PAINTING

This Fire Dreaming artwork refers to Ronnie’s Pintupi Dreamtime ancestors.
It is a traditional custom for the Pintupi Aboriginal men to light bush fires, during ceremonial men's business.
The TINGARI Dreaming Stories are many, and also tell of the Ancestral beings transformation into creatures such as Snakes, and also representing the natural elements of Fire and water (rain).

This artwork waspainted at an out-station of Kintore Community. It is supplied with FULL HD video and multiple progress images.”

The finished painting is truly stunning even if I have no idea what it means.

Gary Lee

Photographer

Gary Lee

Gary lee’s work is somehow confronting to me, although many of his photographs aren’t necessarily of a sexual nature I find it hard to view some of the shots of body builders almost grotesque in the same way I find women who have had noticeable plastic surgery fake. I as a straight male I would much rather peruse the idea of the beauty of the female form the subtlety and smooth curves.

I find it very interesting that he chose to photograph people from a different culture (Indian/ Nepalese) rather than aboriginal people for his initial work.  I really enjoy the how unplanned and honest his fist photo’s where, just walking through the streets asking people if he could take their photo. The cultural/ language  barrier brings separation from the camera.  I feel that this is brings another level to the photo much like taking a photos on an iPhone rather than a SLR because people aren’t expecting to be photographed they are natural, rather than posing, putting a wall of lies between them and the lens.

BELL’S THEOREM

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BELL’S THEOREM

“Aboriginal Art has become a product of the times. A commodity.”

I don’t think it was really avoidable that aboriginal art was going to end up as a commodity, the art and tribal artifacts and icons of every indigenous culture that has been encountered by white settlements have been things of wonder and mystery

“Modern hieroglyphics”

I suppose that aboriginal artist that produce traditional are really just producing modern hieroglyphics for a market that want’s to but a little bit of “A dying, soon dead, culture (that) is being raked over…”

Artists like Richard Bell produce new and interesting work that is far removed from the more traditional art. I really disagree with the idea that people are “raking over the culture” by buying Aboriginal art work. Most of these artists create this style of traditional work to be sold; if the work they made was too personal or private they don’t have to sell it. Shit they could paint something that means nothing at all or pokes fun at the stupid white people buying their work and in many cases the white people who don’t get the work would be none the wiser.  It is horrible that people exploit aboriginal artists that don’t know what their work is truly worth and they should be locked up. Although I think there are many aboriginal people that benefit if not rely upon their artwork for their income. It’s just  the screwed up world we live in, everyone has to sell themselves in one way or another to get by.  

It is unwise to market Aboriginal Art from the Western Art aesthetic and attach an Aboriginal Spirituality (an exploitative tactic that suggests that the purchaser can buy some). 

“Given the above. “A dying, soon dead, culture is being raked over…”

The image of the "Noble Savage" (from whence comes the spirituality) implies a position of racial superiority (consciously or not);

“The world of music is not dominated by Western Classical music - different styles stand alongside each other with extensive cross-fertilisation from different cultures. Not so in visual art.”

I’ve never really thought about it in that way. If art was like music where someone picks up someone else’s style and simply adds their own sound art would be a lot different! We have amazing hybrid arts as the normal instead of people trying to make things that fit into one particular ‘genre of art ’. I think there would be an amazing diversity of work if we didn’t group everything.