Event Review

Last Sunday I went to the AT THE VANISHING PO

INT CONTEMPORARY ART. It’s located in NEWTOWN.

The Exhibition Topic is Intervention Intervention. Artists respo

nd to the ongoing Northern Territory Intervention.

Opening launch, Thursday 13 January 6-9pm

Forum, Cu

rator an

d Artist Ta

lks, Saturday 22 January 2-4pm.

This exhibition is about the Australian Aboriginal culture. M

any Australian Aboriginal artists attend this exhibition.

List of Artists:

Adam Hill, Amunda Gorey (NT), Austin G Mackell, Barayuwa Mununggurr (NT) & Ruark Lewis, Brendan Penzer, Dean Sewell, Elaine Syron, Gordon Syron, Ian Scott, Jackie Farkas & Tina Havelock Stevens (with the children of Papunya NT) , Jane

Doolan (NT), Jason Wing, Kathryn Dodd Farrawell, Murray Sinclair, Peter Fyfe, Philip Ricketson, Teena McCarthy, Tristan Deratz.

ATVP commences its 2011 program with Intervention Intervention, a group exhibition engaging and exploring the realities of the NT Intervention, at once

exploding and expunging the notions of its implementation, yet enabling the wider public to look deeper and to examine agendas behind its perpetuity.
Featuring 18 artists, indigenous and non-indig

enous, including artists from the Northern Territory who are living â€˜The Interventionâ€™, this is an exhibition that engages the audience in a more profound dialogue than that that has been served by mainstream media and indeed politicians. It is a community awareness-raising of the many little-known f

acts and realities of what has developed over the last 3-4 years

, seeing three prime ministers and three federal governments preside over it.

Featuring artworks across mediums of painting, photography, documentary, film, sculpture, installation and mixed media assemblage, Intervention

Intervention packs a punch with a strong line-up of award winning and highly respected establ

ished and emerging artists from Sydney and the Northern Territory.
Intervention Intervention will be opened by Kathryn Dodd Farrawell and Jeff McMullen.

The first art I saw is made by AmundaGorey.

This painting is about the blanket solution applied to all indigenous people living in the NT, by the Australian government, regardless of people being individuals and each person is different.

This is a typical Australian Aboriginal painting. For the aboriginal painting, we all fell familiar. We can see it every where in Australia, especially in the gift shops. The aboriginal always appear on the rocks and woods. But now, we can find it painted on the cloth and paper. The aboriginal painting use point, line, circle, geometric patterns to represent s

ome form of fixed things.

This painting uses the circles and geometric patterns. The main colour is red and blue, they are also the typical colour in the aboriginal painting.

From here, I realise that this exhibition topic is about the Aboriginal culture. According to my observation, many visitors are the aboriginal fans. They like the Australian culture especially the aboriginal culture.

The ATVP aims to enhance and encourage community engagement in contemporary art and contemporary issues. So this time, we can get

the ch

ance to communicate with them and get understanding about it.

My favourite work is the ABUSE OF POWER, m

ade by Adam Hill.

The

In this painting, the sky is dark blue, the sun is white. The clouds are gray. Many windmills are on the mountains, the tree without leaves is swing by the wind. A kangaroo is sitting near the tree with a sign.

The Image interpretation is sometimes the thought of being "green" is not what it seems. I do not know if I understand it in a wrong way. I think it is about the environment protected. The first impression of it is dim and lifeless. Many gray clouds in the picture, it seems that the author wants to give the audiences the sense of gloomy. Large of windmills instead of the trees, less of trees survive difficult. The animals feel sad about it so they protested.

For the aboriginal people, they want their home

vibrant, all the animals and plants can have a nice environment to live. Because of the Westerners to enter, they feel their homes were damaged. So the author wants to remind people that give the animals and plants even us a better environment to survival.

Another one I prefer is I BEEN HERE LONG TIME that made by Ganbold Lundaa.

In the left part, the background is black and the name of the painting written on it. The right part is a man’s face; there are some words on it, SUN MOON FIRE SEA RED LAND EQUAL and RIGHT.

In my view, I think the author want to express is that he is waiting for these things on this land, he wants sun, moon, fire ,sea, they are means natural. He wants red and land, they are means the country. He wants equal and rights, they are means human rights.

We all know that around 200 yeas ago, Europeans came to this land. Since then, the indigenous people were getting hurt. They lose their lands, their home, even their rights. The author wants to tell the audience that, the indigenous people have been this land so long and they only want these things.

For this event, it is mainly to enable us to understand more of the indigenous culture.

Indigenous Australian art (also known as Aboriginal art) is art made by Indigenous Australians, covering works that pre-date European colonizationas well as contemporary art by Aboriginal Australians based on traditional culture. These have been studied in recent decades and gained increased international recognition. Aboriginal art involves a wide range of media including painting on leaves, wood carving, rock carving, sculpture, ceremonial clothing and sandpainting.

ROCK PAINTING

Indigenous art includes a range of styles of rock painting:

The cross-hatch or X-ray art from the Arnhem Land and Kakadu regions of the Northern Territory, in which the skeletons and viscera of the animals and humans portrayed are drawn inside the outline, as if by cross section.

Dot-painting where intricate patterns, totems and/or stories are created using dots

Stencil art, particularly using the motif of a hand print.

A particular type of Aboriginal painting, known as the Bradshaws, appears on caves in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. They are named after the European pastoralist, Joseph Bradshaw, who first reported them in 1891. To Aboriginal people of the region they are known as Gwion Gwion. Traditional Aboriginal art is composed of organic colours and materials, but modern artists often use synthetic paints when creating aboriginal styles.

Aboriginal rock art has been created for a long period of time, with the oldest examples, in West Australia's Pilbara region, and the Olary district of South Australia, estimated to be up to around 40,000 years old. Rock art gives us descriptive information about social activities, material culture, economy, environmental change, myth and religion. This is an Aboriginal way of showing recognition and wisdom-to be open to the environment.

BARK PAINTING

Bark paintings are now regarded as "Fine Art", and the finest bark paintings command high prices accordingly on the international art markets. The very best artists are recognized annually in the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award.

The Iconography and symbols of aboriginal Australian art

The imagery of the Aboriginal culture, as can be seen in many of the sacred sites, rock and cave paintings, used few colours as they were often made from what was available locally. Some colours were mined from ‘ochre pits’, being used for both painting and ceremonies, with ochre also traded between clans and at one time could only be collected by specific men within the clan. Other pigments were made from clay, wood ash or animal blood. There were variations in the symbolic representation of some rock art and paintings, depending on the tribe or region of Australia that you belong to, which is still evident today in the modern art work of Aboriginal artists. The dotted motifs of much of today's Aboriginal modern design work has become the trademark of the contemporary Aboriginal Art movement. Its iconic status developed from a culture stretching back into the history of an ancient land, evolving and weaving into desert dreamtime stories.

Numerous characteristics of aboriginal art

I found some characteristics of aboriginal art from internet

1. Dots and dotted patterns

2. The fact that all aboriginal art tells a story: it does not just paint an interesting but static scene.

3. Lines, all of which have significance in the story-telling aspect of the artwork, such as denoting tracks of a particular creature.

4. Australian wildlife.

5. "Earth" colours, particularly red, oranges, yellows and browns.

EVERYONE IS AN ARTIST

Like European art, Aboriginal art represents and symbolises the world and the beliefs of people. Traditional Aboriginal art represent the Dreaming but is often also a vital part of ceremonies.

Conclusion

This event gave me such a big impact about the aboriginal Australian art. I only have seen these things in the shop. Some spirits of the aboriginal people are so strong. I would like to pay more attention about them.