Visual Culture
Project 9: Issue Based Art
Artwork: Abo history (facts) 1988 by Robert Campbell Jnr
I selected this particular work because it was a work we had identified in one of the early Visual Culture classes. Admittedly I didn’t understand all the images contained in it nor realise it had been painted the year of the bicentenary. It was only after we left the Gallery and did further research that I fully appreciated the work. This assignment gives me an opportunity to delve deeper into it.
In the reading Postmodernism and the art of identity by Christopher Reed I find it easy to embrace the definition of Postmodernism as “The broadest definition of postmodernism, then, would be the non-abstract art of the sixties, seventies, and eighties.”, if only it could be that simple.
Reed probably most succinctly defines and explains Postmodernism in two sentences:
“Instead of pretending to an authoritative originality, post-modernism concentrates on the way images and symbols (‘signifiers’) shift or lose their meaning when put in different contexts (‘appropriated), revealing (‘deconstructing’) the processes by which meaning is constructed. And because no set of signifiers, from art to advertising, is original, all are implicated in the ideologies (themselves patterns of language or representation, hence, ‘discourses’) of the cultures that produce and/or interpret them.”
In his work Abo history (facts) Campbell uses the ‘signifiers’ of white and black lifestyles and interactions as seen primarily in white images and he has ‘appropriated’ them to for a new meaning ‘deconstruction’ from the view of his culture so they can also be interpreted by members outside the Aboriginal culture. This along with the fact it is non-abstract art of the eighties makes it Postmodern in my opinion. “Robert Campbell Jnr was among the first wave of urban based Aboriginal artists who rose to prominence in the late 1980s.” (NGA YouTube)
Campbell is addressing Australian history through the eyes of Aboriginals as opposed to the conventional white Australian viewpoint. He did it at the time of the Australian Bicentenary, a time that the nation was reflecting on its history and basking in the celebration of 200 years of European settlement and in many cases forgetting the original inhabitants of the country.
I think the response the artist sought was to receive recognition for his people of the atrocities that befell them and also recognition of the part they played in the developing nation.
“The painting’s background patterning, figurative elements, colours and stylistic conventions are based on traditional Ngaku clan designs found on boomerangs and shield, while the ‘red ‘tie’, or oesophagus, on all human and animal figures is a symbol of life.” (NGA) Additionally, his use of “… comic strip style and dayglo pallet belied the tough subject matter of this, his most renowned painting.” (NGA YouTube) The mix of traditional styles and modern day should give viewers pause to look at the images within and outside the “comic” windows. The ‘red tie’ on both the black and white humans brought to mind the idea that although we may be different on the outside, within we are all the same.
Influences for the artist would be his own background having experience growing up and attending Burnt Bridge Mission school and traditional designs he had seen on the insides of “traditional possum-skin cloaks. … Bright and cartoon-like, his episodic snapshots of contemporary events merge his Aboriginal world view with that of the wider Australian society (from which he was mostly excluded) … .” (DAAO) The celebration of the bicentenary probably provided extra impetus for his work with such a strong cultural context.
The work is successful in conveying the message. It has been acquired by a National art institution, who identify it as “his most renowned painting”. (NGA YouTube) It is successful to the viewers, such as myself who understand aspects of the painting when first viewed. The use of strong colour and the comic style with the traditional style intertwines two artistic cultures, as well as, sending a poignant message at the time of the bicentenary that is as agonizing today.
My life experiences, knowledge, cultural, political, and personal opinions definitely affect my reading of this and any work. Although I grew up in the United States it was during a time of civil unrest in the 50s-70s with issues of desegregation, Vietnam, Cold War, Cuban Crisis, assassination of a President, etc. those experiences and ‘baggage’ are still with me. Reading this work I can relate to the black and white issue and how humans can treat each other. I’ve also lived in Australia long enough to know some of the history. As I grow older my opinions, likes, dislikes, attitudes and philosophy of life change, for the better I hope.
Bibliography
Mundine D 2008, Robert Campbell (Junior), Dictionary of Australian Artists Online (DAAO), viewed 10 May 2011,
National Gallery of Australia (NGA) 2010 Collection search, text from Franchesca Cubillo and Wally Caruana (eds) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art: collection highlights, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, viewed 10 May 2011, < http://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=82130&PICTAUS=TRUE>
National Gallery of Australia (NGA) 2010, 117 -82130 – Robert Campbell Jnr “Abo History (facts)’ 1988, YouTube video viewed 10 May 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRfDgI8MNS8
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