an unconfirmed number

Master of Visual Art – studio based research 2013-14 – University of South Australia – School of Art, Architecture and Design

‘An unconfirmed number – a memory initiative of Indigenous massacres during The Killing Times in the colonisation of N-E Western Australia’

This studio-led research explores memory initiatives through installation, painting and sculpture as a means to enhance understanding of a conflicted past between Indigenous and colonial European-Australians.  As resident artist, teacher and collaborator in Aboriginal communities since 1982, and with cultural links to European settlers, this artwork occupies a position of acknowledgement, recognising the historical significance of the Mistake Creek massacre and its place in a contemporary Australian social and cultural context.   The visual language emanates from the native acacia pycnantha and eucalyptus leucoxylon species, engaging the synchronous individuality and communality of these trees as metaphors for histories and identities, inviting consideration of conflicting histories and a history of conflict.

tuol sleng – silent walls

tuol sleng 3-7     oil and acrylic on board   100cm x 100cm   2013

The former Khmer Rouge prison stands as a memorial to the indescribably tragic events that took place on this site, and throughout Cambodia, in the late 1970’s.  After thirty years, the walls are crumbling.  Flaking layers of plaster and paint give way to encroaching damp and oppressive heat.  Surfaces seep with the beauty and inexorable touch of natural elements, fading the stencilled numerals and text, healing the symbolic scars of human brutality.  In the haunting black and white photographs, names are replaced with numbers.  On the walls that bore witness, the numbers grow faint and the voices fall silent.

The paintings of this series attempt to capture something of the contrast between the injustice and brutality of the Khmer Rouge rule and the inevitable regeneration of nature.  Each number represents a lost name, each line of text a rule demanding mute compliance.  The images are the distillation of a complex experience which seeks not to find any particular answer or pose any particular question, but rather to provide an acknowledgement.   An acknowledgement of Tuol Sleng as a place.  An acknowledgement of prisoner 55 and all the nameless numbers whose identities and lives were stolen in the dark shadows of Tuol Sleng’s walls.

warrangarim [gija:-meeting]

turkey creek 1      oil and acrylic on board   120cm x 40cm   2012

David Kelly and Gordon Barney

CCAE Gallery   Darwin     July 6^th – August 3^rd 2012

The Gija word that describes ‘meeting’ has proven to be a remarkably appropriate choice for a project conceived in Singapore, undertaken in Western Australia and exhibited in the Northern Territory.  South Australian artist, David Kelly, was hosted by artists of the Warmun Art Centre for the month of April 2012, working together in the shade of the giant jumulu [Gija:-boab tree] that stands at the centre of this remarkable artists community.

The residency was an opportunity to meet personally, professionally and culturally, through a shared passion for visual story telling.  In the first days of painting, Gija elder Gordon Barney showed a curiosity and amiable interest in what emerged as quite different work practices and media, but clearly recognisable sources of inspiration.   Over the following weeks a relationship developed between the two artists through conversations of few words but significant understanding.

David Kelly’s work has previously reflected his connection with the physical environments in which he has lived and travelled, though more as an emotional and spiritual response than literal.  His media and methods are eclectic outcomes of many years experimentation and emulation of elemental processes.  The Gija artists tell stories of Ngarranggarni [Gija:-dreaming], inextricably linked to their country, spirituality and medium of natural ochres, which are literally, of the earth.

Despite these differences, both artists recognised something in each other’s work that constituted common ground.  The meeting of earth, sky and water in a fusion of physical and spiritual, as experienced by one artist in one month and another through countless generations.  Each perspective provides something unique.  Whether through transient eyes on a new subject or a view steeped in rich traditions and lifelong experience, the Gija country strikes a deep and resonant chord.

The ochre palette of Warmun artists conveys volumes about this land in relatively few colours.  In homage to this vibrant conversation of few words, David Kelly’s work is built around just three colours as symbols of earth, sky and water.  As the mixture of a few ochres and charcoal produce a myriad of subtle variations, so the confluence of sienna, blue and white conveys something of the vast convergence of these elements in their natural forms.

With their paintings propped next to each other against the legs of a studio table, David Kelly and Gordon Barney spoke the same language about their work.  They followed white lines and dots with their fingers from one panel to the other, creeks flowing and flooding down through deep valleys in jagged and sweeping hills.  They traced swirling, laden clouds through to endless blue skies and dark nights.    Their language was less Gija or Kreol or English than smiles of mutual recognition and respect.  They spoke about things that transcend culture and race.  They had a meeting of artists.  A good warrangarim.

eucalyptus

elemental transcript      oil and acrylic on board   120cm x 120cm   Heysen Prize finalist 2012

The ubiquitous eucalypt surrounds my home studio, a constantly changing myriad of seasonal colour, texture and form.  The bush.  A brittle wall of bleached summer sentinels and winter shroud of subtle greys.  A single entity.  The next day, the next walk, the next moment of contemplation and unique personalities emerge.  Whites that are full of colour.  Wounds that ooze life.  Tortured angles and unlikely symmetry.  Perfect imperfections.  Intimate details of exquisite beauty.  Scars of growth and decay.  Remnants of those long gone and the promise of those to come.  A community of individuals to be treasured.

A metaphor for life.

landmarks

confluence 2   oil and acrylic on board   100cm x 100cm   2012 

“… my work has long been inspired by the  landscapes in which I have lived and travelled.

 This hybrid of distant memories and current experiences has resulted in paintings that seek to capture something ethereal as well as celebrate the tactile.

 Images develop around a direction of line, a distinctive texture,  predominant colour or distinctive atmosphere, with the emphasis on the processes by which natural elements create their own marks – growth and decay, the impact of heat, movement of wind, flow of water and passage of time.  The intimate detail of seemingly insignificant forms and enormity of the vast and distant share a commonality, often emerging simultaneously…”