Activism and audience in urban aboriginal art
The last six months have seen unprecedented interest in the work of traditional and urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, particularly in Sydney. By way of example, one could cite the selection of Judy Watson, Yvonne Koolmatrie and Emily Kame Kngwarreye to represent Australia at the 1997 Venice Biennale, exhibitions by Rea at Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative, Destiny Deacon at The Performance Space, Clinton Nain at Hogarth Galleries, Rover Thomas at Sherman Galleries Hargrave, Native Title Now at S.H. Ervin Gallery, Black Humour at Canberra Contemporary Artspace, Native TitleYirrkala Bark Paintings at the Museum of Contemporary Art, What is Aboriginal Art? at the lvan Dougherty Gallery, Ngawarra at the Art Gallery of New South Wales as well as a special Aboriginal art issue of Art and Australia.2
Much of the current interest in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art is directly related to the Festival of the Dreaming, the first of four cultural festivals scheduled to take place in the lead up to the 2000 Olympics. Nonetheless, this interest is encouraging, particularly with respect to the work of urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, as it was only a few years ago that Roberta Sykes noted that the rise and exponential increase in 'black' urban artists and art forms in Australia, many of which are highly didactic and political, were still uncomfortable for most non-Aboriginal Australians.3
These sentiments were echoed by Djon Mundine in 1994 when writing about the first Tyerabarrbowaryaou, I Shall Never become A White Man exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney.4 What, exactly, is the origin of this discomfort? Is it a form of collective guilt about the... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline