Book review
Jane Magon's account of Dale Frank's work is a remarkable piece of interpretation that veers from the plausible to the implausible and back again. It is a roller-coaster ride through detailed accounts of Frank's paintings combined with equally detailed accounts of Shamanic and Chiliastic literature. When the two layers interconnect the result is both convincing and often beautiful. Magon's use of mystic literature gives rise to poetic metaphors that illuminate Frank's work in exquisite ways: for example, when she speaks of "spirits who mysteriously travel through rock crystals which in turn are regarded as magical 'solidified ' light" (p. 26). Images such as these certainly enhance one's appreciation of Frank's paintings.
However there are also occasions when the connection drawn between the mystic literature and Frank's work does not convince. Nevertheless, in spite of some faults this book provides a welcome relief from analyses framed by the dominant discourses of our time. Of particular interest is Magon's notion of "postmodern spirituality ", whereby she attempts to accommodate her use of ideas from the literature on mysticism to the fact that
Frank has been working in a postmodern context. She does this by arguing that Frank's use of postmodernism is 'Romantic'-which is an interesting notion, especially with regard to the analysis of a white Australian artist. In this respect I think her work is potentially quite innovative. On the whole she gives the reader an original and academically substantiated entry into this previously underrated but obviously major artist.
A major strength of Magon's text lies in its exhaustive cataloguing of Frank's motifs set within an interpretive framework of academic literature on mystic experience. However, there is a weakness in that the