Aboriginality, hyper-visibility and wobbliness in paintings from Australia’s Western Desert
Aboriginality, hyper-visibility and wobbliness in paintings from Australia’s Western Desert Journal Article
World Art
Abstract: In the Gibson desert of Australia, elderly Aboriginal people took up painting as recently as the twenty-first century. Many grew up in the bush, as hunter-gatherers, and have lived much of their lives in remote Aboriginal communities. Their decision to become artists, and the kinds of paintings that they make, reflect their place in the history of Aboriginal Australian art, as well as the changes that global capital is bringing to remote Australia. Here I look at the work of one artist from the Gibson Desert, Coiley Campbell, whose style of painting pertains to the construction of Aboriginality amidst the hyper-visible cultures of globalisation. In two of Campbell's period styles, in his overdotting and minimal works, it is possible to read the complexities of making Aboriginality visible for an international art market. Comparisons with the work of highly successful European artists Damien Hirst and Andreas Gursky illustrate the way in which overdetermined visual motifs are a trope of contemporary art made within a global economy.
- Urls: https://doi.org/10.1080/21500894.2011.595118
- Keywords: Aboriginal art, Australian art, globalisation, contemporary art, Damien Hirst, Andreas Gursky, Ngaanyatjarra Lands, Papunya