School of Art - Theses
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ItemAboriginal art: creative responses to assimilation( 2003)This thesis argues that the interpretation of significant aspects of Aboriginal art. especially the movement. Urban art - here renamed Revolutionary art - in the light of the effects of assimilation, breaks new ground. This approach reveals common characteristics and themes, which reflect an interest in shared histories, cultural heritage, and individual and communal directives. In the broader sense it points to fresh ways of unraveling and understanding the Aboriginal collective experience. The thesis begins with an analysis of the history of the approach to Aboriginal art, examining in particular, the convergence of anthropological and art historical frameworks, which contributed to the interpretation of Aboriginal art throughout the last century. An analysis of assimilation and its effects in relation to artist Albert Namatjira (1902-1959) follows, together with an examination of the categorisation and thematic approaches of Urban or Revolutionary artists. The analysis of the historical approaches to Aboriginal art of Namatjira's world, and of the issue of categorisation and its relationship to the themes of Revolutionary art, from the perspective of assimilation, is complemented and expanded in three specific case studies, which demonstrate individual and collective creative responses to assimilation. The artworks of Leslie Griggs (1958-1993) were produced between 1984 and 1989; a short, yet important period for the artist. Griggs used art as a medium to give voice to his experience of enforced separation from his family as a consequence of assimilation processes. Removed at the tender age of two years, Griggs grew up in the environment of the institution, separated from the Gunditjmara cultural heritage and people to which he belonged. Art was to become the vehicle through which he could later establish cultural and personal reconnection with this background. The artworks of Another View Walking Trail, 1994-1995, provide an opportunity to study a collective response to the silencing processes of assimilation. Since their installation in 1995, Another View artworks have undergone certain changes. Natural damage caused by environmental conditions, workplace accident and vandalism, have contributed to this. This thesis analyses the original and complete works of Another View in the condition they were in at time of installation. It also discusses the implications relating to the censorship of several of the artworks originally planned for the project. The artworks of Lin Onus (1948-1996), an artist deeply conscious of the need to respond to his sense of loss caused by assimilation processes, reveals a different creative response from that of Griggs. Onus reaches out to another Aboriginal group for cultural sustenance. He chooses an assimilatory experience of his own, inspired by the desire to revitalise his creative work and life by his adoption into the Yulungu family of Jack Wunuwun. Onus's art developed alongside a heightened consciousness of the duality of life in relation to cultural traditions and contemporary cultural contexts. This thesis studies a selection of paintings and sculptures by the artist, which demonstrate how conscious re-assimilation of traditional Aboriginal knowledge can assist in a creative response to losses brought about by assimilation. In arguing that the individual, artistic expressions of Leslie Griggs, Lin Onus and the collective, collaborative work of Another View Walking Trail, can be interpreted as creative responses to assimilation, the thesis indicates a positive way forward both in the interpretation of Aboriginal art and in cross-cultural understanding.