A few weeks ago, I went to a left-wing Christian conference, 'Abundant Justice and Prophetic Imaginations'. While being un-apologetically academic in Theology, the over-arching focus of the entire three days was on reconciliation, whether it's through how the Anglican diocese could enact a proper reconciliation towards the indigenous to "I refuse reconciliation from a government that doesn't recognize the atrocities that were committed". Those three days re-invigorated my inner radical, as I do want to see justice for the indigenous communities, while discovering more of my own Indigenous identity. I have The banner of "Spirituality Est. 80,000+ Years Ago", due to one of the speaker, Di Langham, spoke of Religion being present in Australia for 100,000 years, just in a different form.
Artist Review:
Glenn Loughrey, of the Wiradjuri people.
Loughrey is a politically active Indigenous artist, of the Wiradjuri people. He focuses on Post Colonial aspects of Indigenous history, reconciliation, childhood memories and theological elements in his practice. He channels his themes through Papunya influenced dot paintings. A lot of Loughrey's process is driven by very political and extremely personal feelings, his composition 'A Portrait of The Artist as a Wiradjuri Man' (2017) reflects upon the land he comes from, before it was transformed into an open cut mine. There's a lot to read, from Loughrey's compositions, especially as I continue my indigenous journey. Though It is hard to find quality sources on the man, so while the emotional content of memories, theology and his political agenda stand out to me, I feel i can't talk about his work in an academic sense
Current Sources:
Loughrey, Glenn. 2018. "The Art of Blackfella's Young Fella". Red Shoes Walking (Blog). July 23rd, 2018. https://www.redshoeswalking.net/2018/07/23/the-art-of-blackfellas-young-fella/
Loughrey, Glenn. 2018. "Glenn Loughrey".Accessed July 24th, 2018. https://www.glennloughrey.com
Loughrey, Glenn. 2017. "Portrait of Australia With Important Bits Missing". Accessed July 25th, 2018. https://www.glennloughrey.com/#/a-portrait-of-australia/
Loughrey, Glenn. 2017. 'A Portrait Of The Artist As A Wiradjuri Man'. Accessed July 25th, 2018. https://www.glennloughrey.com/#/a-portrait-of-the-artist/
Loughrey, Glenn. "All of Life is One". Accessed July 25th, 2018. https://www.glennloughrey.com/#/all-of-life-is-one/
When I visited Miles, Taroom, Jackson and Wandoan, I was curious as to why the locals in Miles and Taroom referred to Wandoan as a "Sad dead town". When I actually went through Wandoan, it appeared like a model town, not like a prime example of a great town but a town that literally resembles a model set. After hearing and witnessing Wandoan first hand, I want to find out exactly how the town got to the state it is currently in
Tony Albert : Visible
Saw the Tony Albert exhibition, in QAG, his practice was very thought provoking especially with his use of found objects to form bold text. One of the things I've noticed in his exhibition was the amount of collaboration, especially in 'Pay Attention'.
As I continue to explore my Aboriginality, I feel that I have to look into the Post Colonial and Artists like Albert, Bennett and Loughrey are good places to start
Some ideas for a structural work, that I want to build. It relates back to my Aboriginality and how I had felt uninformed about my heritage. I had marked the base on the floor, with masking tape, to gain a general idea of how big it would be
Been doing some text works, manly working with fonts before I physically craft the words. The top textile, Gubbi Gubbi Gubbi Gubbi (North South), refers to a revelation a had about my heritage. Something that confused me was how to pronounce "Gubbi Gubbi" because through what I've read upon, it pointed to a sharper "k" sound like "Ka' bvi Ka' bvi" but my Grandfather, Jonothan, pronounced it with a softer "g". I eventually found out, through other members of the community, that it's a dielect matter where if your're from the north it's "Ka'bvi" but if your south of the territory its "Gu' bi". The work, or at least the idea is reflected, in the upper "Gubbi Gubbi" halve is written in Times New Roman Italics to give a sharper appearence while the bottom halve is in Arial Rounded Bold, to make it look softer. I didn't want to use fonts like Trajen because I didn't want to have it appear to be primitive
Gordon Bennett
I've been looking into Gordon Bennett, personally liked Bennett's breaking away from Aboriginal stereotypes. I need to do more research needed though