The amazing artistic output of Australian Aboriginal people was unknown in the West until the 1970s. Within a decade, Aboriginal art had transcended the boundaries of ethnic or primitive expression to take its rightful place among contemporary art movements, appearing in prestigious museums and galleries around the world. An unprecedented artistic revival has emerged in an Aboriginal community living in the middle of the Western Australian desert. Arose different groups Aboriginal artists using modern technology not only to express the traditional and religious motifs of their culture, but also to interpret relevant contemporary themes.
Later splash artistic creativity natives were found in various regions of Australia: the Aboriginal community of the city of New Gal in the south, the province of Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia (clans Koori, Mirrie, Nyonga) ... Such artistic activity played a vital role in the awareness of the aborigines of their rights in their demand to receive political and social a voice in solving various problems within the Australian community. In Aboriginal art, the making of such demands is combined with the manifestation of absolute spirituality and attachment to one's land.
Today, Aboriginal people move freely across the continent. Even if the distinctive features of their artistic production are due to roots, traditions associated with their geographical origin and determined by culture, individual characteristics of a particular artist, projects, themes, ideas are constantly mixed. Most of the products defined as " traditional art Aborigines” was created in communities hundreds of kilometers apart.
Australian Aboriginal artists use a variety of media, including bark painting, leaf painting, wood carvings, rock paintings, sand painting, ceremonial clothing, and tool decoration. In Aboriginal culture, art is one of the key rituals and is used to mark territory, remind of the past, and tell stories about time immemorial. The Aborigines believed that their world arose as a result of an act of creation. It is difficult for non-natives to understand the critical importance of art to their lives.
Researcher Howard Morphy wrote: “Art was and remains a central component of the traditional Yoligu way of life, has great value and in political sphere, and in relations between clans. And it is an effective component of a system of strictly defined knowledge. And on a more metaphysical level, art is the primary means for Aboriginal people to recreate events of the past, honor ancestors and communicate with the spirit world.”
The history of Aboriginal art goes back 50 thousand years, as evidenced by ancient bark paintings discovered in the most remote regions of Australia, created before the appearance of rock paintings in the caves of Lascaux and Altamira.
Initially, the function and value of Aboriginal art was sacred and reflected the emotional, political and even practical aspects of the lives of the first settlers on the continent. Nowadays, although Aboriginal art has lost the sacred nature inherent in the past period and has turned out to be adapted to the demands of the international public, nevertheless, modern Aboriginal artistic production still has roots in the ancient mystical perception of the world.
The concept of “dreaming” plays an important role in Aboriginal culture, referring not only to creation myths, but also to the landscape and the close connection Aboriginal people have with it. Moreover, according to their totemic beliefs, the spirits of their ancestors continue to live among people today. And the social identity and spiritual responsibility of the aborigines depends on the spirits of their ancestors. Therefore, dreams provide a connection with the past, with time itself, with the source of primary knowledge.
It is not at all surprising that dreams form the context and subject of much of the work of Aboriginal artists. Many symbolic objects and weapons depict drawings illustrating these myths, emphasizing their sacred nature. Carvings on stone, paintings on bark or earth indicate that such creativity is itself a ritual act.
Tree bark painting is the most common form of art among Aboriginal people. Used in ancient times to build homes, often decorated with symbols and motifs, the bark taken from eucalyptus trees is a flexible, smooth material that is at the same time durable. The style of the designs varies between different zones of Australia. In some regions the designs embody a figurative tendency, as in the area near the town of Oenpelli, to the west of Arnhem Land. And in the east, as in the vicinity of Yirkala, more abstract and geometric motifs appear in the designs. And the drawings on the bark on the island of Groote Eylandt, on the contrary, are distinguished by the depth of the black background on which the images appear.
Aboriginal Art Symbols and Their Meanings
The culture and traditions of the Australian Aboriginal people have developed over several millennia. And the symbols in their art are a continuation of this tradition and are no different from rock paintings and cave paintings created by the aborigines in last centuries. Traditionally, these symbols were used in sand paintings and body tattoos during ceremonies and corrobories, an Aboriginal Australian folk dance. Moreover, in each region of Australia the symbols have their own characteristics. The art symbols of North Queensland were dominated by images of the river bank in the specific style of “cross lines” or “ x-rays", native to the natives of these places.
The aborigines of Central Australia in their creativity focused on “sand” or “dot” paintings that convey the image of the desert.
Australian Aborigines believed in magical power“dream” or the act of creation of the surrounding world called Tyukurrpa. This culture developed when the ancestors of the Aboriginal people settled countryside Australia. Special significance they attached to springs, rivers, mountains and rock formations. The Aboriginal relationship with nature and identification with it, especially the land, space and sea, was deep and exclusively spiritual in nature.
Modern Aboriginal art is based on these ancient and traditional symbols, Aboriginal artists create very simple configurations, diagrams from them, but full values. Such symbols are also used in tattoos for ceremonies and are applied to objects, weapons and other things used by the aborigines. They believed that artistic symbols have enormous power over people. This ritual meaning of symbols can be traced back to several generations of Aboriginal artists and spiritual leaders.
The traditional connection with dreams is still important in the work of Aboriginal artists. Although the basic concept of art symbols is quite simplified, the natives actively use it to create spiritual and whimsical configurations in which complex stories are encrypted. The V sign is an art symbol denoting an Aboriginal man. If the V symbol is accompanied by a circle or several concentric circles, it indicates a man sitting near a source. Spiral lines are a symbolic image of flowing water. And they talk about the power of the Aboriginal man. This is the story of a water bearer who uses his natural ability to make rain. Each additional symbol gives even greater power and meaning to the painting.
A dot, a spot, is one of the main symbols among artists of the Western Desert and Central Australia, giving their paintings such originality. Dots and spots can represent stars, sparks from a fire, or earth. Contemporary Aboriginal artists argue that ordinary viewers can only see in the paintings external history. Only experts true meaning symbols are able to understand the inner, mysterious story paintings But today, Aboriginal artists use dotted punctuation, spots, to obscure or encrypt the meaning of symbols in their paintings.
Religious and cultural aspects of Aboriginal art
Traditional Aboriginal art almost always has a mythological overtone, relating to the life of the Aboriginal people in ancient times. Many contemporary Western art critics believe that if such art does not reflect the spirituality of the Aboriginal people, it cannot be considered authentic native art that embodies them. true essence. Venten Rubuntya, an aboriginal artist and landscape painter, completely disagrees with this opinion, believing that it is difficult to find any art that is devoid of spiritual significance. Storytelling and totemic imagery are found in all forms of Aboriginal art. Moreover, a specific female form of Aboriginal art exists and is often used - in the Arnhem Land region.
The desire for beauty forced the Australian to cover his shield, club, boomerang with ornaments, draw patterns and images on rocks and stones, and wear jewelry on his body. The artistic aspiration was joined by ideas that endowed some of the decorations and ornaments with supernatural properties and turned them into sacred images.
Thus, the works fine arts Australians are divided into two types: sacred, religious-magical images and ornaments and designs that satisfy aesthetic needs, but are devoid of any religious content. And again, like works of folklore and dances, there is no external difference between both types: drawings that are completely identical in shape and appearance could in one case mean some kind of sacred mythological story, and in another - have nothing to do with mythology.
Therefore, leaving aside for now the question of the presence or absence of religious and magical significance in Australian painting and ornamentation and focusing only on its artistic and technical side, we can try to systematize the works of fine art of Australians. They can be classified by place of application, by technique, and by style.
According to the place of application, the following groups of works of art are outlined: ornamentation and decoration of the body, ornamentation of weapons and utensils, images on totemic emblems (churinga, vaninga, etc.), images on rocks and in caves.
Body decorations can be divided into permanent and temporary. Permanent decorations were primarily scars on the skin, applied during initiation ceremonies, and sometimes even from childhood. It was mainly men who were subjected to scarring, but sometimes women as well. Scars were most often applied on the chest, stomach, and in some tribes on the back and arms. Ras
the position and pattern of the scars indicated tribal affiliation, sometimes membership in a certain phratry and marriage class, and most of all the passage of initiation rites. The scar pattern is very simple: usually there are parallel horizontal lines across the chest or short lines in different places of the body. Australians, like most dark-skinned peoples, did not know a real skin tattoo. Temporary body decorations were much more abundant and varied. Australians decorated themselves before various corroborees, festivals and religious ceremonies. Jewelry often covered the entire body and was complemented by a headdress, sometimes large sizes and bizarre shape.
Weapons and various household items were not always decorated. Shields, as a rule, have outer surface relief ornament and, in addition, painted with ocher. The clubs of many tribes, especially in the southeast, were also decorated. Of the boomerangs, a special ornamented variety stands out - these are products of the tribes of western Queensland. Spears were only rarely decorated with carvings near the tip. Tools, axes, knife handles, troughs and other objects were rarely decorated, but more often they were left without any decoration.
Religious implements (Central Australian churigi, widespread “buzzers”, etc.) were usually covered with ornaments or images of symbolic conventional meaning.
Rock and cave paintings are found different types. Some of them are monuments ancient art, about the origin of which the Australians themselves now know nothing. The other part is the work of modern Australians. According to their significance, rock cave paintings are divided into drawings associated with religious and magical beliefs, and into simple writings that have nothing sacred or secret in the eyes of Australians. But in appearance, one does not differ from the other. The most famous rock paintings are in northwestern and central Australia. Among the southeastern tribes, the place of rock paintings was taken by images carved on the bark of trees and drawn on the ground. They, like the tribes of Central Australia, also made relief figures on the ground that had sacred meaning.
As for the technique of applying the ornament, here you can install several specific types. Spencer and Gillen give the following classification of methods of applying ornaments among the Central Australian tribes, which can be extended to the whole of Australia: carving, burning, painting with ocher, clay and coal, ornamentation with bird or plant fluff. Sometimes two or more methods were combined.
Carved ornaments are most often found on wooden things. The carving tool was a sharp flint or sometimes a possum tooth chisel; The latter, in particular, made carvings on churingas. Scarring of the body can also be attributed to the same type.
Drawings were burned out very rarely; according to Spencer and Gillen - only on magical wooden sticks.
The most common method used was to paint the surface with dyes. Their range was very limited, and the range of colors was equally limited. White clay or gypsum gave white, ocher - yellow and red, charcoal - black. These four colors almost exhausted the range of paints used by Australians. They did not use either blue or green paint, probably due to the lack of natural dyes, and did not even have special designations for these colors in their language, calling them the same as yellow (among the Aranda - tierga , or turga ).
It is very typical for Australians to use down for decorative purposes. The fluff was taken either from birds or plants, usually white, but it was often dyed by mixing it with red ocher. Most often, Australians used down to decorate themselves before a corroboree. They covered the skin of the body, hats, etc. with down, using blood or resin as an adhesive. Whole patterns were laid out on the body with white and colored fluff.
In my own way artistic style Australian decorative art, for all its simplicity, is very original. According to style features, it can be divided into certain types.
In general, Australian fine art is characterized by a conventionally schematic style, with a predominance of geometric and geometrized motifs, in contrast to the realistic and object-based style of fine art, for example, the European Paleolithic or contemporary Bushmen. However, it is not the same everywhere.
According to Spencer and Gillen, good experts in the decorative arts of Australians, it is possible to draw a conditional line from north to south across the whole of Australia, so that the line will run from the southern part of the Gulf of Carpentaria to the Spencer Gulf and cut the continent into two approximately equal parts: in the western half geometric style, in the Eastern - more objective (imitative). The western half of the continent, characterized by a geometric style, in turn can be divided into the western and central parts proper: in the western half, rectangular figures and zigzags served as the favorite motifs of the ornament, in the central one - concentric circles, spirals and curved lines.
This Central Australian style of ornament is most characteristic. What is remarkable about it is mainly the tendency to completely fill the surface with a pattern. The artist usually took into account the shape of the thing being ornamented. On oblong objects - shields, churingas - they were often applied along the entire length. wavy lines, emphasizing the longitudinal axis of the object; or, on the contrary, it was cut into pieces by transverse stripes of alternating colors, for example red and white. But in many cases the master only sought to fill the entire field with patterns, regardless of the shape of the object. He covered it with rows of wavy lines, concentric circles, etc., filling the free space entirely with white or other colored dots. When decorating the human body, its lines and contours were also taken into account: wavy or gently curving lines and stripes followed the contours of the body or crossed them. Observing the figures of decorated dancers and corroboree participants, one cannot deny the Australian artists a unique, albeit rough taste.
When an ornament covers sacred objects, churingas, or is generally associated with religious and magical ideas, then the elements of this ornament, while maintaining their purely geometric shape, acquire a conventional symbolic meaning: they mean images of totemic ancestors and individual episodes of myths. Moreover, in many cases there is some similarity between the ornamental motif and the depicted object. For example, the mythical snake was almost always depicted as a wavy line or stripe. Traces and paths of movement mythical creatures, wandering around the country, were transmitted dotted lines, rows of dots or short dashes; sometimes even realistically individual tracks emerged. The horseshoe-shaped figures that are constantly found in the ornament usually mean a seated person (perhaps by the resemblance to his spread legs). But more often there is no, even remote, resemblance to the depicted object, and the same motif means in one case “one thing, in another - completely other. For example, the favorite motif of concentric circles or spirals depicts a frog on one churinga, a tree on another, a pond on the third, a person on the fourth, and a stopping place for wandering mythical ancestors on the fifth. In drawings not related to a cult, the same motifs may mean nothing at all. It is never possible to determine from the appearance of a drawing alone whether it has any symbolic meaning and what it is. Only those who were directly related to this drawing knew this.
It is difficult to say how the connection between individual ornamental motifs and certain mythological ideas was established, for example, concentric circles with images of frogs, etc. It is possible that there was a gradual geometrization of the design, which was once more realistic. It is also possible that the drawing never had a realistic appearance, and an arbitrary connection was made between certain mythological images and their graphic symbols.
In Western Australia, the dominant style of ornament remains geometric, but curvilinear figures are replaced by rectilinear ones.
Instead of concentric circles and spirals, we find here rectangles inscribed one into the other (the sides of which are mutually parallel); angular meanders, instead of wavy lines - zigzags. There is an assumption that this rectilinear style is a further development of the curvilinear one, and that, consequently, the tribes of Western Australia have taken a step forward in the visual arts compared to the Central Australian tribes.
In the eastern half of Australia the geometric style is decorative arts combined, as noted above, with subject images. Geometric motifs are more varied, and the compositions are more complex and strict. The most characteristic patterns are on shields and clubs. Their usual elements are parallel rows of zigzag lines, dotted and linear patterns in a chess composition.
Realistic depictions of objects were rarely found in Australian everyday life. Almost the only area where they are noted is the north-eastern part of Arnhemland. The Berndt couple recently described not only object drawings, but also wooden plastic figures depicting men and women. The absolutely undeniable influence of visiting Indonesian sailors was felt here; this influence began several hundred years ago, and the production of carved and painted human figures became firmly established in the life of the aborigines.
In other areas, realistic images were very rare. However, when an Australian happened to make them for some reason, they sometimes turned out to be so well executed that one must assume that the Australians have deep traditions of realistic art. Taking a European pencil or charcoal in their hands, they draw on paper* extremely expressive figures of animals, everyday scenes and landscapes, full of dynamics and expression. The best example This style can be illustrated by the paintings of the Aboriginal artist Albert Namajira and the boy artists from the Carrollup School (for about them, see the chapter “ Current situation Australians"). These lively, spontaneous drawings contrast sharply with religious and magical images, which are dryly schematic, boring and colorless. When folk art not constrained by conventional religious tradition, it is capable of producing highly artistic examples. In general, Australian fine art is close in type to the art of the Neolithic and partly Mesolithic of Europe. Realistic images also resemble some forms of Late Paleolithic painting.
The beginnings of positive knowledge
In bourgeois literature, backward peoples are often portrayed as ignorant “savages”, whose consciousness is so saturated with gross superstitions that they are not even capable of logical thinking and cognizing real world. This philistine opinion is deeply erroneous, which is easy to see from the example of the same Australians - one of the most backward peoples on earth.
Of course, the religious and magical ideas of the Australians are wild and absurd, but so are any religious ideas of any people, although among the peoples of Europe, for example, they are clothed in a refined, “cultural” form. “I believe because it is absurd,” is a well-known saying of Christian theologians. But in everything that does not concern religion, Australians are able to reason as sensibly and logically as we do. This has been noted more than once by conscientious observers. Teachers in Australian schools who have to deal with Aboriginal children notice that these children make progress in school subjects, not lagging behind their “white” counterparts; comrades; however, it is very rare for aborigines to obtain at least a secondary education, and even less often can they find application for their knowledge, because the path to intellectual work is closed to them.
The accumulation of positive experience and the ability to generalize and rudimentarily systematize observed facts are confirmed by the ability of Australians to perfectly adapt to the natural environment.
Australian hunters know their surrounding nature very well. The area where he roams this group(clan, tribe), be it a steppe, a mountainous country, a savannah or a tropical jungle, is a home for all members of the group. They know every tree, every rock, every body of water within their nomadic territory. Their knowledge in the field of applied botany is amazing: they know hundreds of species of trees, shrubs, herbs growing in the area, they know all of them beneficial properties and how to use them. Some plants provide food (roots, tubers, seeds, etc.), others provide material for crafts; Australians know the technical features of each tree species as well as any forest engineer. The ability of Australian women to process various plants and prepare food from them is amazing: they neutralize plants that are poorly edible and even poisonous in the wild through complex processing. This peculiar practical chemistry can cause surprise. Australian hunters' knowledge of the animal world is no less great: they know all the animals and birds within their area, they know their characteristics and habits, traces and routes of movement. A hunter knows how to find, outwit and catch even the most cautious and timid animal.
The amazing ability of Australians to navigate the deserted desert, to find a road, water, and food in it, has also been noted more than once.
The wandering life of a hunter was by no means, as is always thought, an unconditional brake on the development of positive knowledge. On the contrary, in some respects it favored the expansion of this knowledge. The mobility of Australian hunting groups, constantly communicating with each other, frequent migrations, hikes, expeditions, inter-tribal gatherings, exchange relations - all this contributed to expanding the mental horizons of the Australian aborigine.
It is necessary to dwell separately on the issue of folk medicine Australians. The chapter on religion talked about the witchcraft practices of their healers. But Australians also know and use various means of rational medicine. Bourgeois researchers have so far paid little attention to them, being more interested in the witchcraft and magical practices of the Australians. But the work of the Viennese ethnographer and doctor of medicine Erich Drobets, “Medicine among the Natives of Australia,” collected a lot of very interesting material on this topic.
Australians treat their sick, as well as decrepit old people, very carefully, look after them, and, if necessary, carry them on themselves when migrating. These facts, like the entire medical practice of Australians, refute the idea of them as “rude savages”, widespread in bourgeois reactionary literature.
It turns out that some of the medical and surgical treatments used by Australians are quite rational. This is especially clear in relation to the techniques of primitive surgery: they know how to treat wounds, fractures and dislocations well and do it with their own means, without even turning to healers and sorcerers.
Clay, fat from a snake or other animals, bird droppings, resin from some trees, milky juice of ficus plants, stems ground into pulp, sometimes mixed with ocher, etc. are applied to a bleeding wound, sometimes with an admixture of ocher, etc. Human urine and mother's milk are also used to heal wounds. Some of these substances are also used for tumors and abscesses. Drobets indicates that some of these folk remedies are also recognized by European medicine. Dress wounds with soft tree bark. Charcoal, ash, cobwebs, and iguana fat are used as a hemostatic agent. When bones are broken, bark bandages and wooden splints are applied. However, as sources indicate, the period of imposition is not long enough, which, however, is quite understandable in conditions of nomadic life.
Snake bites are treated by sucking, pulling the bitten part of the body, burning the wound, or making a circular incision. For some ailments, for example, headaches, rheumatism, the patient is bled using incisions.
The diseased tooth is removed by tying it with a cord.
Sometimes the pain is relieved by applying leaves of plants containing narcotic substances (“snake grass”, etc.).
There is information, although little reliable, about real surgical operations, for example, for wounds in the abdomen.
Skin diseases are treated by applying clay, red ocher, tincture of certain types of bark, and washing with urine.
For inflammation and feverish heat, cold lotions are used. For colds, rheumatic pains and other cases, the patient is forced to sweat; some southeastern tribes arrange a real steam bath. Having dug a hole, they heat it with hot stones, put raw leaves and branches on them, and build a roof of poles over the hole; the well-wrapped patient lies down there. In some cases, the patient was buried for four to five hours in damp soil, with water added (kamilaroi), or in sand (gevegal, yualai).
For stomach diseases, laxatives (honey, eucalyptus resin, castor oil) and fixatives (various tinctures, orchid bulb, clay, etc.) were used.
The pharmacopoeia of Australians is generally quite rich. They know the healing properties of many plants. Walter Roth lists 40 species of plants used for medicinal purposes.
The use of many of the traditional medicines mentioned is combined with magical techniques, usually with spells. But this does not prevent Australian folk medicine from remaining rational at its core, because it is built on positive folk experience.
The Aborigines of Australia are the oldest living culture on Earth. And at the same time, it is one of the least studied. The English conquerors of Australia called the indigenous people "aboriginals", from the Latin "aborigene" - "from the beginning".
The Australian aborigines had original means of self-expression: among them - the technique of wood carving, applying ornaments to trees, rocks, and earth. Drawings on the skin and modeling from beeswax were less common.
Usually we see scenes everyday life, but the natives drew their richest inspiration from myths and totemic beliefs. They experienced events in reality and connected themselves with the world of spirits through visible means. This perception brought them as close as possible to their spiritual heroes, the phenomena of the surrounding nature, which they sought to influence.
Aboriginal art was, in most cases, purposeful: it conveyed ideas rather than simply being a snapshot of reality.
Fine art was deeply symbolic in its form. It did not convey complete resemblance to the original, so many patterns and drawings seem devoid of any meaning to people of another culture (more precisely, civilization).
A feature of Aboriginal culture is original drawings on eucalyptus bark and sacred rocks.
However, it had a hidden meaning, understandable only to the initiated. The lines and designs made with ocher could increase the population of plants and animals. Faded, unattended drawings could cause a cessation of rain, failure to obtain food, and even cause death.
Number of fine arts items various forms fluctuated in different parts of the continent. Very few of these appear to have been created in Tasmania, for only a few rock carvings and bark paintings survive. In drier areas, their numbers were even smaller and they were not very diverse, perhaps because the local aborigines were constantly wandering in search of food. However, even here the aborigines carved designs on the ground, rocks and bark, decorated weapons, and painted bodies for ritual ceremonies.
In Eastern Australia rock painting had an impressive size in area. This area was also famous for tree carvings and drawings on the ground made for initiation rites. In Northern Australia the arts really flourished.
The fine arts on the Arnland Peninsula were most expressive. Here the natives spent a lot of time decorating ceremonial objects, carving and creating colorful designs on the surfaces of rocks and trees, creating a kind of masterpieces of creativity.
In addition, there were so-called "X-ray pictures", where, along with appearance animals were depicted internal organs, as well as highly artistic decorative designs on bark, often decorating the inside of huts, using scenes from the cult of the area.
Unfortunately, much of what existed in Aboriginal society at the beginning European colonization, disappeared forever.
It is interesting that Australian aborigines (probably others too) cannot watch regular movies, since they have special vision: on the screen they see only individual frames replacing each other, which do not merge into movement. That is, they see everything much faster than other people who call themselves “civilized.” And the pictures they paint are incomprehensible to us. We usually see them as simply avant-garde. But for them it is realism.
Australian ornaments were second on the list, but then I couldn’t settle on anything specific and missed that month, and now, after two successful, in my opinion, kane, I came up with the idea to make a kane again, inspired by the dot painting of the Australian aborigines.
The traditions of dotted drawings of the Australian aborigines go back about 4,000 years, and they did not come up with this style of drawing for decorative purposes. The fact is that the ancient Australians did not have a written language, and such dotted drawings were used to pass on their chronicles and messages about history, way of life, and traditions through generations. This is why, by the way, there are no words for “art” or “artist” in any of the Australian Aboriginal languages.
For their drawings they used ground stones and earth - in Australia there are many beautiful and brightly colored minerals, ocher, white and orange shades.
The Aborigines painted their bodies.
At first, Europeans considered these drawings primitive and not worthy of attention.
Until, in 1971, art teacher Geoffrey Bardon came to the Papuniya Aboriginal settlement.
Bardon was amazed at the conditions in which they lived local residents. According to him, it was real hell on earth. In just one year, half the population died there from disease. Papunya was actually home to five different tribal groups speaking five languages. The Aborigines tried to coexist peacefully and find new goal in life, because everything they knew was now prohibited. All the colors of life were taken away along with the earth, and they were left with only a half-asleep existence and sad reflections. Everything was run by arrogant white officials “in white socks,” most of whom, as Bardon recalls, didn’t give a damn about the Aborigines.
Some haven't spoken to locals for ten years. As for the 1,500 Aboriginal people, they had no leaders whom the whites would take seriously, so no one represented their interests.
Local residents did not trust whites; children came to school only for the free hot milk.
Bardon noticed that outside school, while chatting and playing on the playground, the children drew patterns in the sand with their fingers and sticks - dots, semicircles, wavy lines. One day he asked them to repeat these patterns, and after some persuasion the students agreed.
And then the adults joined them. Bardon took the drawings to the nearest city, and there they suddenly began to be in demand.
The teacher brought money and new paints to the aborigines. Later it came to cars.
But as we know, no good deed goes unpunished.
The local white administration was alarmed. It turned out that Aboriginal art is worth good money, and the locals, who, according to the administration, should have remained poor, suddenly acquired property and money. And their interests were defended by Geoffrey Bardon.
Then it was decided to turn the aborigines against the young teacher. Moreover, it was not difficult to do this. After many years of hopeless poverty, the aborigines were completely blown away when money appeared. They were told that Bardon was pocketing most of the proceeds.
The Aborigines stopped trusting him and fled the settlement.
A year and a half later, Jeffrey left there, having lost many of his ideals and illusions, crushed and broken (earned nervous breakdown, was later treated by a psychiatrist), but during this short time he managed to lay the foundation for one of the most amazing movements in painting of the 20th century.
I first learned about Bardon several years ago. I was reading some fiction book. I don’t remember the name of the author, or the title of the book, or the main plot, or even in what language I read the book in Russian or English. There was a story about Geoffrey Bardon as a side story that got me interested. I went online to look and was simply amazed by this painting.
PS Katya aka twinsika suggested the name of the author and the title of the book: Victoria Finley "The Secret History of Colors." Thank her very much!
There are now more than 50 Aboriginal art groups in Australia (and most of the artists live in remote desert areas of the country).
Aboriginal art is now considered the property of the country; it is impossible to simply buy a painting and take it abroad. So basically all the painting is in Australia.
Aboriginal painting is sacred, filled with symbols. They often depict animals that play a huge role in their daily lives.
One such animal is the goanna, a species of large lizard from the monitor lizard family.
The Goanna represents the spirit of rain for many Australian tribes, and the Goanna is also a source of food. Goanna fat is considered a delicacy (they will say yummy, but to me it’s just yuck).
It seems to me that even the “invention” of dot painting was inspired by the Goannas.
Ready kane before squeezing
At Aliya's request, I took several pictures of the process of the "birth" of Kane.
I made a rough sketch of the future kane, placed it under the glass, and began to lay out the drawing on the glass.
First the lizard appeared. I made it while I was “on duty” in Balboa Park, where Polymer Clay Guild Week is currently taking place.
She represented the guild, talked about clay and the simplest techniques to everyone who wanted to listen, showed something along the way, and also wanted to communicate with friends from the guild, see the exhibition (simply amazing, but I was allowed to take photographs only on the condition that I I won’t post anything on the Internet). In between all these distractions, I worked on kane. By the time it was time to get ready to go home, the lizard was ready.
Then I started filling in the background. I wanted to imitate dot painting, so I meditated for several evenings, laying out layers.
The cane is in the fridge now, I'll try to squeeze it tomorrow evening. I'm afraid it won't be possible to save the dots. I don’t know why I spent so much time on them. Well, let's see what happens.
Australian Aborigines are called the most ancient culture living on our planet. The English colonists called the local inhabitants "aboriginals", which literally means "from the beginning" (from the Latin "aborigene"). The culture of the Australian inhabitants has been little studied; many mysteries remain for researchers.
The means for self-expression among the inhabitants of Australia are original and simple: wood carving, applying ornaments and designs to the ground, to household items, to weapons, to ceremonial objects, to rocks and trees. Modeling from beeswax and applying designs to the skin are also common.
Most often, in Aboriginal drawings, researchers see scenes from everyday life, but Australian residents draw inspiration for their paintings from myths and legends. The artist experiences everything depicted in reality, connecting himself through visible means with the world of spirits. Such sensitive perception brings the artist as close as possible to the natural phenomena and spiritual heroes depicted in the drawings.
Australian Aboriginal art was intended to convey ideas, and not just take a kind of snapshot of what was happening in reality. Aboriginal art was and remains symbolic in its form. It does not aim to convey complete resemblance to the object, which is why most drawings and intricate patterns seem meaningless to people from other cultures. But for a native they are understandable and filled with mood, experience, and idea.
Surviving Australian Aboriginal drawing
In Australia you can find many drawings made on the bark of a tree, most often eucalyptus, as well as on sacred rocks. Not all residents had the opportunity to leave drawings on rocks and trees. The artist was obliged to understand the meaning of the outlines, and this was accessible only to initiates. For example, drawings or lines made with ocher could contribute to a good harvest and an increase in the animal population. Left unattended and faded ornaments could cause drought and bring failure in finding food and other matters.
The number of drawings and art objects varied in different areas throughout the continent. Very few drawings remain in Tasmania - only a few images made on bark and carved on rocks have survived to this day. A smaller number of images are observed in the arid regions of the continent; in such places the designs do not differ in great diversity. This may be due to the fact that it was difficult for local residents to find food and survive in the current conditions. But even here you can find ornaments on the bark of trees, the ground, rocks; the aborigines decorated their weapons and painted their bodies.
Eastern Australia is rich in Aboriginal art, and the area is particularly famous for its tree carvings. The northern part of Australia is a treasure trove of Aboriginal fine art. And the most expressive masterpieces are found on the Arnland Peninsula, where local residents devoted quite a lot of time to creating ceremonial objects, as well as colorful designs on trees and rocks.
It is necessary to especially note the so-called “X-ray pictures”, common not only in Australia, but also in the art of some nationalities