What aspects of Bennetts works might viewers focus on as emotional? Looking closely at the central panel we realise that the luminous sky is described with the dots that Bennett used in early works to signify Aboriginal art. Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007. a moment of possession; the place where he came ashore and allegedly claimed . But the mathematical formulation of linear perspective in the fifteenth century had a powerful influence on the representation of space in Western art from this point. Possession Island 1991 Oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas Two parts: 162 x 260cm (overall) The Estate of Gordon Bennett Purchased with funds. Bennett also includes copies and samples of his own work, such as Possession Island and Big Romantic painting (The Apotheosis of Captain Cook) 1993, with other found images. 2, I cant remember exactly when it dawned on me that I had an Aboriginal heritage, I generally say it was around age eleven, but this was my age when my family returned to Queensland where Aboriginal people were far more visible. With eyes closed, these heads appear as blind, mute and lifeless witnesses to the surrounding conflict and struggle. Gordon Bennett explores these ideas in Self portrait: Interior/ Exterior , 1992. cat. While self- portraits usually address issues of personal identity, Bennett uses this form of representation to also look at issues of identity on a national scale. Gouged into the skin like a tattoo, these markings will never heal or fade away. I am that I am, Exodus 3:14 is God naming self. Voir plus d'ides sur le thme toile de lin, basquiat, art australien. Australian politics is fraught yet the Australian public is disengaged. In 2003, Bennett embarked on a series of non-representational abstract paintings, marking a dramatic shift in his art practice, formally and conceptually. James Gordon Bennett Many a good newspaper story has been ruined by over verification. Western art has a long tradition of creating an illusion of three- dimensional space on a flat surface. After 2003 he moved away from figurative language to work in an abstract idiom (see Number Nine 2008, Tate T15515). The viewer is made to step back and allow the eyes to form the images. Queensland-born Gordon Bennett was an artist who loved collapsing 'high' and 'low' art boundaries. Bennetts referencing, appropriation and recontextualisation of familiar images and art styles challenges conventional ways of viewing and thinking and opens up new possibilities for understanding the subjects he explored. I was certainly aware of it by the time I was sixteen years old after having been in the workforce for twelve months. He acknowledged that much of his work was autobiographical, but he emphasises that there was conceptual distance involved in his art making . His work is layered and complex and often incorporates images, styles or references drawn from sources such as social history text books, western art history and Indigenous art. 3 Baths. European history has stipulated that being Australian has required anyone that does not fit into such a Eurocentric category is different, other and therefore unworthy. This image is based on a photograph by JW Lindt (1845 1926). It is said that as a concession to Ireland ( because racing was illegal on British public roads) the British adopted shamrock green as their racing colour. my work was largely about ideas rather than emotional content emanating from some stereotype of a tortured soul. The focus on reason, scientific learning and progress that characterised the Enlightenment (suggested by the measuring marks on the torch) lead to many significant discoveries and new ways of understanding the world. He described his upbringing as overwhelmingly Euro-Australian, with never a word spoken about my Aboriginal heritage. Jenna Gribbon, Luncheon on the grass, a recurring dream, 2020. RM 2JEMG56 - A rare old photograph of the 1903 Gordon Bennett trophy race, Ireland - In the 'pits' attendants are cooling down an overheated vehicle with a bucket of water. The Constitution is being rethought with respect to Indigenous Australians, and treaty-making is on the agenda yet the Uluru Statement from the Heart was roundly ignored by the Federal Government. Sell with Artsy Artist Series Portraits of Artists and Sculptors 113 available The process of translation from one version to the next mimics how history is endlessly translated and transformed by the vagaries oftime and by individual perspectives. Bennett adopted several strategies to resist the narrow framework through which he as an artist and his work were viewed. Compare and contrast this artists use of appropriation with that of Gordon Bennett. The artist has effectively communicated his beliefs on the suppression of Aboriginal culture by combining confronting imagery with the concepts of Vincent Van Gogh, Francisco Goya and Classical art. In the Home dcorseries Bennett used gridded compositions that refer to the paintings of Dutch artistPiet Mondrian (1872 1944). The persistence of language references the way language controls and defines how we understand ourselves and our world. His art attempts to depict the complexity of both cultural perspectives. Bennett simultaneously obscures and draws attention to the Aboriginal man standing next to Cook, overlaying an abstract geometric shape which recalls constructivist art and the Aboriginal flag. On each corner of the grid are the letters A B C D . He used weapons or gum tree branches as props, to construct an image that reflected European ideas of Aboriginal types. 'Bloodlines' This is evident in many of his works, including Outsider. The grotesque in art is generally associated with bizarre, ugly or disturbing imagery. Jenna Gribbon, April studio, parting glance, 2021. Nearby homes similar to 2719 NE 21st Ter have recently sold between $824K to $1M at an average of $565 per square foot. * February 4, 2015 The Institute of Modern Art announces its 2015 exhibition program Institute of Modern Art 420 Brunswick Street Fortitude Valley Brisbane QLD 4006 Australia T +61 (0) 7 3252 5750 ima [ at ] ima.org.au www.ima.org.au 3 Beds. 2 All that he had understood about himself and taken for granted as an Australian had ruptured. Dates/events to consider and research include the 1967 Australian Referendum, the 1992 Mabo and 1996 Wik Native Title court cases, Paul Keatings 1992 Redfern address. . By overlaying perspective diagrams on images constructed according to the conventions of perspective, such as the landscape in Requiem, Bennett reminds us of the learned and culturally specific systems that influence knowledge and perception. To the right of the canvas, Jackson Pollocks Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952 is clearly referenced. This painting is based on Samuel Calverts 19th-century etching Captain Cook Taking Possession of the Australian Continent on Behalf of the British Crown, AD 1770, itself a copy of a lost painting by John Alexander Gilfillan. Other significant works: Gordon Bennett, Possession Island; Glenn Brown, The Day The World Turned Auerbach; Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of the Living; Glenn Ligon, Notes on the Margin of the Black Book; Gabriel Orozco, Crazy Tourist; Cornelia Parker, Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View It alludes to ownership and territory. Roundels relating to symbols that denote significant sites in Aboriginal Western Desert dot painting also appear. That is not my intention, I have my own experiences of being crowned in Australia, as an Urban Aboriginal artist underscored as that title is by racism and primitivism and I do not wear it well. They reference the massacres of Aboriginal people in Myth of the Western man (White man's burden) (1992) and The nine ricochets (Fall down black fella, Jump up white fella (1990) and question the valorising of Captain Cook in Big Romantic Painting (Apotheosis of Captain Cook) (1993) and Possession Island (1991). Gordon Bennett 3, Bennett married in 1977. Although there are many forms of Aboriginal art, dot painting is widely seen as synonymous with Aboriginal art since the late 1970s, when the dot painting of the Western Desert attracted unprecedented national and international interest in Aboriginal art. However, the cross- like form in Bennetts painting has an image of Bennetts mother, kneeling before it, with a cleaning rag in her hand, recalling her early training and work as a domestic servant under the governments protection. These are paintings about painting. An orphan from a very young age, she was raised on Cherbourg Aboriginal Mission in Queensland, and later trained as a domestic at Singleton. These images are fused and overlapped in a dynamic composition underpinned by Mondrian-style grids. Investigate the theories and ideas associated with anthropology, ethnography and phrenology. Mondrian, a Dutch De Stijl artist and a Theosophist, used art to search empirical truths and their source. Gordon Bennett uses self- portraits to question stereotypes and labelling. The coming of the light refers ironically to a term used by Torres Strait Islanders to describe the arrival of the missionaries who brought Christianity to the Islands in 1871. Bellas Gallery. 20-21, Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe in Ian McLean & Gordon Bennett, The Art of Gordon Bennett, Craftsman House, 1996, p. 33, Ian McLean, Towards an Australian postcolonial art in Ian McLean & Gordon Bennett, The Art of Gordon Bennett, Craftsman House, 1996, p. 99, Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe in The Art of Gordon Bennett, p. 22, Zara Stanhope, How do you think it feels? in Three Colours , Gordon Bennett & Peter Robinson (exh. Bennett used perspective diagrams and visual symbols in Triptych: Requiem, Of grandeur, Empire . While his work was increasingly exhibited within a national and international context, the combination of his position (or as Bennett would argue label) as an (urban) Aboriginal artist, and the subject matter of his work, seemed to ensure inclusion within certain curatorial and critical frameworks, and largely determine interpretation and reception. Gordon Bennett, Possession Island (Abstraction), 1991. Aim to use a variety of strategies in your work to engage the viewer in the issues and questions you are interested in exploring in relation to these binary opposites. This canvas is loosely divided into three parts. John Citizen is an artist for our times: he reflects back to us citizens the white Australia of the postKeating era. Often the basic alphabet letters ABC also appear with Bennetts perspective diagrams, highlighting the learned and culturally specific nature of the alphabet and linear perspective. However, Bennetts ongoing investigation into questions of identity, perception and knowledge, has involved a range of subjects drawn from both history and contemporary culture, and both national and international contexts. 2014. These images are fused and overlapped in a dynamic composition underpinned by Mondrian-style grids. The critical and aesthetic strategies of postmodernism have had significant impact on the development of his art practice. Possession Island No 2 1991 is a painting that shows the British explorer Captain James Cook and other compatriots hoisting the Union flag to claim the eastern coast of Australia for the British Crown in 1770. Gordon Bennetts Possession Island 1991, highlights the influence that visual images have on our understanding of history, and the way that visual images often reflect the values of the social / historical context in which they are made. Gordon Bennetts art challenges us to question the stereotypes and racist labelling of Aboriginal Australians found in some history books written for and by Europeans. Bennett investigates the way stereotypes are constructed by exploring words and images in opposites. This approach to his work resists any classification or confinement according to style. The timeline could be presented in hardcopy for display in the classroom, or as an ICT project incorporating images and audio. Discover Gordon Bennett's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. SOLD FEB 10, 2023. For more information, visit: www.qagoma.qld.gov.au for details. This imagery alludes to the violent suppression of Indigenous people and culture in the nations history that was thrown into focus by the Bicentenary celebrations. Explain how you believe Bennett communicates and presents questions and complexities in his work. 148339 AK Gordon-Bennett-Rennen 1904 Cup Motorsport Usingen Weilburg Limburg. The Notes to Basquiat: 911 series and the Camouflage series, which reflect on the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the war in Iraq respectively, highlight Bennetts global perspective. For Bennett, however, success triggered concerns related to the links drawn between his identity as an Indigenous person, his subject matter and the reception of his work. Do you agree? Layers of images superimposed with words. Egyptian painting or relief sculpture, Chinese scroll paintings, Aboriginal painting of the Western Desert. He used familiar and recognisable images that are part of an Australian consciousness to explore and question the meaning of these images. Opens in a new window or tab. It is at once a name revealed and something like the refusal of a name. scale, format), Ian McLean Gordon Bennetts existentialism in Ian McLean & Gordon Bennett, The art of Gordon Bennett, Craftsman House, Roseville East, 1996, p. 69, Ian McLean Gordon Bennetts existentialism, p. 71. Other aspects of the image, including the flat, stylised shapes of the head, reflect connections to both Western abstract art and Indigenous art traditions. Image credit: Gordon Bennett - Possession Island (1991). This work reflects our contemporary obsession with creating the perfect home filled with the latest must have designer style and material items. ww2dbase Henry Gordon Bennett was born in Balwyn, a suburb of Melbourne, near the close of the nineteenth century. As one of the dispossessed within this biased history, he claims that his only tool to combat this bias was the art of mimicry. This central motif governs the composition which, similar to Calverts original etching upon which the painting is based, is largely reduced to a schema of black and white forms. Why? In a conceptual sense I was liberated from the binary prison of self and other; the wall had disintegrated but where was I? However the hand in the opposite panel controls and threatens the Aboriginal figure represented as a jack- in- the- box. On closer inspection we see it is an image of an Aboriginal man. Bennetts art is not always easy to look at. The coming of the light suggests questions about the impact of Christianity on Indigenous cultures and people. 2 February 2021. Here he exposes the truth of colonial occupation it was a bloody conquest. Bennett not only used Basquiat images, but begins to paint in his style. Discuss with reference to Possession Island. Van Goghs original bedroom evokes a feeling of peace and harmony. How does this interpretation and analysis compare to your own? Linear perspective is a system for organising visual information. The Bicentenary celebrations triggered increased activism, protests and public debate related to Indigenous issues. Explain how these images might have influenced perceptions of Australian identity? The dresser draw labelled self is closed while the drawers for history and culture are ajar. Compare and contrast Possession Island with one or more of the following artworks: What does this comparison reveal about the relationship between visual images, culture and history? Possession Island displays a photocopy of Samuel Calvert's engraving, Captain Cook . Possession Island (Appendix 1) 1991 and Notes to Basquiat (Jackson Pollock and his Other) (Appendix 2) 2001 will be discussed in relation to Henri's statement. Throughout his career Bennett has used many different strategies to engage the viewer in his work. These include the tall ship and the appropriated logos featuring kitsch and racist references to Indigenous people, and the ominous juxtaposition of bags of flour and bottles of poison. This was common practice among young Aboriginal girls and women. * *Collection: Museum of Sydney on the site of the first Government House, Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales. In your discussion consider meanings and ideas associated with, Compare your interpretation and analysis with others related to this artwork (this could be an interpretation by someone else in your class, or in a commentary on the work in gallery, book, catalogue etc. Discuss with reference to selected artworks by Gordon Bennett. Would you include work by Gordon Bennett in a text book on Australian history. The circular forms in the sky are inspired by the brilliant bursts of light in van Goghs Starry night. Gordon Bennett 1. He and his partner bought a house and settled in the suburbs of Brisbane like other young couples. Bennetts portrait of himself as a four- year old boy dressed as a cowboy as the I is juxtaposed with images of Aborigines as the AM. However, in each image the grid effectively highlights the controlled order and structure of knowledge systems and learning in Western culture, and how these frame and influence perception and understanding of self, history and culture. Gordon Bennett (9 October 1955 - 3 June 2014) [1] was an Australian artist of Aboriginal and Anglo-Celtic descent. (Supplied: CGM Communications) In 1989, Bennett, Mr Lai and five other executives started Phosphate Resources Limited and got the locals to invest, raising about $3.4 million. * *Collection: Museum of Sydney on the site of the first Government House, Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales. You might consider, scale, materials and techniques, perceptual effects. Self portrait (Ancestor figures), 1992 deals with broader issues of cultural identity as well as personal identity. James Gordon Bennett The headless figure of the Aboriginal man has an animated, spectre- like presence that haunts the scene. In Possession Island, 1991, Bennett meticulously photocopies and enlarges Calverts image so that it can be projected, cropped and copied onto the canvas. Eventually Bennetts mother earned an official exemption that allowed her to leave the Mission. Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007. 5. Bennett only used two colours, symbolically, red and black. The Stripe series of abstract paintings represents a kind of freedom for me as an artist. Possession Island (Appendix 1), 1991 and Notes to Basquiat (Jackson Pollock and his Other) (Appendix 2), 2001, will be discussed in relation to Henri's statement. cat. The vanishing point may also be understood as the point from which these lines extend outward past the picture plane to include the viewer in the pictorial space, positioned as observer of a self contained harmonious whole. Appropriation was a tool that enabled him to open up and re-define stereotypes and bias. What legal, moral and ethical rights does an artist have to control the way their work is seen and viewed in exhibitions, books or online. Amidst the chaos and confusion of dots and slashes of colour he remains imprisoned by the grid, reduced to servitude. Self portrait (But I always wanted to be one of the good guys), 1990 questions how stereotypes create a sense of identity. Collection: Museum of Sydney, Sydney Living Museums Read through the profiles and market analysis for the top 200 Indigenous artists More broadly, it recalls the lives of many young Aboriginal women who followed a similar destiny. Collect and find photographs of a wide variety of people of different ethnicities, cultures and physical appearances. Gordon Bennett did not describe himself as an appropriation artist. possession island The first panel of Bennetts triptych, Requiem, depicts Trugannini (c. 1812 1876), a Palawa woman from Tasmania. Gordon Bennett Possession Island (Abstraction), 1991 Kevin Gilbert Christmas Eve in the Land of the Dispossessed, 1968; 1992 KEY ARTIST ONE- VERNON AH KEE Born 1967, Innisfail, Queensland. When Gordon Bennett was labelled an Aboriginal Artist he was othered as an Aborigine and all the preconceptions that entails. 1. It recalls the way stereotypes, labels, identities and systems of thought are fixed. That's probably why he is hardly a household name, despite the cognoscenti referring to him as a powerfully influential figure in contemporary art. The Constitution is being rethought with respect to Indigenous Australians, and treaty-making is on the agenda yet the Uluru Statement from the Heart was roundly ignored by the Federal Government. The images include historical footage of Indigenous people and details of some of Bennetts own paintings. Underlying Bennetts admiration for Basquiat was the need to re- contextualise the issues that he had explored throughout his career as an artist. What is your personal interpretation of the meaning and ideas in The coming of the light or Untitled ? John Citizen lets me take my Australian citizenship and cultural upbringing back from the netherworld of the imagined Other. . Inspired, Pollock removed the canvas from the easel and worked with it flat on the floor, using movement and gesture to flick and drip paint onto the canvas. Like words, visual images, forms and elements are powerful signifiers of meaning. Discuss different approaches/ideas evident in the way each artist uses dots in their work. John Citizen was an abstraction of the Australian Mr Average, the Australian everyman. They became a potent symbol of the celebrations. Bennett achieved critical success early in his career. Mixing of pure blood with European blood was feared by Europeans, authenticity was at risk and identity diluted. Gordon Bennett 2. The 'cancel culture' debate winds me up. Samuel Calverts engraving, Captain Cook taking possession of the Australian continent on behalf of the British Crown AD 1770, became the starting point for Bennetts exploration. Das Jahr 1904 brachte mit dem Gordon-Bennett-Rennen in Deutschland und dem Vanderbilt Cup in den USA einen weiteren Aufschwung des Motorsports vor allem auch auerhalb Frankreichs, wobei fr das Rennen in New York erstmals europische Fahrer und Rennstlle nach bersee gereist waren. Against the background of the illusionistic representation of the landscape they capture our attention, alerting us to the fact that there are other ways of representing and understanding the landscape not just the European perspectives that have dominated our cultural history. Gordon Bennett 2. In many images of the crucifixion, including the painting by Veneziano illustrated, Mary Magdalene is kneeling at the foot of the cross washing and anointing Christs feet in an act of devotion . Born in 1955 in Monto, Queensland, Gordon Bennett lived and worked in Brisbane before his unexpected death in 2014. Some supporters applauded his escape but his claim that he left to pass on his knowledge about how to fight the Japanese - given his lack of success . John Citizen was a work in progress that allows me to follow other streams of thought in my practice. But the oppressive and restrictive laws that governed the lives of Aboriginal people in Australia until the late 1960s continued to impose on her life. I did drawings of tools and weapons in my project book, just like all the other children, and like them I also wrote in my books that each Aboriginal family had their own hut, that men hunt kangaroos, possums and emus; that women collect seeds, eggs, fruit and yams. By the late 1980s there was also a growing awareness within Australian society of the injustices suffered by the Indigenous population as a result of their dispossession. 35, 36. Gordon Bennett Possession Island - Free download as Word Doc (.doc / .docx), PDF File (.pdf) or read online for free. Explore a range of ideas and media within your work. Different members of the class could be assigned different cultural traditions to research and then prepare an illustrated presentation for the class. This image also translates to mean: In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Queensland-born, Bennett (1955-2014) was deeply engaged with questions of identity, perception and the construction of history, and made a profound and ongoing contribution to contemporary art in Australia and internationally. From 2003 Bennett worked on a series of non-representational abstract paintings that mark another significant shift in his practice. Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe, pp. Pollock becomes a catalyst for transformation. What systems and/or conventions are used by each culture to represent three dimensional space? The coming of the light also explores ideas, issues and questions related to the Enlightenment values central to colonialism. Immersed within a White European culture, he was unaware of his Aboriginality until his early teens. Image: Gordon Bennett, Australia 1955-2014, Possession Island, 1991. As the foundation of a system of representation, perspective produces an illusion of depth on an essentially flat two dimensional surface by the use of invisible lines that converge to a vanishing point.