tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/goma-11258/articles
GOMA – The Conversation
2023-04-27T12:06:03Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204036
2023-04-27T12:06:03Z
2023-04-27T12:06:03Z
Peace in the DRC: East Africa has deployed troops to combat M23 rebels – who’s who in the regional force
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522646/original/file-20230424-14-adtvfi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South Sudanese soldiers prepare for deployment to the Democratic Republic of Congo. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Samir Bol/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The East Africa Community (EAC) has <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/eacrf-troops-now-fully-deployed-in-drc-4191138">completed the deployment</a> of its regional force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to oversee the withdrawal of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/m23-four-things-you-should-know-about-the-rebel-groups-campaign-in-rwanda-drc-conflict-195020">rebel group, M23,</a> from the eastern part of the country. </p>
<p>The last contingent was of <a href="https://adf-magazine.com/2023/04/fully-deployed-regional-force-starting-to-impact-eastern-drc/">South Sudanese soldiers</a> who joined troops from Kenya, Burundi and Uganda.</p>
<p>Formed in 2012 as a splinter group of the armed militia <a href="https://www.c-r.org/accord/cross-border-peacebuilding/congo-rwanda-and-national-congress-defence-people">National Congress for the Defence of the People</a>, the M23 briefly occupied the city of Goma the same year. It was quickly routed by forces operating as part of the UN peacekeeping mission, Monusco.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-m23s-on-and-off-insurgency-tells-us-about-drcs-precarious-search-for-peace-182520">M23 re-emerged</a> in 2022, prompting the east African region to send in troops.</p>
<p>While eastern DRC contains over 100 armed groups, the M23 has drawn the region’s attention. This is not only because the conflict could spill across borders, but also because the M23 is <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/eu-urges-rwanda-to-stop-supporting-m23-rebels-in-dr-congo-/6899260.html">widely seen</a> as <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/4/rwanda-backing-m23-rebels-in-drc-un-experts">backed by Rwanda</a> (<a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/dr-congo-accuses-rwanda-of-backing-militia-violence-3828930">a claim Rwanda denies</a>). Thus, a rise in tension could <a href="https://theconversation.com/rwanda-and-drcs-turbulent-past-continues-to-fuel-their-torrid-relationship-188405">reignite fighting</a> between Rwanda and DRC, and draw in the broader region.</p>
<p>The EAC’s forces could be important in bringing the threat posed by the M23 under control, given the regional dimensions to this conflict. But their involvement is complicated.</p>
<p>On the one hand, neighbouring countries often have a better understanding of local political and security contexts than international actors. They also have more direct interest in the outcome of conflict, potentially leading to more sustained engagement.</p>
<p>On the other hand, neighbouring countries have their own interests, which means their actions may not always be in the best interests of the country they’re meant to help. Such risks are especially pronounced in the DRC. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/conflict-in-the-drc-5-articles-that-explain-whats-gone-wrong-195332">Conflict in the DRC: 5 articles that explain what's gone wrong</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The country’s history has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-conflicts-intertwined-over-time-and-destabilised-the-drc-and-the-region-185432">rife with meddling</a> by its neighbours, including some members of the EAC regional force. The two Congo wars – <a href="https://www.easterncongo.org/about-drc/history-of-the-conflict/">in 1996-1997 and 1998-2003</a> – brought numerous foreign forces to Congolese soil. </p>
<p>While some neighbouring countries came to support the DRC government, others backed the rebels during the two wars, and actors from multiple sides <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2009/10/report-exploitation-resources-democratic-republic-congo-challenged-security">have pillaged DRC’s natural resources</a>. <a href="https://www.congoresearchgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/version-anglaise-sondage-gec-ebuteli-deuxieme-note-thematique-force-regionale.pdf#page=4">Public distrust</a> in the regional force is, therefore, high.</p>
<p>Based on <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2021.1992272">lessons learned</a> from previous interventions in the DRC, it’s not clear whether the EAC regional force will help the DRC find peace this time around or contribute, deliberately or otherwise, to its instability.</p>
<p>Here is a short overview of the players in the regional force and their connections to the DRC.</p>
<h2>Kenya</h2>
<p>Kenya has <a href="https://www.eac.int/eac-partner-states/kenya">relatively more economic resources</a> than some other EAC members and a less complicated history with the DRC. While Kenya has had troops in the country <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/past/monuc/facts.shtml">since 1999</a> as part of the UN peacekeeping operation, it has been less tangled in previous conflicts in the DRC. </p>
<p>Kenya deployed its troops as part of the regional force in November 2022 after the the M23 enlarged its territorial hold in Congo’s eastern region. </p>
<p>Kenyan president <a href="https://www.africanews.com/2022/11/02/kenya-sends-troops-to-dr-congo-to-fight-rebels//">William Ruto has stated</a> that defeating the M23 is important for the region. Stability in the DRC is also in <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/kenya-why-we-deployed-our-troops-in-drc-4017620">Kenya’s economic interests</a>. It accelerated investments into the DRC after the latter <a href="https://theconversation.com/drc-is-set-to-become-7th-member-of-the-east-africa-trading-bloc-whats-in-it-for-everyone-179320">joined the regional bloc in 2022</a>. </p>
<h2>Burundi</h2>
<p>Burundi has a <a href="https://theconversation.com/burundis-gatumba-massacre-offers-a-window-into-the-past-and-future-of-the-drc-conflict-191351">tangled history with the DRC</a>. It was involved in the two Congo wars and has been <a href="https://www.equalrightstrust.org/ertdocumentbank/DRC%20v%20Burundi,%20Rwanda%20and%20Uganda.pdf#page=1">accused by the DRC</a> of occupying its border provinces and violating human rights and international law during these conflicts.</p>
<p>Burundi formally deployed troops to Goma in <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/22/burundi-sends-troops-to-drc-for-regional-peacekeeping-force">August 2022</a>. A <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/more-burundi-troops-arrive-in-goma-4161608">second battalion</a> was deployed seven months later. But a Burundian rights group has <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/burundi-secretly-sent-troops-to-dr-congo-rights-group-3894150">claimed that Burundi</a> has been conducting secret operations against Burundian opposition groups within DRC for some time. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/22/burundi-sends-troops-to-drc-for-regional-peacekeeping-force">The group also expressed concern</a> that Burundi may use its membership of the regional force to continue operations against its opponents. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/east-africas-peace-mission-in-the-drc-why-its-in-burundis-interest-to-help-203486">East Africa’s peace mission in the DRC: why it’s in Burundi’s interest to help</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Uganda</h2>
<p>Uganda <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/uganda-troops-join-eac-force-in-drc-4180430">deployed troops</a> to the force in March 2023. Before this, it conducted <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/1/after-air-raids-uganda-sends-troops-into-drc-to-hunt-adf">joint operations</a> with Congolese national forces against the rebel Allied Democratic Forces, a Uganda-based, Islamic State-allied group that has been <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20230309-more-than-40-killed-in-suspected-eastern-dr-congo-rebel-attacks">particularly violent towards civilians</a>. </p>
<p>Despite their common foe, Uganda and DRC have a history of tension. Uganda’s military intervention in the DRC in the 1990s was found by the <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/case/116">International Court of Justice</a> to be “of such magnitude and duration” that it was considered “a grave violation” of the prohibition on the use of force in terms of the UN Charter. The court ordered Uganda to pay US$325 million for its illegal occupation. Uganda made its first payment of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/12/uganda-pays-first-installment-of-325m-war-reparations-to-drc#:%7E:text=Uganda%20has%20paid%20%2465m,Ugandan%20troops%20occupied%20Congolese%20territory.">US$65 million</a> in September 2022. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-conflicts-intertwined-over-time-and-destabilised-the-drc-and-the-region-185432">How conflicts intertwined over time and destabilised the DRC – and the region</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Ugandan troops have found some early success in their deployment. This includes the area of Bunagana, where they were able to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/congo-drc-rwanda-m23-rebels-uganda-bunagana-58787acda1f5ebc0ee2b3de2cbb12491">regain control</a> of the town that had been held for months by the M23. Nevertheless, Uganda’s involvement in the <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2001/sc7057.doc.htm">illegal exploitation of DRC’s natural resources</a> in the 1990s and early 2000s raises concerns about its presence among the local population. </p>
<h2>South Sudan</h2>
<p>South Sudan is the most recent EAC member state to deploy troops to the DRC after some <a href="https://www.theafricareport.com/277626/east-africa-force-in-drc-kenyas-on-the-ground-so-where-are-the-others/">initial logistical delays</a>. South Sudan’s history with the DRC is less contentious than Uganda’s and Burundi’s. However, its national forces have a <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/03/un-experts-tell-human-rights-council-violence-against-civilians-persists#:%7E:text=Based%20on%20investigations%20undertaken%20in,and%20State%2Dsponsored%20extrajudicial%20killings.">history of human rights abuses</a> against their own population. </p>
<p>Despite South Sudan president Salva Kiir’s instruction that his troops not “<a href="https://jubaecho.com/president-kiir-flags-off-720-troops-headed-for-drc/">go and rape women and girls</a>”, their presence within the <a href="https://www.accord.org.za/analysis/the-role-progress-and-challenges-of-the-eac-regional-force-in-the-eastern-drc/">crowded theatre could increase the risk</a> of human rights abuses. </p>
<h2>Risky, but necessary?</h2>
<p>Despite these risks, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/east-african-troops-hope-to-bring-peace-in-the-drc-but-there-may-be-stumbling-blocks-195937">EAC regional force</a> may be the DRC’s best chance of defeating the M23. Monusco <a href="https://theconversation.com/protests-against-un-in-eastern-congo-highlight-peace-missions-crisis-of-legitimacy-187932">has struggled</a> to mitigate the M23 or the numerous other rebel groups operating in the eastern region. </p>
<p>One advantage for the EAC is that it’s leading both the political and military responses to the M23, which were previously led by different actors. The M23 threat requires both a political and military response, and ensuring these two prongs remain closely integrated is essential. </p>
<p>So far, though, the M23 has not respected the timelines for withdrawal set as part of the political process, including the most recent <a href="https://ntrtv.com.tr/no-retreat-by-m23-rebels-from-eastern-drc-on-deadline/">30 March 2022 deadline</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/east-african-troops-hope-to-bring-peace-in-the-drc-but-there-may-be-stumbling-blocks-195937">East African troops hope to bring peace in the DRC but there may be stumbling blocks</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This lack of progress has led Angolan president João Lourenço – who is <a href="https://www.theafricareport.com/221187/rwanda-and-drc-start-peace-talks-mediated-by-angola/">mediating peace talks</a> between the DRC and Rwanda – to announce the deployment of 500 Angolan troops to the volatile east. Kinshasa said the Angolan troops would be there “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/angola-deploy-troops-congos-rebel-hit-east-2023-03-17/#:%7E:text=LUANDA%2C%20March%2017%20(Reuters),approved%20the%20deployment%20on%20Friday.">not to attack but to help maintain peace</a>”. Sadly, there is not yet much peace to be maintained.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204036/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenna Russo is the Director of Research for the International Peace Institute (IPI) and the Head of IPI's Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations. </span></em></p>
The region’s forces are seen as important in addressing the long-running conflict in the DRC – but their involvement is complicated.
Jenna Russo, Researcher and lecturer, City University of New York
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/195937
2022-12-09T07:31:24Z
2022-12-09T07:31:24Z
East African troops hope to bring peace in the DRC but there may be stumbling blocks
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499498/original/file-20221207-26-fw7v41.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kenyan troops fly the flags of the East African Community and Kenya in Goma, eastern DRC. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Augustin Wamenya/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The East African Community decided to deploy troops in one of its member states for the <a href="https://issafrica.org/iss-today/can-the-east-african-community-stabilise-eastern-drc">first time</a> in June 2022. The deployment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will test the regional body’s ability to respond to complex conflicts. </p>
<p>Already, the regional bloc has scored some early victories. Most significantly, on 6 December, following peace talks in Nairobi, Kenya, 53 of the over 100 armed groups operating in the DRC <a href="https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/53-armed-groups-in-dr-congo-commit-to-end-war-4046010">agreed to a ceasefire</a>. </p>
<p>The DRC – which joined the East African Community in April 2022 – has been trapped in <a href="https://theconversation.com/conflict-in-the-drc-5-articles-that-explain-whats-gone-wrong-195332">cycles of violence</a> for nearly three decades. The reasons include ethnic intolerance, illegal exploitation of the country’s vast natural resources and a Congolese elite that benefits from the chaos. </p>
<p>The most recent wave of conflict follows the reemergence of the armed group <a href="https://theconversation.com/m23-four-things-you-should-know-about-the-rebel-groups-campaign-in-rwanda-drc-conflict-195020">March 23 Movement (M23)</a>. International forces drove the group out of the country in 2013. Its resurgence this past year has led to heightened levels of violence and mass displacement. </p>
<p>This has prompted the East African Community to mobilise a <a href="https://www.easfcom.org/index.php/en/about-easf">regional force</a> that could comprise up to 12,000 troops from member states. It will operate under <a href="https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/news/africa/military-deployments-in-east-dr-congo-4009492">Kenyan command</a>, with a six-month renewable mandate to support the DRC’s national forces in containing, defeating and eradicating negative forces in the restive eastern region. </p>
<p>This is the second time regional actors have deployed a military force to tamp down an M23 insurgency. Following the armed group’s initial uprising in 2013, the 12-member <a href="https://icglr.org/">International Conference on the Great Lakes Region</a> proposed an intervention brigade. It was eventually brought under the <a href="https://monusco.unmissions.org/en/background">umbrella</a> of the UN peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO. It became known as the Force Intervention Brigade.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.eac.int/communique/2504-communiqu%C3%A9-the-third-heads-of-state-conclave-on-the-democratic-republic-of-congo-the-nairobi-process">June decision</a> to deploy an east African force may feel like déjà vu. While some factors are different now, not all developments are promising.</p>
<p>For more than a decade, my <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2021.1992272">research </a> has focused on armed conflict settings, with an in-depth analysis of the DRC. In my view, while the current Congo crisis is unlikely to be resolved without military force, any hope for success requires that operations remain closely tied to a political process.</p>
<h2>What’s changed?</h2>
<p>One difference between the East African Community’s intervention now and the 2013 Force Intervention Brigade mission is the merging of political and military processes.</p>
<p>The East African Community will retain authority over the regional force, while also leading the <a href="https://www.eac.int/communique/2695-the-third-inter-congolese-dialogue-under-the-eac-led-nairobi-process">ongoing political dialogue</a>. </p>
<p>One of the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2021.1992272">downfalls</a> of previous military responses in the Congo is that they haven’t been adequately linked to a political process. When the Force Intervention Brigade was deployed, it was intended to be the “teeth” of a <a href="https://peacemaker.un.org/drc-framework-agreement2013">regional political agreement</a>. However, these military and political interventions were never fully integrated. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, there is no guarantee that the east African region’s effort to integrate the two processes will succeed. Decades of violence indicate just how intractable the conflict is. For instance, so far there has been no indication that Rwanda will cease (or even acknowledge) <a href="https://theconversation.com/m23-four-things-you-should-know-about-the-rebel-groups-campaign-in-rwanda-drc-conflict-195020">its support of the M23</a>. The international community hasn’t done much to call for accountability on this front. </p>
<p>Further, the DRC has refused to enter into dialogue with the M23, which it considers a terrorist organisation, for fear that this will embolden other armed groups. </p>
<h2>Crowded theatre</h2>
<p>Deploying a force overseen by the East African Community presents the challenge of communication and coordination with other actors in the region. The confusion this can create was seen in the <a href="https://theglobalobservatory.org/2021/12/ugandan-congolese-troops-joint-operations-monusco/">2021 deployment</a> of Ugandan forces to the DRC to combat the armed group, the Allied Democratic Forces. This confusion largely had to do with the extent of the UN peacekeeping mission’s mandate to support operations involving foreign forces. </p>
<p>While the mission has indicated its intention to partner with the east African regional force, the practicalities for doing so remain unclear. </p>
<p>There is also a concern that the east African force could elevate the risk of human rights violations. <a href="https://civiliansinconflict.org/publications/research/the-sum-of-all-parts/">Past reports</a> have documented the potential harm to civilian protection that can arise from crowded theatres. Actors may interpret their civilian protection obligations in different ways. And it may not be clear who is accountable for violations. </p>
<p>As opposed to the UN peacekeeping mission, the east African force doesn’t have a protection mandate. It is unclear to what extent it will prioritise civilian harm mitigation in its planning and operations. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/protests-against-un-in-eastern-congo-highlight-peace-missions-crisis-of-legitimacy-187932">Protests against UN in eastern Congo highlight peace mission's crisis of legitimacy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Violations against civilians could undermine the east African force’s legitimacy, which is already likely to be weak given the <a href="https://theconversation.com/sexual-exploitation-by-un-peacekeepers-in-drc-fatherless-children-speak-for-first-time-about-the-pain-of-being-abandoned-188248">history of abuses</a> committed by foreign forces in the Congo. Already, Kinshasa has <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/dr-congo-agrees-to-eac-force-deployment-no-rwandan-army-3852276">refused</a> to allow Rwanda to deploy troops as part of the regional force. Other contributing countries have a <a href="https://issafrica.org/iss-today/can-the-east-african-community-stabilise-eastern-drc">history of supporting</a> armed groups in the region. And the political economy of war in the Congo has been of benefit to a number of its neighbours. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://allafrica.com/stories/202211260015.html">noted</a> by Daniel Levine-Spound, a researcher with the Center for Civilians in Conflict (<a href="https://civiliansinconflict.org/">CIVIC</a>) based in the Congo:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Because many of the countries involved in the force have recently undertaken military operations on Congolese soil, there is a significant amount of mistrust and uncertainty among civilians that the force will need to overcome.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This will require adequate engagement with civil society organisations and prioritising civilian safety in military operations. </p>
<h2>The task ahead</h2>
<p>The M23 of today is not the same M23 of 10 years ago. It has more <a href="https://theconversation.com/m23-four-things-you-should-know-about-the-rebel-groups-campaign-in-rwanda-drc-conflict-195020">sophisticated weaponry and tactics</a>, and a more centralised command and control. </p>
<p>Additionally, it’s operating more strategically than in 2013. The boldness of the group’s 2013 march directly on Goma – the capital of North Kivu in eastern DRC – elicited a swift response from the region and the international community. This ultimately led to the group being routed into neighbouring Uganda and Rwanda. </p>
<p>While M23 is currently operating within the vicinity of Goma, it has avoided taking the city. It has instead focused on taking over larger areas of surrounding territory and could gain control over both roads into Goma. </p>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>Whether the east African regional force is up to the task remains unclear. </p>
<p>Its member states’ proximity to the conflict may lead to more sustained political will to tamp down the violence and find a political resolution. Yet, the countries’ individual interests in the conflict mean that not all players will have the DRC’s best interest at heart. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2021.1992272">Previous experience</a> casts doubt on the effectiveness of bringing in foreign military forces to resolve unrest in the Congo. These interventions have in some cases increased violence against civilians, led to the exploitation of natural resources and undermined Congolese authority over its own territory. </p>
<p>A successful intervention will require that neighbouring countries remain accountable to support the security and sovereignty of the Congo.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195937/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenna Russo is the Director of Research and Head of the Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations at the International Peace Institute.</span></em></p>
There are advantages to a regional force overseen by the East African Community – particularly as the bloc is leading new political talks.
Jenna Russo, Researcher and lecturer, City University of New York
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/187861
2022-07-28T14:02:57Z
2022-07-28T14:02:57Z
The UN is under attack in eastern Congo. But DRC elites are also to blame for the violence
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476473/original/file-20220728-25-l9hirx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Congolese in Goma protest against the UN peacekeeping mission on 26 July 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michel Lunanga/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Demonstrators in the volatile eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have called for the immediate withdrawal of the United Nations peacekeeping mission. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/26/un-peacekeepers-troops-shoot-two-protesters-dead-in-goma-drc">Recent protests</a> in Butembo-Beni, Goma, Bukavu and Uvira turned into deadly attacks against the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). </p>
<p>By 26 July 2022, at least 15 people had died, <a href="https://monusco.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/cp_la_monusco_annonce_la_mort_dun_casque_bleu_et_de_deux_membres_de_la_police_des_nations_unies_26_juillet_2022.pdf">including UN peacekeepers</a>, as demonstrators stormed and burnt the mission’s bases in Goma, Butembo and Uvira. They accused the 22-year-old mission of failing to stop decades of fighting in the country.</p>
<p>The UN mission, however, has long been blamed for what should be the DRC government’s responsibility: de-escalating violence in the country’s eastern region and finding long-term solutions to peace.</p>
<p>Across the entire eastern region, from Ituri to South Kivu, and for roughly three decades now, local populations have suffered daily due to the violence meted out either by armed groups or Congolese security services. </p>
<p>The situation remains volatile despite the presence of the world’s largest UN mission, which was first established and deployed in <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/past/monuc/">1999</a>. Its mandate was expanded in <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/monusco">2010</a> to include the protection of civilians. As of November 2021, it had more than 16,000 uniformed personnel in the DRC.</p>
<p>Violent reactions against the UN mission are an expression of the local population’s frustrations about the past and the present, but also the uncertainty of their future.</p>
<p>Based on <a href="https://pure.eur.nl/en/persons/delphin-ntanyoma/?relations=publications">my research</a>, undertaken since 2017 to understand the motivations of individuals, groups and communities in violent conflicts, particularly in eastern DRC, I would argue that the UN mission shouldn’t be held responsible for what the Congolese state should be doing. </p>
<p>In the 22 years since the current UN mission was deployed, the Congolese state, and the country’s elite, bear huge responsibility for failing to form and build an army able to preserve harmony and protect the population. </p>
<h2>The triggers</h2>
<p>The latest attack on the UN mission followed a political meeting held on 15 July 2022 in Goma, the capital city of North Kivu in eastern DRC. While on parliamentary recess, Bahati Lukwebo, the president of the senate, stopped to speak to his supporters in Goma. North Kivu is currently facing diverse forms of armed insurgencies, including from the M23. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-m23s-on-and-off-insurgency-tells-us-about-drcs-precarious-search-for-peace-182520">What M23's on-and-off insurgency tells us about DRC's precarious search for peace</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnmkWS5i7rw">In his speech</a>, Lukwebo asked the youth to consider joining the Congolese national army, the Forces Armées de la Republique Démocratique du Congo (FARDC). He also blamed the UN mission for failing to stabilise the country. </p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>Pendant 22 ans, ils n’ont pas ramené la paix dans notre pays</em> (For 22 years, they did not bring peace to our country).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The crowd responded in Swahili, a national language: “<em>Baenda, baende</em> (Let them go, let them go).”</p>
<p>Lukwebo, a long-time politician, asked the crowd to raise their hands if they wanted the UN mission to leave. The hands shot up. He then said the UN peacekeepers should pack their bags, and allow the Congolese to take care of their own peace, security and territorial integrity.</p>
<p>In the country’s fragile socio-security context, these remarks were dangerous. The UN mission has <a href="https://issblog.nl/2020/02/24/whose-responsibility-is-it-anyway-questioning-the-role-of-un-peacekeeping-mission-monusco-in-stabilizing-the-eastern-drc-by-delphin-ntanyoma/">long been accused</a> of failing to protect civilians from rebel groups in the country. </p>
<p>These remarks followed a June 2022 briefing from a top official for the UN mission in the DRC, Bintou Keita. She <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/un-well-armed-m23-rebels-resurgent-in-drc/6638775.html">warned</a> the Security Council that the mission in the DRC “may find itself confronted by a threat that goes beyond its current capabilities” in tackling the resurgence of a highly organised M23. </p>
<p>To <a href="https://twitter.com/luchaRDC/status/1551983126930460674">some Congolese</a>, this sounded like the UN mission would no longer play a role in supporting the national army or protecting civilians. </p>
<p>Against this backdrop, Lukwebo’s address fanned the flame of protest. Political manipulation may aim to shift the blame for the DRC’s insecurity from the national army to the UN mission. However, for communities in eastern DRC, their continued exposure to violence is evidence of an unfulfilled promise to keep them safe.</p>
<h2>The blame game</h2>
<p>A few months back, the widely unstable North Kivu province experienced a resurgence of the M23 rebel group. Rwanda has been <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/the-m23-problem-kigali-s-headache-and-some-hard-truths-3876884">accused</a> of backing the M23 – Kigali has vehemently denied these allegations. </p>
<p>The rebel group was initially <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-congo-democratic-rebels-idUSBRE9A30PE20131105">defeated in 2013</a>. But beyond M23, eastern DRC has hundreds of local and foreign armed militia groups. From Ituri to South Kivu provinces, communities witness violence daily. </p>
<p>These armed groups include the jihadist-linked <a href="https://www.congoresearchgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/report-crg-ebuteli-uganda-operation-shujaa-drc-adf-securing-economic-interests.pdf">Allied Democratic Forces</a> operating in Beni (North Kivu) and Ituri. In Ituri specifically, a militia group known as Coopérative de Développement du Congo has been <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/ethnic-militia-kills-18-in-eastern-dr-congo-3742996">attacking Congolese civilians</a> over their ethnic affiliation. The UN has said these attacks could be characterised as <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2020/01/drc-inter-ethnic-violence-ituri-may-constitute-crimes-against-humanity-un?LangID=E&NewsID=25459">crimes against humanity</a>.</p>
<p>Similar attacks that target individuals due to their ethnic affiliation are committed in South Kivu on the basis that these victims are “not real Congolese”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/violence-is-endemic-in-eastern-congo-what-drives-it-156039">Violence is endemic in eastern Congo: what drives it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As insecurity heightens, local communities keep forming defence groups. However, many of these groups eventually turn on those they are supposed to protect. Whether or not these armed groups and rebellions have legitimate claims to exist, their failure to uphold their grievances and their attacks on civilians overshadow why they were formed.</p>
<p>The UN mission has faced <a href="https://issblog.nl/2020/02/24/whose-responsibility-is-it-anyway-questioning-the-role-of-un-peacekeeping-mission-monusco-in-stabilizing-the-eastern-drc-by-delphin-ntanyoma/">various challenges</a> in executing its mandate. This includes its being unfamiliar with local contexts, as well as having to operate in a region that’s mostly inaccessible. In Beni, it has expressed concerns over the national army launching military operations without sufficiently engaging peacekeepers. </p>
<p>These – and other internal and external challenges – call for a redefinition of the mission’s mandate in relation to local contexts. If this doesn’t happen, the UN risks spending another decade trying, but failing to contribute to long-lasting peace in eastern DRC.</p>
<h2>Congo government’s failures</h2>
<p>The Congolese elite have formed a network of predators who have preyed on their constituencies since independence in 1960. The country is among the <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/drc/overview">poorest in the world</a> despite its rich mineral and natural resources. The majority of Congolese live in extreme poverty, while the elite are extremely rich. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-conflicts-intertwined-over-time-and-destabilised-the-drc-and-the-region-185432">How conflicts intertwined over time and destabilised the DRC – and the region</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>On top of this, the national army comprises military officers and generals whose prime concern is to serve their own interests. <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-drcs-army-and-police-arent-yet-ready-to-protect-citizens-114326">Embezzlement and corruption</a> have ruined the military to the extent that rank and file soldiers are poorly equipped and sometimes go unpaid, while generals build financial empires. </p>
<p>The UN mission has come to be seen as part and parcel of this situation. Local communities have lost trust in the intervention of government and international security forces, and their capacity to bring change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187861/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Delphin R. Ntanyoma does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The UN mission is being held responsible for something the Congolese state should be doing.
Delphin R. Ntanyoma, Visiting Researcher, University of Leeds
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/149433
2020-11-16T00:44:45Z
2020-11-16T00:44:45Z
‘One of the most important Australian artists of the late 20th century’: Gordon Bennett’s Unfinished Business
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368813/original/file-20201111-23-1nq3zw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014 Home Decor (Algebra) Ocean 1998 Synthetic polymer paint on linen / Two parts: 182 x 182cm (each); 182.5 x 365cm (overall) © The Estate of Gordon Bennett
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gift of The Hon. Paul Guest OAM QC under the Cultural Gifts Program 2018. Collection: Bendigo Art Gallery</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Unfinished Business: The art of Gordon Bennett, QAGOMA, Brisbane.</em></p>
<p>At the entrance to this exhibition, there is an excerpt from the artist’s notebook from December 1991. Written just three years after Bennett graduated from art school as a mature aged student, it gives a very clear sense of his early ambition and political purpose.</p>
<p>He writes: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am trying to paint the one painting that will change the world before which even the most rabid racists will fall to their knees … of course this is in itself stupid and I am a fool but I think to myself what have I got to lose by trying? </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Impossible aims, such as this one, often underpin and drive the work of major artists; an achievable aim after all would be quickly satisfied. A cause as worthy and challenging as anti-racism, on the other hand, can provide material for a lifetime. This task is the “unfinished business” referenced in the title of the show.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368968/original/file-20201112-17-1ozm05j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368968/original/file-20201112-17-1ozm05j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368968/original/file-20201112-17-1ozm05j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368968/original/file-20201112-17-1ozm05j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368968/original/file-20201112-17-1ozm05j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368968/original/file-20201112-17-1ozm05j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368968/original/file-20201112-17-1ozm05j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368968/original/file-20201112-17-1ozm05j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014.
Abstraction (Citizen) 2011
Synthetic polymer paint on linen / 183 x 152.3 x 3.2cm</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© The Estate of Gordon Bennett Private Collection, Adelaide</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bennett died in 2014, aged 58. He did not discover his Aboriginal heritage until around age 11 and always resisted being pigeonholed as an Aboriginal artist. Given that consistently expressed view, thinking about how his work addresses the cause of anti-racism is an apt prism through which to view the current exhibition. </p>
<p>Certainly, the notebook quote reflects how Bennett’s reputation has been cemented in Australian art history. We tend to think of him as a key figure in political or critical postmodernism.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-postmodernism-20791">Explainer: what is postmodernism?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>He is understood alongside politically inclined American artists from the so-called Pictures generation of the 1970s and 80s (Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, Sherrie Levin). In Australia, he would be placed in dialogue with key postmodernist artists such as Imants Tillers, Tracey Moffatt, and Juan Davila. </p>
<p>Of the latter four, Bennett is most easily understood as a critical postmodernist. Typically, this is the style of contemporary art associated with ideology critique, unveiling systems of discrimination and oppression like racism and sexism. This critical orientation is particularly evident in Bennett’s history paintings, displayed in the third room of the exhibition.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368967/original/file-20201112-19-4m7eau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368967/original/file-20201112-19-4m7eau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368967/original/file-20201112-19-4m7eau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368967/original/file-20201112-19-4m7eau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368967/original/file-20201112-19-4m7eau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368967/original/file-20201112-19-4m7eau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368967/original/file-20201112-19-4m7eau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368967/original/file-20201112-19-4m7eau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014.
Haptic Painting (Explorer: The Inland Sea) 1993 Synthetic polymer paint on canvas / 177 x 265cm © The Estate of Gordon Bennett</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection: Commonwealth Bank of Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These large scale history paintings of the 1990s are perhaps his best known works. They often use the dots associated with Aboriginal Western Desert painting intertwined with western systems of realist depiction. </p>
<p>The visually complex and layered works challenge received accounts of Australian colonial history. 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).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368965/original/file-20201112-12-1ijfjsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368965/original/file-20201112-12-1ijfjsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368965/original/file-20201112-12-1ijfjsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368965/original/file-20201112-12-1ijfjsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368965/original/file-20201112-12-1ijfjsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368965/original/file-20201112-12-1ijfjsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368965/original/file-20201112-12-1ijfjsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368965/original/file-20201112-12-1ijfjsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014.
Possession Island 1991
Oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas Two parts: 162 x 260cm (overall)
© The Estate of Gordon Bennett
Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection: Museum of Sydney, Sydney Living Museums</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In his recent book <a href="https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/rattling-spears_a-history-of-indigenous-australian-art/">Rattling Spears: A History of Indigenous Australian Art</a> (2016), art historian Ian McLean argues that anger is the consistent emotion expressed by Bennett’s work. He writes of Bennett: “The anger is never far from the surface of his work, though he was perplexed by the common perception of it as angry.” </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368974/original/file-20201112-19-1an67rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368974/original/file-20201112-19-1an67rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368974/original/file-20201112-19-1an67rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368974/original/file-20201112-19-1an67rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368974/original/file-20201112-19-1an67rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368974/original/file-20201112-19-1an67rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1201&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368974/original/file-20201112-19-1an67rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1201&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368974/original/file-20201112-19-1an67rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1201&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014.
Outsider 1988
Oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas / 290.5 x 179.5cm
The University of Queensland, Brisbane Acquired with the Assistance of the Visual Arts and Crafts Board of the Australia Council, 1989</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© The Estate of Gordon Bennett Collection: The University of Queensland</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps McLean reads Bennett’s work in this way because anger at injustice is the emotional tone critical postmodernism typically adopts. But is this the tone Bennett actually adopts? I confess I used to think so, but seeing this exhibition has made me reconsider. </p>
<h2>Form as much as content</h2>
<p>In Bennett’s most anthologised article, acerbically titled “The Manifest Toe”, he describes his approach to art using an expression that is often used in critical rather than art theory: the “politics of representation.” Here we get to the crux of Bennett’s contribution. Not only is art about political content, form is also at stake. Representation itself is political. </p>
<p>Attending to form as much as content enables a different view of Bennett’s oeuvre and critical purpose. Indeed, Bennett’s extraordinary attention to visual languages, their meanings and implications, is the key revelation about his oeuvre I have taken away from the current exhibition.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368969/original/file-20201112-16-1usrtj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368969/original/file-20201112-16-1usrtj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368969/original/file-20201112-16-1usrtj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368969/original/file-20201112-16-1usrtj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368969/original/file-20201112-16-1usrtj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368969/original/file-20201112-16-1usrtj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368969/original/file-20201112-16-1usrtj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368969/original/file-20201112-16-1usrtj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014.
Home Decor (After M Preston) No 3 2010 2010 Synthetic polymer paint on linen / 182.5 x 152cm © The Estate of Gordon Bennett.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection: The Estate of Gordon Bennett</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I already knew Bennett was in dialogue with other artists and their distinct painterly idioms: Mondrian, Margaret Preston, Thomas Bock, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jackson Pollock to name just a few. I was also aware of his concern with western systems of representation and their oppressive effects. </p>
<p>What I had not realised is that he is also in an intense dialogue with himself and his earlier work. Looking through the exhibition, this internal language becomes insistently present as the resonances between works start to sound. </p>
<p>Forms and styles of representation recur, transmute and metamorphose across his oeuvre in a dizzying fashion. </p>
<p>For example, the small painting of a black angel in the installation in the first room of the exhibition titled Psycho(d)rama (1990) recurs in Notes to Basquiat (Jackson Pollock and his Other) (2001). </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nothing-quite-prepares-you-for-the-impact-of-this-exhibition-haring-basquiat-at-the-ngv-128100">'Nothing quite prepares you for the impact of this exhibition': Haring Basquiat at the NGV</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The strange row of heads depicted in the very early work, The Coming of the Light (1987) forms part of the background of this same image.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368814/original/file-20201111-23-1392b4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368814/original/file-20201111-23-1392b4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368814/original/file-20201111-23-1392b4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368814/original/file-20201111-23-1392b4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368814/original/file-20201111-23-1392b4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368814/original/file-20201111-23-1392b4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368814/original/file-20201111-23-1392b4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368814/original/file-20201111-23-1392b4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014 Notes to Basquiat (Jackson Pollock and His Other) 2001 Synthetic polymer paint on linen / 2 panels: 152 x 152 cm each, 152 x 304 cm (overall)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© The Estate of Gordon Bennett Private Collection, Adelaide</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Pollock’s vibrant skeins of paint can be tracked across a range of works: a section of Blue Poles as a background image in Notes to Basquiat (Jackson Pollock and his Other) (2001). </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-looking-at-blue-poles-by-jackson-pollock-51655">Here's looking at: Blue poles by Jackson Pollock</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Pollock’s action painting is presented as a form of cultural appropriation of First Nations’ sand painting in Notes to Basquiat: Bird (2001), and those same active lines form the veins of Bloodlines (1993).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368973/original/file-20201112-17-1spvkc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368973/original/file-20201112-17-1spvkc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368973/original/file-20201112-17-1spvkc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368973/original/file-20201112-17-1spvkc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368973/original/file-20201112-17-1spvkc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368973/original/file-20201112-17-1spvkc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368973/original/file-20201112-17-1spvkc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368973/original/file-20201112-17-1spvkc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014.
Bloodlines 1993
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas and rope on wood
Three parts: a: 182 x 182cm; b: 182 x 61cm;
c: 182 x 182cm; 182 x 425cm (overall) Purchased 2019 with funds from the Neilson Foundation through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation
© The Estate of Gordon Bennett</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The diversity of Bennett’s work is another striking feature. At times it is as though we are looking at the work of more than one artist. For example, expressionism features in the highly visceral Outsider (1988), which replays Van Gogh’s Starry Night. An Aboriginal man is inserted into the picture whose exploding head is turning into stars. </p>
<p>In Notes to Basquiat (Death of irony) 2002, Bennett astonishingly knits a homage to Basquiat with Islamic patterns and calligraphy into a coherent composition .</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368809/original/file-20201111-21-1kkktcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368809/original/file-20201111-21-1kkktcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368809/original/file-20201111-21-1kkktcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368809/original/file-20201111-21-1kkktcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368809/original/file-20201111-21-1kkktcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368809/original/file-20201111-21-1kkktcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368809/original/file-20201111-21-1kkktcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368809/original/file-20201111-21-1kkktcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014 Notes to Basquiat (Death of Irony) 2002 Synthetic polymer paint on linen / 152 x 304cm © The Estate of Gordon Bennett.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection: The Estate of Gordon Bennett.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is the third major survey show to consider the breadth of Bennett’s work and should not be missed. Bennett emerges as one of the most important Australian artists of the latter part of the 20th century and one we have certainly not finished interpreting. </p>
<p><em>Unfinished Business can be seen until 21 March 2021</em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149433/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Best receives funding from the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australian Research Council . </span></em></p>
A major survey of Gordon Bennett’s work showcases a dizzying blend of styles and themes.
Susan Best, Professor of Art Theory and Fine Art, Griffith University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/97696
2018-06-07T01:48:39Z
2018-06-07T01:48:39Z
Tony Albert’s politically charged kitsch collection confronts our racist past
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221489/original/file-20180604-177095-1y1hg2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tony Albert Girramay/Yidinji/Kuku Yalanji peoples. Australia Qld/NSW b.1981
Mid Century Modern (series) 2016
Pigment prints | 24 works: 100 x 100cm (each)
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection: The artist. Courtesy: Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>The collector dreams his way not only into a distant or bygone world but also into a better one.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>-Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project.</p>
<p>Seeking exile from the growing anti-Semitism in his native Germany, author Walter Benjamin’s words are just as relevant today as they were when he wrote them in the early 1930s. Living in Paris, Benjamin loved rifling through what he saw as capitalism’s ruins in the fusty and out-dated 19th-century arcades, delighting in the mass-produced detritus that he found in secondhand shops. Freed from what he described as the “drudgery” of being useful, Benjamin’s objects were transformed by the act of collecting and acquired a quasi-magical status.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221493/original/file-20180604-177095-16zaegr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221493/original/file-20180604-177095-16zaegr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221493/original/file-20180604-177095-16zaegr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221493/original/file-20180604-177095-16zaegr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221493/original/file-20180604-177095-16zaegr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221493/original/file-20180604-177095-16zaegr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221493/original/file-20180604-177095-16zaegr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tony Albert.
Girramay/Yidinji/Kuku Yalanji peoples
Australia Qld/NSW b.1981
Child Riding Kangaroo (from ‘Mid Century Modern’ series) 2016 Pigment print on paper
100 x 100cm</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection: The artist. Courtesy: Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like Benjamin, Tony Albert is the quintessential collector. A descendent of the Girramay, Yidinji and Kuku Yalanji people, he has carefully scoured thrift shops for what he calls “Aboriginalia”: the kitsch caricatures of Indigenous people adorning trays, tea towels, playing cards, spoons and even pinball machines from the 1940s to the 1970s. </p>
<p>Albert reassembles these vintage objects, creating poignant displays of memorabilia. Each individual object contains its own memories and stories. In this way, Albert holds a mirror up to our own collective memory and reminds us that this is the stuff, the matter, that forms the substrata of contemporary Australia.</p>
<p>To place collective memory under scrutiny is not easy and hence the significance of Albert’s new survey exhibition, Visible, at Brisbane’s <a href="https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/tony-albert-visible">Queensland Art Gallery</a>. It was the conspicuous absence of Indigenous representation in visual culture that initially drew Albert as a child to secondhand shops in the 1980s. </p>
<p>By making the invisible visible, Albert stages a direct confrontation with Australia’s difficult and racist not-so-distant past. Akin to Benjamin’s quirky assortments of stamps and snow domes, new meanings are acquired through Albert’s reassembling of disparate objects into a collection. What comes to the fore in the show is how deftly he traverses mediums, moving from his iconic text-based assemblages of the 2000s to photography, installation and newly commissioned sculptural work.</p>
<p>Mid Century Modern is a 2016 series continuing Albert’s reactivation of kitsch memorabilia. He has carefully arranged a series of ashtrays in a grid-like formation. His trademark sense of humour and playfulness is on display here. His point, however, is deadly serious: what does it mean to stub a cigarette out on a black face? It is this tension between the absurd and serious, visible and invisible that prevents his work from slipping into a predictable monotony.</p>
<p>Collaboration is a core theme that runs through Albert’s practice. Consider, for example Moving Targets 2015, the result of a collaboration with Stephen Page, the Artistic Director of <a href="https://www.bangarra.com.au/">Bangarra</a> Dance Theatre. Taking its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/25/police-shooting-aboriginal-teenagers-sydney">departure point</a> from a 2012 police shooting of two Aboriginal teenagers in Sydney’s King’s Cross, the multimedia installation is comprised of a stripped out, dilapidated car. Inside the car are screens and the viewer is invited to contemplate the final moments of the boys’ joyride as Bangarra’s Beau Dean Riley Smith dances with increasing agitation and intensity.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221492/original/file-20180604-177131-11ug1lx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221492/original/file-20180604-177131-11ug1lx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221492/original/file-20180604-177131-11ug1lx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221492/original/file-20180604-177131-11ug1lx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221492/original/file-20180604-177131-11ug1lx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221492/original/file-20180604-177131-11ug1lx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221492/original/file-20180604-177131-11ug1lx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221492/original/file-20180604-177131-11ug1lx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tony Albert, David C Collins and Lucy Lewis Warakurna – The Force is with us #1 2017 Archival pigment print, ed. of 3 + 2 AP.
100 x 150cm</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection: The artist. Courtesy: Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The notion of giving back to community permeates Albert’s recent work. Newer projects, such as his collaboration with the children of the <a href="http://warakurnaartists.com.au/about-us/">Warakurna Arts Community</a> feature alongside some of his most recognisable collaborative projects such as Pay Attention 2009-2010. In the series Warakurna—The Force is with us (2017), Albert handed over artistic direction to Warakurna’s children who were charged with the responsibility of creating costumes and identifying set locations. Finally, all sales of the ensuing photographic series were shared equally amongst all parties.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221490/original/file-20180604-177126-ngitmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221490/original/file-20180604-177126-ngitmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221490/original/file-20180604-177126-ngitmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221490/original/file-20180604-177126-ngitmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221490/original/file-20180604-177126-ngitmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221490/original/file-20180604-177126-ngitmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221490/original/file-20180604-177126-ngitmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221490/original/file-20180604-177126-ngitmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tony Albert.
Girramay/Yidinji/Kuku Yalanji peoples
Australia Qld/NSW b.1981
Sorry 2008
Found kitsch objects applied to vinyl letters
99 objects: 200 x 510 x 10cm (installed)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The James C. Sourris Collection. Purchased 2008 with funds from James C. Sourris through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Collection: Queensland Art Gallery</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of Albert’s works have gained a potent political urgency since their original creation. Sorry 2008 was a key installation in the Queensland Art Gallery’s 2008 exhibition Contemporary Australia: Optimism. Referring to then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s <a href="https://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-country/our-people/apology-to-australias-indigenous-peoples">Apology</a> to the Stolen Generations, the exhibition cautiously welcomed a new era of hope, healing and reconciliation. </p>
<p>Albert has since requested that Sorry be reversed to instead spell YRROS, effectively parodying and evacuating the sincerity of the Apology. Words and meaning exist as a series of conventions. In this act of reversal, Albert underscores how arbitrary and fragile these conventions are. Ten years have now elapsed and with discussions pertaining to Indigenous constitutional recognition reaching a political <a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-recognition-in-our-constitution-matters-and-will-need-greater-political-will-to-achieve-90296">impasse</a>, we are left to uneasily consider: what, if anything, has changed?</p>
<p><em>Visible is at Brisbane’s <a href="https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/tony-albert-visible">Queensland Art Gallery</a> until 7 October.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97696/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chari Larsson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Tony Albert reassembles items of ‘Aboriginalia’, featuring kitsch caricatures of Indigenous people, with wit, playfulness and serious intent.
Chari Larsson, Lecturer of art history, Griffith University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/94026
2018-03-27T19:09:40Z
2018-03-27T19:09:40Z
With affection and humour, Patricia Piccinini probes the boundaries of human and other
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212098/original/file-20180327-188604-1ir6dlw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Patricia Piccinini,
Kindred 2017, Silicone, fibreglass, hair, Ed. 1 of 3, 103 x 95 x 128cm
Courtesy the artist, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne; Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney; and Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Natasha Harth, QAGOMA. </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Patricia Piccinini’s sculptures are deeply disquieting.
Walking through Curious Affection, her new solo exhibition at Brisbane’s <a href="https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/patricia-piccinini-curious-affection">Gallery of Modern Art</a>, is akin to entering a science laboratory full of DNA experiments. Made from silicone, fiberglass and even human hair, her sculptures are breathtakingly lifelike, however, we can’t be sure what life they are like. The artist creates an exuberant parallel universe where transgenic experiments flourish and human evolution has given way to genetic engineering and DNA splicing.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212100/original/file-20180327-188622-1ydq2hk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212100/original/file-20180327-188622-1ydq2hk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212100/original/file-20180327-188622-1ydq2hk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212100/original/file-20180327-188622-1ydq2hk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212100/original/file-20180327-188622-1ydq2hk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212100/original/file-20180327-188622-1ydq2hk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212100/original/file-20180327-188622-1ydq2hk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212100/original/file-20180327-188622-1ydq2hk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Patricia Piccinini.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Phoebe Powell</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Curious Affection is a timely and welcome recognition of Piccinini’s enormous contribution to Australian art reaching back to the mid-1990s. Working across a variety of mediums including photography, video and drawing, she is perhaps best known for her hyperreal sculptures.</p>
<p>As a genre, hyperrealism depends on the skill of the artist to create the illusion of reality. To be truly successful, it must convince the spectator of its realness. Piccinini acknowledges this demand, but with a delightful twist. The excruciating attention to detail deliberately solicits our desire to look, only to generate unease, as her sculptures are imbued with a fascinating otherness. Part human, part animal, the works are uncannily familiar, but also alarmingly other.</p>
<p>With more than 70 works on display, the entire ground floor has been handed over to Piccinini, a first for an Australian artist. The flamboyant exuberance of GOMA’s soaring atrium is utilised and the visitor is welcomed by an enormous inflatable sculpture, Pneutopia (2018).</p>
<p>With echoes of Piccinini’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skywhale#/media/File:The_Skywhale_before_its_second_Canberra_Flight_May_2013.jpg">Sky Whale</a> (2013), commissioned by the ACT Government as part of its centenary celebrations, Pneutopia moves with air currents circulating in the atrium, as if it were softly inhaling and exhaling. This is Piccinini fully unleashed, at her theatrical best.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212108/original/file-20180327-188604-1alsk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212108/original/file-20180327-188604-1alsk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212108/original/file-20180327-188604-1alsk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212108/original/file-20180327-188604-1alsk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212108/original/file-20180327-188604-1alsk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212108/original/file-20180327-188604-1alsk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212108/original/file-20180327-188604-1alsk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212108/original/file-20180327-188604-1alsk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Patricia Piccinini, Australia VIC b.1965 Pneutopia 2018. Ripstop nylon, shed, air. Courtesy the artist, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne; Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney; and Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Natasha Harth, QAGOMA.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The artist has created a parallel universe for us to engage with her most recent installations commissioned especially for the exhibition. The sheer power of endless repetition comes to the fore, as the spectator is engulfed by 3000 biomorphic flowers, standing tall on metre-long stems. The ivory white of the flowers glows eerily against the dark gallery space.</p>
<p>Titled The Field (2018), these uterine shaped ceramic forms, complete with ovaries and fallopian tubes, reach back in history, evoking ancient fertility figures such as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_of_Willendorf">Venus of Willendorf</a>. Sensitive to movement, the flowers sway tenderly, quietly acknowledging the viewer’s physical presence.</p>
<p>A pathway has been forged through the field as the visitor meanders through this teeming world brimming with abundant fecundity. The architectural flexibility of GOMA’s gallery spaces is exploited, as Piccinini creates viewing platforms as vistas from which to survey the work from above. The theme of fertility and reproduction is continued in Kindred (2018).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212099/original/file-20180327-188616-qnxwxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212099/original/file-20180327-188616-qnxwxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212099/original/file-20180327-188616-qnxwxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212099/original/file-20180327-188616-qnxwxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212099/original/file-20180327-188616-qnxwxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212099/original/file-20180327-188616-qnxwxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212099/original/file-20180327-188616-qnxwxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212099/original/file-20180327-188616-qnxwxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Patricia Piccinini Australia VIC b.1965 Kindred 2017, Silicone, fibreglass, hair Ed. 1 of 3.
103 x 95 x 128cm</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy the artist, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne; Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney; and Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An orangutan-like mother gently holds her two babies. Forms are fluid here, as Piccinini probes the boundaries demarking artificial from natural, human from the posthuman. She leaves us with no easy answers, suggesting the borders are unstable, mutable and in flux.</p>
<p>The experience of looking down and through is accentuated with The Grotto (2018) where scores of suspended forms line the walls of a cave-like space. Neither bats or fungi, but perhaps somewhere in between, the installation reminds us of Piccinini’s enduring concerns: the shared interconnection between species. The installations are replete with their own unique soundscapes, creating an additional layer to this immersive, self-contained world.</p>
<p>In one corner rests a vintage caravan. On closer inspection, the viewer is recast as voyeur. Peering through the caravan’s window, we are met with two human-like forms interjoined in an intimate embrace. </p>
<p>This relationship is rendered compassionately and tenderly by the artist. Piccinini is staging a confrontation that is not always easy or benign for the spectator and it is this disquiet that she is asking us to confront and examine.</p>
<p>Keen Piccinini followers will not be disappointed in the exhibition’s scope. Pivotal works from throughout her career including The Young Family (2002) are on display. Part pig, part human, the mother suckles her offspring. Her excess flesh sags and wrinkles and we are left to uneasily contemplate her babies’ future.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212101/original/file-20180327-188604-126odjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212101/original/file-20180327-188604-126odjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212101/original/file-20180327-188604-126odjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212101/original/file-20180327-188604-126odjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212101/original/file-20180327-188604-126odjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212101/original/file-20180327-188604-126odjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212101/original/file-20180327-188604-126odjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212101/original/file-20180327-188604-126odjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Patricia Piccinini Australia VIC b.1965, The Young Family 2002.
Silicone, polyurethane, leather, plywood, human hair 80 x 150 x 110cm
Bendigo Art Gallery Collection, Bendigo. RHS Abbott Bequest Fund 2003</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy the artist</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Inspired by advances in genetically modified pigs to generate replacement organs for humans, we are reminded that Piccinini has always been at the forefront of debates concerning the possibilities of science, technology and DNA cloning. She does so, however, with a warm affection and sense of humour, eschewing the hysterical anxiety frequently accompanying these scientific developments.</p>
<p>Beyond the astonishing level of detail achieved by working with silicon and fibreglass, there is an ethics at work here. Piccinini is asking us not to avert our gaze from the other, and in doing so, to develop empathy and understanding through the encounter.</p>
<p><em>Patricia Piccinini: Curious Affection is at Brisbane’s <a href="https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/patricia-piccinini-curious-affection">Gallery of Modern Art</a> until 5 August 2018.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94026/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chari Larsson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Part human, part animal, Patricia Piccinini’s sculptures are uncannily familiar, yet alarmingly other. A major new exhibition creates a parallel universe in which viewers can encounter her work.
Chari Larsson, Lecturer of art history, Griffith University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/87076
2017-11-08T03:11:46Z
2017-11-08T03:11:46Z
From selfie to infinity: Yayoi Kusama’s amazing technicoloured dreamscape
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193689/original/file-20171108-6722-jcqvsu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Installation view: Yayoi Kusama: Life is the Heart of the Rainbow at the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2017.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Natasha Harth, QAGOMA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Yayoi Kusama is arguably Japan’s most famous living artist. Born in 1929, she is one of the few practising artists whose work spans the most important “isms” of the 20th century. At the same time, her work is undeniably contemporary. For decades, her dazzling mirror and polka-dot infused installations, or “Infinity” rooms have enthralled audiences. </p>
<p>First developed in 1965, the mirrored interiors multiply and reflect, expanding outwards ad infinitum. This vertiginous, almost hallucinatory experience has evolved to become trademark Kusama and feels incomplete without the now mandatory selfie in this ever expanding universe of dots, lights and mirrors.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193683/original/file-20171108-6747-10i7g5m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193683/original/file-20171108-6747-10i7g5m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193683/original/file-20171108-6747-10i7g5m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193683/original/file-20171108-6747-10i7g5m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193683/original/file-20171108-6747-10i7g5m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193683/original/file-20171108-6747-10i7g5m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193683/original/file-20171108-6747-10i7g5m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193683/original/file-20171108-6747-10i7g5m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Yayoi Kusama in front of Life is the Heart of a Rainbow (2017)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">©YAYOI KUSAMA, Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore, Victoria Miro, London, David Zwirner, New York</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After an astonishing 65 years of artistic output, a new survey exhibition of her work has just opened at Brisbane’s <a href="https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/yayoi-kusama">Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA)</a>. Importantly, it provides a historical context to these rooms, tracing key strains in Kusama’s artistic development. Co-curated with the Singapore National Art Gallery, the exhibition cements GOMA’s long association with the artist. Kusama’s <a href="https://blog.qagoma.qld.gov.au/not-unlike-the-myth-narcissus-garden-mesmerises/">Narcissus garden (1966/2002)</a> is a much-loved icon in the permanent collection. The scores of silver mirrored balls provide endlessly reflective surfaces as they float serenely in GOMA’s Watermall.</p>
<p>Kusama enthusiasts will be delighted with new works created this year such as the enormous balloons floating mid-air in GOMA’s long gallery. The balloons are coloured in Kusama’s distinctive yellow and black polka dots, welcoming the visitor to the exhibition with a weightless, ethereal presence.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193687/original/file-20171108-6707-1gksrww.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193687/original/file-20171108-6707-1gksrww.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193687/original/file-20171108-6707-1gksrww.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193687/original/file-20171108-6707-1gksrww.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193687/original/file-20171108-6707-1gksrww.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193687/original/file-20171108-6707-1gksrww.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193687/original/file-20171108-6707-1gksrww.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193687/original/file-20171108-6707-1gksrww.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Installation view: Yayoi Kusama: Life is the Heart of the Rainbow at the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Natasha Harth, QAGOMA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is virtually impossible to separate Kusama’s life from her practice. As a small child growing up in Japan, she suffered hallucinations in the form of fields of dots. These hallucinations have continued throughout her life and the dots became a crucial recurring motif. </p>
<p>In 1958 Kusama arrived in New York via a short stay in Seattle and immediately immersed herself in the vibrant avant-garde artistic community, associating with Joseph Cornell, Donald Judd, Claes Oldenberg and Andy Warhol. It was a notoriously heady and experimental decade, and Kusama’s work quickly expanded beyond the canvas encompassing performance and fashion design.</p>
<p>The exhibition is organised chronologically, making it possible to chart Kusama’s artistic development through the decades. Kusama was trained in <a href="http://www.kotoken.co.jp/e/artists/e-japanese-painting.htm">Nihonga</a> painting, a hybrid style combining traditional Japanese techniques and materials with 19th-century European landscapes. From 1951 until she left for the US in 1957, Kusama worked almost exclusively on these small works on paper, experimenting with watercolour, gouache and oil paint. In these strange and murky almost-landscapes, it is possible to detect the embryonic formation of the dots and nets that were to come later.</p>
<p>Kusama’s preoccupation with repetition and infinity comes to the fore with the “Infinity nets” series. Originally small paintings on paper, the nets grew, responding to the influence of Jackson Pollock and the abstract expressionists’ exploitation of <a href="http://interactive.qag.qld.gov.au/looknowseeforever/essays/specific-obsessions/">scale</a>. The paintings are an optical sensation, expanding and contracting as if they are breathing. With no clear beginning or end, they throb and pulse, giving the impression they could extend forever, beyond the confines of the canvas.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193686/original/file-20171108-6736-3xi2qz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193686/original/file-20171108-6736-3xi2qz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193686/original/file-20171108-6736-3xi2qz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=667&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193686/original/file-20171108-6736-3xi2qz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=667&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193686/original/file-20171108-6736-3xi2qz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=667&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193686/original/file-20171108-6736-3xi2qz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193686/original/file-20171108-6736-3xi2qz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193686/original/file-20171108-6736-3xi2qz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Yayoi Kusama.
Self-Obliteration by Dots (1968)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection of the Artist © YAYOI KUSAMA. Photo by Hal Reiff.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of the most fascinating aspects to the exhibition are the photographs documenting her performances, or “Happenings” during the 1960s and early 1970s. If Kusama’s “Infinity” rooms anticipated today’s selfie culture, there is something wonderfully nostalgic and utopian about these images. </p>
<p>Kusama was engaged in the social and political upheaval of the time, including anti-Vietnam war protests. In one photograph, a group of participants are shown nude protesting on Brooklyn Bridge, covered in her signature polka dots. In her autobiography, Infinity Net, Kusama recalls writing an open letter to President Richard Nixon, promising to “paint each other with polka dots” if he withdrew from Vietnam.</p>
<p>Kusama returned to Japan in 1973, and has lived voluntarily in a psychiatric facility since 1975. Virtually forgotten by the New York art community, her career was resurrected when she represented Japan at the 1993 Venice Biennale. It was during this period that yellow and black pumpkins emerged as an important new motif in her work. </p>
<p>As a child, her family had owned a nursery. Pumpkins were familiar and comforting, and a major part of her diet. The 1993 Venice installation is recreated in one of the centrepieces of the exhibition, The Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended into the Heavens (2015). The visitor enters a room that has been painted with her trademark pumpkin-inspired yellow and black polka dots. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193685/original/file-20171108-6707-4jhwa9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193685/original/file-20171108-6707-4jhwa9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193685/original/file-20171108-6707-4jhwa9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193685/original/file-20171108-6707-4jhwa9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193685/original/file-20171108-6707-4jhwa9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193685/original/file-20171108-6707-4jhwa9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193685/original/file-20171108-6707-4jhwa9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193685/original/file-20171108-6707-4jhwa9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Yayoi Kusama The Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended into the Heavens 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection of the Artist, ©YAYOI KUSAMA. Installation view at National Gallery Singapore, 2017.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the middle of a room sits a mirrored cube. A series of small peep-hole windows allows the visitor to gaze at the interior containing an array of pumpkin sculptures. The effect is startling. The mirrors reflect the pumpkins infinitely onward and outward, collapsing the boundary between interior and exterior space.</p>
<p>Serial repetition returns in a recent series “My Eternal Soul”. Arranged in a grid-like formation around the gallery walls, Kusama’s emphasis on repetition explodes with vibrant colour. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193688/original/file-20171108-6733-fuo9a6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193688/original/file-20171108-6733-fuo9a6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193688/original/file-20171108-6733-fuo9a6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193688/original/file-20171108-6733-fuo9a6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193688/original/file-20171108-6733-fuo9a6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193688/original/file-20171108-6733-fuo9a6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193688/original/file-20171108-6733-fuo9a6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193688/original/file-20171108-6733-fuo9a6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Yayoi Kusama.
Everlasting Beauty for the Never Ending
Universe (2016).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection of the Artist ©YAYOI KUSAMA, Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore, Victoria Miro, London, David Zwirner, New York</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The sculptures placed in the middle of the room repeat the organic shapes and forms on the canvases. The series serves a potent reminder: even at 88, Kusama is still introducing new diverse visual forms in her practice. The optical illusions are still there, emboldened through dynamic juxtapositions of colour.</p>
<p><em>Yayoi Kusama: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow is at Brisbane’s <a href="https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/yayoi-kusama">Gallery of Modern Art</a> until 11 February 2018. The exhibition is free.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87076/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chari Larsson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Yayoi Kusama, arguably Japan’s most famous living artist, has been making art for 65 years. A new exhibition traces her output: from her dazzling mirror and polka-dot infused installations to paintings and sculptures.
Chari Larsson, Lecturer of art history, Griffith University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/85817
2017-10-17T00:57:28Z
2017-10-17T00:57:28Z
Gerhard Richter: The Life of Images
is an unmissable show
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190521/original/file-20171017-22313-1m9jk6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Detail from Gerhard Richter's Reader (804), 1994 Oil on canvas
72 x 102cm.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, USA Purchase through the gifts of Mimi and Peter Haas and Helen and Charles Schwab, and the Accessions Committee Fund: Barbara and Gerson Bakar, Collectors Forum, Evelyn D. Haas, Elaine McKeon, Byron R. Meye</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Of the three giants of post-war German art – <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-beuys-747">Joseph Beuys</a>, <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/anselm-kiefer-1406">Anselm Kiefer</a> and <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/gerhard-richter-1841">Gerhard Richter</a> – Richter is the most elusive, enigmatic and seemingly impossible to pin down.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190516/original/file-20171016-22319-13z4ub3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190516/original/file-20171016-22319-13z4ub3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190516/original/file-20171016-22319-13z4ub3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=666&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190516/original/file-20171016-22319-13z4ub3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=666&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190516/original/file-20171016-22319-13z4ub3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=666&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190516/original/file-20171016-22319-13z4ub3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190516/original/file-20171016-22319-13z4ub3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190516/original/file-20171016-22319-13z4ub3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gerhard Richter, Self-portrait (836-1) 1996 Oil on linen.
51 x 46cm, Collection: Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gift of Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder and Committee on Painting and Sculpture Funds © Gerhard Richter 2017</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With his compatriots, Richter shares a basic Existential philosophy, where there exists no pre-ordained order or rationale for being and the artist is called upon through action to create meaning and an identity. However, unlike many of them, Richter rejects the binaries that so often define art practice – abstract versus figurative, conceptual versus object art, or painting versus photography – collapsing them into a continuum. In his practice, photography is inseparable from painting and each carefully crafted art object belongs within a framework of conceptual art.</p>
<p>Richter in 1986 <a href="http://davidbreskin.com/translations/">observed</a> that in his paintings, motifs evolved as the painting progressed and as </p>
<blockquote>
<p>there is no central image of the world (world view) any longer: we must work out everything for ourselves, exposed as we are on a kind of refuse heap, with no centre and no meaning; we must cope with the advance of a previously undreamt-of freedom. It also conforms to a general principle of Nature; for Nature, too, does not develop an organism in accordance with an idea: Nature lets its forms and modifications come, within the framework of its given facts and with the help of chance.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The exhibition at Brisbane’s GOMA, the largest <a href="https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/gerhard-richter">Richter show</a> assembled in Australia and drawn from numerous collections internationally, highlights this slippery, mercurial quality of Richter’s practice. In a methodical, even Germanic manner, Richter assembles a huge personal encyclopaedia of sources and images that constitute his famous <a href="https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/art/atlas">Atlas</a> project. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190523/original/file-20171017-22255-1lpz8ei.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190523/original/file-20171017-22255-1lpz8ei.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190523/original/file-20171017-22255-1lpz8ei.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190523/original/file-20171017-22255-1lpz8ei.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190523/original/file-20171017-22255-1lpz8ei.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190523/original/file-20171017-22255-1lpz8ei.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190523/original/file-20171017-22255-1lpz8ei.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190523/original/file-20171017-22255-1lpz8ei.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gerhard Richter September (Ed. 139) 2009 Print between glass.
66 x 89.8cm</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection: Dallas Museum of Art (DMA), Dallas, USA Lay Family Acquisition Fund © Gerhard Richter 2017</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Commenced in 1962, when the artist was 30, it is a vast and on-going, unedited archive/scrapbook that stretches hundreds of metres and resides in the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich. In Brisbane, we have a selection of approximately 400 panels titled Atlas overview (a bit under half of the original) exhibited as a facsimile colour reproduction of the artist’s photographs, media clippings, drawings and annotations. Richter observed in an interview with Dieter Schwartz in 1999, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the beginning I tried to accommodate everything there that was somewhere between art and garbage and that somehow seemed important to me and a pity to throw away.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Richter’s interests are wide-ranging, including Holocaust photographs, family snaps, hard-core porn, photographs of terrorists, houses, faces, landscapes, doors, and so on. They are all arranged in formal categories of shape and size, rather than thematically, leading to the uncomfortable juxtapositioning of bodies at Auschwitz and pornographic images of sexual acts. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190521/original/file-20171017-22313-1m9jk6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190521/original/file-20171017-22313-1m9jk6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190521/original/file-20171017-22313-1m9jk6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190521/original/file-20171017-22313-1m9jk6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190521/original/file-20171017-22313-1m9jk6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190521/original/file-20171017-22313-1m9jk6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190521/original/file-20171017-22313-1m9jk6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190521/original/file-20171017-22313-1m9jk6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gerhard Richter’s Reader (804) in full, 1994 Oil on canvas.
72 x 102cm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What is almost totally absent is images of works of art by other artists – paintings, sculptures, drawings. Richter appears to have ascribed to the idea so eloquently expressed by Jean Dubuffet: “Art … loves to be incognito. Its best moments are when it forgets what it is called.”</p>
<p>Although Richter’s range of mediums is bewildering in its diversity, there are two prevailing aesthetic concerns throughout his practice. One is his love of blurring images, as he once famously pronounced, “I blur to make everything equal, everything equally important and equally unimportant.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190520/original/file-20171017-22313-9m79og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190520/original/file-20171017-22313-9m79og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190520/original/file-20171017-22313-9m79og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190520/original/file-20171017-22313-9m79og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190520/original/file-20171017-22313-9m79og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190520/original/file-20171017-22313-9m79og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=984&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190520/original/file-20171017-22313-9m79og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=984&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190520/original/file-20171017-22313-9m79og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=984&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gerhard Richter, Ella (903-1) 2007 Oil on canvas.
40 x 31cm</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Private Collection © Gerhard Richter 2017</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The other is his love of the colour grey. In a much quoted 1975 letter to Edy de Wilde, the director of Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum, he observed,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>To me, grey is the welcome and only possible equivalent for indifference, noncommitment, absence of opinion, absence of shape. But grey, like formlessness and the rest, can be real only as an idea, and so all I can do is create a colour nuance that means grey but is not it. The painting is then a mixture of grey as a fiction and grey as a visible, designated area of colour.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the exhibition, we have deliberately blurry grey paintings of much enlarged tourist snaps of the pyramids or fighter planes, as well as family photographs of Uncle Rudi (1965), shown in his Nazi military uniform, or Aunt Marianne (1965) holding the infant artist. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190519/original/file-20171017-22265-3lillu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190519/original/file-20171017-22265-3lillu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190519/original/file-20171017-22265-3lillu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190519/original/file-20171017-22265-3lillu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190519/original/file-20171017-22265-3lillu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190519/original/file-20171017-22265-3lillu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190519/original/file-20171017-22265-3lillu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190519/original/file-20171017-22265-3lillu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gerhard Richter, Phantom Interceptors (50) 1964, Oil on canvas.
140 x 190cm</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Froehlich Collection, Stuttgart, Germany © Gerhard Richter 2017</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By deliberately blurring the image, Richter rescues it from the sameness of a media image and gives it a handcrafted, personalised quality, which both reveals and conceals content. There is a certain matter of fact presence in these images that neither sentimentalises nor condemns the content.</p>
<p>The four Birkenau paintings from the Auschwitz Cycle from 2014 form one of the highlights of the exhibition. The paintings refer to the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau and four photographs smuggled out of the camp in a tube of toothpaste and included in his Atlas installation. The photographs Richter apparently drew onto the canvas in pencil, but soon gave up the idea of realising them as his usual blurry, grey, tone images. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190518/original/file-20171016-22280-wc55ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190518/original/file-20171016-22280-wc55ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190518/original/file-20171016-22280-wc55ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190518/original/file-20171016-22280-wc55ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190518/original/file-20171016-22280-wc55ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190518/original/file-20171016-22280-wc55ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=982&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190518/original/file-20171016-22280-wc55ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=982&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190518/original/file-20171016-22280-wc55ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=982&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gerhard Richter, Birkenau (937-4) 2014 Oil on canvas.
260 x 200cm</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gerhard Richter Archive, Dresden, Germany. Permanent loan from a private collection © Gerhard Richter 2017</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Instead, he covered the canvas with paint and dragged a squeegee across the surface, smearing the legibility of form. It became a sombre mix of blacks, greys and ash white with occasional bursts of green and blood red. The Birkenau paintings assert a very powerful presence, simple yet haunting. They could be seen as a metaphor for history itself, where truth lies concealed underneath encrusted layers of time and can never be fully revealed.</p>
<p>This first retrospective exhibition of Richter’s work in Australia is a brilliant and challenging event on the national arts calendar. Although it may not attract the huge crowds that may come to see an exhibition of comic strip heroes or pretty frocks, it will have a real impact on art making in this country and artists throughout Australasia will be making a pilgrimage to Brisbane. It is a show that should not be missed.</p>
<p><em>Gerhard Richter: The Life of Images is at GOMA, Brisbane from October 14 – February 4, 2018.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85817/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sasha Grishin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Gerhard Richter - one of the giants of post-war German art - is elusive, enigmatic and seemingly impossible to pin down. The first retrospective exhibition of his work in Australia is a brilliant and challenging event.
Sasha Grishin, Adjunct Professor of Art History, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/59444
2016-05-24T04:03:22Z
2016-05-24T04:03:22Z
Here’s looking at: Cindy Sherman ‘Head Shots’
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123713/original/image-20160524-11032-15kvoss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cindy Sherman was the subject, costume designer, make-up artist and photographer for the large-scale images showcased in a new retrospective.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Detail: Untitled #466. Image courtesy of Cindy Sherman and Metro Pictures, New York</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What do William Shakespeare, Cindy Sherman, and the Modern Family TV series all have in common?</p>
<p>They all make art about the human condition. They all play off different characters in society, and the different characters that lurk within each and every one of us.</p>
<p>They all make art about social stereotypes, social pretensions, appearances, faking it, fragility, vulnerability, and the human capacity to laugh at oneself. They counter the universal with the particular.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123490/original/image-20160523-9534-185qlij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123490/original/image-20160523-9534-185qlij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123490/original/image-20160523-9534-185qlij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123490/original/image-20160523-9534-185qlij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123490/original/image-20160523-9534-185qlij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123490/original/image-20160523-9534-185qlij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1092&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123490/original/image-20160523-9534-185qlij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1092&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123490/original/image-20160523-9534-185qlij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1092&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Untitled #466.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy of Cindy Sherman and Metro Pictures, New York</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ok, so maybe an American sitcom is stretching the category of art, but Shakespeare and Sherman are both celebrating their international recognition as artists this year. 2016 marks the 400-year commemoration of Shakespeare’s death. Sherman is the subject of a <a href="https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/cindy-sherman">major exhibition at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art</a> opening in May, following an earlier retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2012.</p>
<p>A MoMA retrospective is international code for “you’ve made it”, and the GoMA exhibition will help local audiences understand why Sherman is regarded as one of the most iconic artists of the contemporary era.</p>
<p>Head Shots (2000) is a series of photographic artworks featured in the GoMA show portraying one of Sherman’s most raw portraits of human ‘types’. The artist excels in turning attention to the human condition because the subject in her artworks is most often herself, or rather it is her body dressed up, made up, and staged to play a role in the theatre of life. </p>
<p>This kind of role-playing has been part of her art since the 1970s when she made a short video featuring <a href="http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2012/cindysherman/gallery/11/">herself as a cutout doll</a> going through pages of a book of cutout clothes . </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123485/original/image-20160523-9524-rhvsf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123485/original/image-20160523-9524-rhvsf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123485/original/image-20160523-9524-rhvsf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123485/original/image-20160523-9524-rhvsf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123485/original/image-20160523-9524-rhvsf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123485/original/image-20160523-9524-rhvsf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1101&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123485/original/image-20160523-9524-rhvsf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1101&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123485/original/image-20160523-9524-rhvsf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1101&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Untitled #402.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy of Cindy Sherman and Metro Pictures, New York</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Her trail-blazing, artist role-playing oeuvre developed through series of photographs that mimicked film stills, celebrity shots, history paintings, fashion shoots, and portraits of the most ordinary and extraordinary aspects of humankind.</p>
<p>Photographic technique is part of the art, but Sherman’s genius is in understanding the social practice of photography. She understands how people perform for the camera and how the situation of being photographed inherently documents the self as ‘image’. </p>
<p>This is particularly the case in Head Shots where the situation is that of standard studio portraits. All of the details about our persona become significant in the studio portrait where we ‘sit’ and ‘pose’ our image.</p>
<p>White nail polish, star spangled earrings matching an equally patriotic shirt – wispy hair that ruins the sheen of self (Untitled #402) – these details are both the effort of self-image and the shortfall.</p>
<p>The self behind the image, if indeed there is “one”, always betrays the image in some way. Sherman constructs this betrayal to get inside how we are always keeping up appearances to others and ourselves but her art doesn’t tend to judge this aspect of the human condition. </p>
<p>Her art is as much a portrait of human vulnerability as it is of artifice. Vulnerability is perhaps the reason behind the artifice.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123484/original/image-20160523-9557-1s4l5u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123484/original/image-20160523-9557-1s4l5u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123484/original/image-20160523-9557-1s4l5u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123484/original/image-20160523-9557-1s4l5u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123484/original/image-20160523-9557-1s4l5u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123484/original/image-20160523-9557-1s4l5u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123484/original/image-20160523-9557-1s4l5u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123484/original/image-20160523-9557-1s4l5u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Untitled #353.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy of Cindy Sherman and Metro Pictures, New York</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even in portraits of a less than graceful ageing (Untitled #353) Sherman construes facial expressions lacking confidence – an expression that hopes the self is looking all together while the wig, the bling, and the uplift bra all seem to betray a little too much effort – a little too much denial. </p>
<p>Sherman’s preference to leave her artworks untitled helps to universalize the particular, and also leaves open the subject of the image. Subjects are amplified into more of a Shakespearian scope of character traits. </p>
<p>Large-format photography, a feature of Sherman’s more recent art, also amplifies the complexity of the human condition. These larger than life-size images demand attention to the detail that gives the game away.</p>
<p>You tend to walk away from Sherman’s portraits reflecting more on your own image than anyone else’s.</p>
<p><br></p>
<p><em>Cindy Sherman opens at the <a href="https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/cindy-sherman">Queensland Gallery of Modern Art</a> on May 28.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59444/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Butler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Cindy Sherman understands how people perform for the camera. Her art is a portrait of human vulnerability.
Sally Butler, Associate professor, The University of Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/39240
2015-04-14T04:53:44Z
2015-04-14T04:53:44Z
Meeting a god: the diverse career of David Lynch on show at GOMA
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77452/original/image-20150409-15240-1w0qgmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">David Lynch: Between Two Worlds is a major event for Brisbane. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Lynch's Emily Screaming. 2008. GOMA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Meeting a god is a forbidding prospect. For such a meeting, you need to be circumspect. You need to maintain a degree of elegance in the face of utter star-strike. And you need to be prepared to be surprised in all manner of ways. Not least by the fact that the deity in question, rather than being a firebreathing diva, might turn out to be generous and memorably warm.</p>
<p>Filmmaker and artist David Lynch has occupied a place in my Pantheon of Creators since I first saw Blue Velvet as a keen 16-year-old. He has continued to astonish, exhilarate and confront me in the intervening 20-plus years. At <a href="http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/current/davidlynch?refer=homepageFEATURElynch">Between Two Worlds</a>, the remarkable retrospective of Lynch’s work currently on show at Brisbane’s <a href="http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/">Gallery of Modern Art</a>, I came tantalisingly close to meeting one of my idols. I only got to ask him one question in the end, but it was worth the wait.</p>
<p>1991 was perhaps the point at which Lynch’s star rose to its public peak. Twin Peaks was enjoying staggering worldwide popularity and Lynch had won the film world’s most coveted award, the <a href="http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/about/palmeHistory.html">Palme d’Or</a>, for <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100935/">Wild at Heart</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bWr4JvAWF20?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Blue Velvet (1986) trailer.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a filmmaker, painter, photographer, sculptor, writer, campaigner, and – most surprisingly, perhaps – musician, Lynch has since carved a unique niche in the art world as the most idiosyncratic and renowned artistic talent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vor65mNB8Uk">ever to have filmed a cigarette commercial</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/current/davidlynch?refer=homepageFEATURElynch">Between Two Worlds</a> comprises an extensive selection of the artist’s painting, photography and lithographs, accompanied by an intriguing collection of lesser-known drawings, sketches and sculptures. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77451/original/image-20150409-15228-1rj2xl5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77451/original/image-20150409-15228-1rj2xl5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77451/original/image-20150409-15228-1rj2xl5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77451/original/image-20150409-15228-1rj2xl5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77451/original/image-20150409-15228-1rj2xl5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77451/original/image-20150409-15228-1rj2xl5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77451/original/image-20150409-15228-1rj2xl5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77451/original/image-20150409-15228-1rj2xl5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">David Lynch’s Boy Lights Fire, 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GOMA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Evening screenings of Lynch’s films at the GOMA are being complemented by <a href="http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/cinematheque/current/david_lynch_between_two_worlds">documentaries</a> about the artist, <a href="http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/current/davidlynch/specialevents">musical performances</a> inspired by his work, and a series of <a href="http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/current/davidlynch/public_programs">lectures and discussions</a> set to illuminate what’s adorning the walls and screens (there’s even a Twin Peaks quiz night). </p>
<p>This is a comprehensive series of events indeed, featuring contributions from scholars and devotees, fellow artists and art historians. It is a major exhibition by any gallery’s standards and a significant moment for the city of Brisbane – many of whose walls, walkways and bus-stops are adorned with images from the exhibition. </p>
<p>Fanboys and girls will be delighted by all of this, of course, but there’s far more going on in the GOMA events than just the display of a series of works created by a cultural icon. </p>
<p>Curator <a href="http://blog.qag.qld.gov.au/author/jose-da-silva/">José da Silva’s</a> work with this exhibition finds perhaps its greatest triumph in its powerful explanation of the connections between all of the elements of Lynch’s artistic output. </p>
<p>It is in poring over the exhibition that we see the way in which tiny, elaborate sketches on match books and napkins inform the designs for the larger paintings, and the ways in which the paintings bleed into and out of the works for the cinema. </p>
<p>The importance of sound in Lynch’s oeuvre is also reinforced by a comprehensive collection of film scores and other musical works. Here, too, one sees a complexly inter-related series of compositions and collaborations that form a substantial element of the artist’s output. </p>
<p>There is a unity of vision on display here that confirms Lynch as indeed a major artist. His work maintains a series of thematic fascinations and stylistic trademarks that render it strikingly coherent, despite its oft-discussed “strangeness” and its frequent centralising of the abstract.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77449/original/image-20150409-15250-1ycjsqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77449/original/image-20150409-15250-1ycjsqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77449/original/image-20150409-15250-1ycjsqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77449/original/image-20150409-15250-1ycjsqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77449/original/image-20150409-15250-1ycjsqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77449/original/image-20150409-15250-1ycjsqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77449/original/image-20150409-15250-1ycjsqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">David Lynch’s Man Waking from Dream, 2008.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GOMA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The notion of abstraction has indeed characterised the long discussion surrounding the works of this influential man. A notable element of Lynch’s address to his own work is his consistent refusal to be pinned down to any comfortable – or even consistent – notion of “meaning”. </p>
<p>There are numerous recorded examples of interviewers presenting the artist with “interpretations” of his work, only to – usually very politely – have these interpretations contradicted or juxtaposed with Lynch’s own alluringly ambiguous descriptions of process and intention. </p>
<p>During my yearned-for chance to pose a question to Lynch, I learned what it was like to have one’s carefully-composed proposition refuted. </p>
<p>I have long held that there are lucid connections between the profound affect Lynch’s works evoke in the viewer and the experience of dream. I asked him whether his work represented a way for him to share his dreams with an audience; the answer was no – though the gentle rebuttal was followed by a fascinating rumination on ideas of dream-logic, discontinuities, and the very sources of ideas, many of which Lynch claims to find through a kind of waking dreaming. </p>
<p>The response to my question was thus more intriguing than I had anticipated, even though it began with negation.</p>
<p>David Lynch remains, in every way, the genuine artefact: attentive and serious in response to questions, warm and generous in a brief meeting, and dedicated to an ongoing and expansive body of works. </p>
<p>Da Silva’s beautifully curated exhibition serves to reinforce these notions in the most memorable of ways.</p>
<p><br>
<em>Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art is hosting the exhibition David Lynch: Between Two Worlds until June 7. Details <a href="http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/current/davidlynch?refer=homepageFEATURElynch">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39240/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Prescott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art is hosting the exhibition, David Lynch: Between Two Worlds, until June 7. It’s an opportunity to explore the connections between all the elements of Lynch’s artistic output.
Nick Prescott, Lecturer, School of Humanities and Creative Arts, Flinders University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/27675
2014-07-01T03:30:59Z
2014-07-01T03:30:59Z
GOMA’s Harvest shows tastes change when it comes to food
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52541/original/95nd72rk-1404092736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new exhibition in Brisbane takes food as its subject and includes this work by Darren Sylvester. ('The explanation is boring. It's simple. I don't care', 2006. Lightjet print on paper, 120 x 160cm.) </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Rolf de Heer’s new film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3244512/">Charlie’s Country</a> there are four food moments: deep-fried fast food; tinned and packaged food (abandoned when the car runs out of petrol); cooked-in-coals barramundi; and green, yellow and red gaol slosh. Each of these food sequences captures so succinctly Charlie’s (David Gulpilil) state of mind and body — and for the audience too, it is a visceral experience. </p>
<p>But why should we react so strongly to images of food? This weekend saw the opening of an exhibition at Queensland’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) – <a href="http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/current/harvest">Harvest — Art, Film and Food</a> – that is dedicated to food.</p>
<h2>Are we what we eat?</h2>
<p>Scottish art historian <a href="http://www.dictionaryofarthistorians.org/brysonn.htm">Norman Bryson</a> in his theorising of still life painting notes that while we might be able to escape events in world history, there is no escaping our “conditions of creaturality” that is our dependence on eating and drinking. </p>
<p>But as food sociologist <a href="http://www.margaretvisser.com/bio.htm">Margaret Visser</a> reminds us in her book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Much-Depends-Dinner-Extraordinary-Obsessions/dp/0802144934">Much Depends on Dinner</a>, “food is never just something to eat” for, its selection, preparation, serving, and the quantities consumed, constitute profoundly cultural discourses.</p>
<p>Right now television and lifestyle media seem to be obsessed with massaging these discourses. Food television programs occupy prime-time viewing, enjoying a popularity spurred on through the infatuation with celebrity chefs and reality-style competitions. What has taken commentators by surprise however is that the audience for food television is extremely diverse and cross-generational.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52545/original/272xrcrw-1404093027.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52545/original/272xrcrw-1404093027.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52545/original/272xrcrw-1404093027.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52545/original/272xrcrw-1404093027.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52545/original/272xrcrw-1404093027.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52545/original/272xrcrw-1404093027.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1011&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52545/original/272xrcrw-1404093027.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1011&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52545/original/272xrcrw-1404093027.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1011&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Yam dreaming, 1995. Synthetic polymer paint on canvas 122 x 91cm. Purchased 1998. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is the very audience museums all over Australia seek. </p>
<p>It is then perhaps not surprising that GOMA would develop an exhibition and public program around food. Los Angeles County Museum of Art did in 2010 with <a href="http://eatlacma.org/exhibition/">Eat LACMA</a>. Brisbane is doing it in 2014, but importantly expanding the focus to a broader consideration of food, its politics of production, distribution and consumption. </p>
<p>Harvest has, as the Los Angeles County Museum did, commissioned the artist collective <a href="http://fallenfruit.org">Fallen Fruit</a> to contribute to the exhibition. They have developed a rococo-inspired patterned wallpaper of local fruits, and a program of public events, which at GOMA will be centred around the fabulous pineapple. These artists focus their entire practice around fruit, which symbolises, they say “bounty … fertility, beauty and hospitality”.</p>
<h2>Edible art</h2>
<p>Food and art has come to us through still life painting – which by the early 1600s in Europe consisted of paintings using a repertoire of fruit, dishes, baskets, bowls, bread, seafood, game, goblets, flowers and vases, without the human form. </p>
<p>Bryson refers to this as the “culture of the table”, characterised he says by both change, and resistance to change. Change occurs through adjustments to the fast changing economies of consumption, and yet despite this, there is little change to the philosophical form of still life. </p>
<p>As well, at the core of still life is the drama of the increasingly shifting tension between nature and culture.</p>
<p>Let’s consider a group of the still lifes in the exhibition. </p>
<p>For instance <a href="http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/collection/international_art/alexander_coosemans">Alexander Coosemans</a>’ Still life (c. 1650) consists of a lavish display of peaches, plums, grapes, lemons, a pumpkin, and pomegranates caught in the setting sun. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52534/original/nsxz6662-1404091622.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52534/original/nsxz6662-1404091622.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52534/original/nsxz6662-1404091622.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52534/original/nsxz6662-1404091622.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52534/original/nsxz6662-1404091622.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52534/original/nsxz6662-1404091622.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52534/original/nsxz6662-1404091622.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52534/original/nsxz6662-1404091622.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alexander Coosemans Still life, c.1650. Oil on canvas 58.2 x 83.5cm. Bequest of The Hon. Thomas Lodge Murray Prior, MLC 1892.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Queensland Art Gallery</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is as if this plentiful display has tipped out of a pewter plate spreading across, not a table, but a stone pathway. It is in nature, but not of this nature. </p>
<p>The fruit, despite looking as if it has been just harvested that day, with tendrils, leaves and twigs of growth still attached, is not derived from the depicted landscape. For this is a display not of the fruits of nature but rather of trade, and as fruit was not part of the national Dutch diet, it was an unabashed dream of wealth. </p>
<p>Another still life in this exhibition invites a different reading and speaks to both the continuity of still life and its discontinuity. </p>
<p>Painted in Melbourne almost 200 years later, <a href="http://education.qagoma.qld.gov.au/?p=1858">Henry Short</a>’s Fruit and flowers (1859) is a lavish display of countless varieties of flowers, in an ornate carved marble vase surrounded with grapes, strawberries, a pear, a peach and a pineapple! </p>
<p>There are three other vessels — a pitcher, lidded vessel and glass vase nestled into this display, and again, as with Coosemans’ still life, there is a distant landscape at sunset — this time though viewed through an ivy leaf surround to a window. </p>
<p>Short had arrived in Victoria as an English immigrant artist, seven years prior, and this work seems almost like a calling card displaying his erudite knowledge of the symbolism of Dutch 17th century flower painting, Greek and Roman mythology, and his painterly skills. </p>
<p>It is a painting of specimens – all with empowered meaning. But could the small red feathery blooms at the top of the arrangement be bottlebrush? And what of the pineapple? </p>
<p>Pineapples brought to the West by Columbus in 1493 were symbols of exoticness, and as they defied attempts to grow in the West, they became symbols of great rarity, and therefore when offered to guests, signs of extreme hospitality and privilege. Over 300 years later in 1830, Lutheran missionaries brought pineapples to Queensland. </p>
<p>When Short painted Fruit and flowers it is unlikely pineapples were widely available. Was the pineapple then a sign of Short’s own adoption of Australia – or an enticement to prosperous Australian art patrons?</p>
<h2>Chaos at the table</h2>
<p>There is a strand of Dutch still life painting, which Bryson calls “the still life of disorder”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52536/original/hnrsh5s2-1404092012.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52536/original/hnrsh5s2-1404092012.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52536/original/hnrsh5s2-1404092012.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52536/original/hnrsh5s2-1404092012.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52536/original/hnrsh5s2-1404092012.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52536/original/hnrsh5s2-1404092012.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52536/original/hnrsh5s2-1404092012.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52536/original/hnrsh5s2-1404092012.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Flooded McDonalds (2008). RED video installation: colour, sound, 20 minutes, 16:9. 400 x 700cm (variable). Purchased 2010 with funds from Tim Fairfax, AM, through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Queensland Art Gallery</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The video work by <a href="http://superflex.net/">Superflex</a>, a Danish collaborative artist group, titled Flooded McDonalds 2009, I think fits fully into this tradition of still life. </p>
<p>In Dutch still life disorder implied a breakdown of moral values. Chaos is seen to take rein in a household when food is strewn about, or wine is spilled, or plates overturned and implements abandoned or out of place. No doubt in 2009 there was a McDonald’s scandal somewhere in the world. </p>
<p>The chaos represented here is an analogy of bad governance, bad trading and bad faith. The culture of the table is as laden today as ever.</p>
<p><br>
<em><a href="http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/current/harvest">Harvest – Art, Film, and Food</a> is at Queensland’s Gallery of Modern Art until September 12.</em> </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27675/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Ostling does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In Rolf de Heer’s new film Charlie’s Country there are four food moments: deep-fried fast food; tinned and packaged food (abandoned when the car runs out of petrol); cooked-in-coals barramundi; and green…
Susan Ostling, Senior Lecturer, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.