Christian Thompson, Bidjara people, Queensland Kangaroo and boomerang jumper 2002
The sense of touch is invoked not only by the title, but also the objects in this striking exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia. Tactility brings together objects made by indigenous artists over the past two centuries. In so doing, Senior Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, Brenda L. Croft, explores the relationships between artists, their materials and processes, but also exposes critical cultural issues.
The exhibition design deliberately avoids the modern ‘white cube’ strategy associated with dominant cultural ideologies. In its natural state, the Orde Poynton Gallery is cold concrete and cavernous and small objects tend to look insignificant. Dividing walls define the spaces around grouped works and an intimate, warm impression is created with the surprising but astute choice of a deep plum and grey colour scheme.
Low lighting levels reduce tonal contrasts to a minimum so that perception through senses other than sight is emphasised. Scents linger around an installation of baskets and fish traps and the temptation to touch the natural fibres, fabrics, shells and carvings is hard to resist. The imagination works overtime, anticipating the feel of the objects. The tactile feast ranges from the cool weightiness of stone to the dry roughness of baskets and slippery softness of silk.
With such emphasis on materials, it is seductive to divide works made from natural materials from those that are industrially produced. Resistance (flag) by Rea and Christian Thompson’s dysfunctional jumpers, highly charged political works, would fall into this category. But by looking at the exhibition in this way, the subtleties of works contributing to crucial narrative threads can be overlooked.
Resistsance (flag) is as an iconic work that insists on cultural survival as a political imperative. The determination to keep culture in a postcolonial environment under economic and global pressures, to acknowledge and celebrate heritage, is the fundamental theme of Tactility. The scale, visual boldness and public nature of Rea’s banner may seem antithetical to the delicate personal quality of works such as the Tasmanian shell necklaces, but these pieces are thematically and ideologically aligned.
Collection locations and methods for preparing the rare shells are passed from generation to generation. Makers recognize each other’s work by the stringing patterns and preferences for particular combinations, like the green maireener and black crow shells used by Corrie Fullard. Heritage is revisited with seasonal collecting forays, which maintain connections to place, while the time consuming activity of making has always produced highly valued heirlooms and trade items.
In the islands of Bass Strait, employment opportunities are limited and necklace making has provided women in particular with independent sources of income. While economic values have encouraged the continued practice of crafts, makers are often inadequately recompensed for their time and skill. Handmade objects are imbued with meanings that are not easily quantified in economic terms. Cultural values derive from the maker’s skill and knowledge; they are shown in the objects, but also manifest as self-esteem and community pride.
Objects draw meaning from their sites of production as they relate to both cultural use and locally available materials. For instance, carved pearl shell ornaments speak of their origins in the waters of Broome and the history of the Bardi makers. Tiwi people use eucalyptus bark to makeceremonial Pukumani baskets. A group displayed in Tactility with the openings down, recall their orientation when placed on mortuary poles during funerals.
Lennah Newson creates delicate baskets from Tasmanian river reeds using twining, a widely used and adaptable technique. In the tropics, pandanus, bush string and vines are twined to produce works as diverse as Michael Gadjawala’s tightly worked traditional honey-collecting bag, Mary Djarrga’s Sail, Yawkyawk Spirt sculptures by Lena Yarinkura and a variety of fish traps. In the rain forest of Cape York, lawyer vine is split and twined into exquisitely shaped Jawun or bicornual baskets.
Tactility includes a fine example, which is attributed to: ‘Artist Unknown, Jirrbal people, early 20th century.' The label is revealing on two counts. An interpretive panel points out that in ethnographic collections, 'objects were considered to be important, but the makers were not.' Wherever possible, Tactility's exhibitionlabels identify individual makers and their people rather than using ethnographic terminology.
Collecting by early ethnographers removed heritage material from many areas and Torres Strait communities in particular have felt the loss. Cultural resilience in that region is shown in the spectacular dance headdresses constructed from found materials, such as plastic, metal and feathers, by James Eseli and Ken Thaiday Snr. Eseli’s World War II Fighter Aeroplane tells the story of a dynamic living culture, one that responds to events and changes in technology and materials.
Innovation can be seen in many works in the exhibition although this can be subtle. For example, Handbag(s) that feature colours made using pandanus fibre and traditional dyes, combine techniques such as knotting and coiling in a contemporary exploration of function and aesthetics. Craft revival is another cultural survival strategy included in Tactility. Euphemia Bostock, a Bundjalung artist, explores her heritage in a screenprint that references historic possum skin rugs.
The variety of printed textiles from Ngarrindjerri, Rirratjingu, Tiwi, Noonuccal and Meriam artists along with batiks from Ernabella and Eutopia, reveal great diversity among indigenous artists and their communities. Christian Thompson’sdisproportionately sleeved Kangaroo and boomerang Jumper invokes disadvantage, a continuing political issue. Misappropriation of cultural material and unauthorized use are also concerns that Thompson expresses using clichéd imagery.
Such political statements are not simply confined to contemporary works and an intriguing carved emu egg from around 1903 features ‘decoration depicting a large tree and a farmer and his two dogs in an altercation with a kangaroo.’ This image can be read as an event that might have occurred during the era or as an allegory for colonial conflict. The later reading should not be dismissed. Sophisticated layering of meanings and the use of metaphor is characteristic of indigenous cultural forms as seen in ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ stories. This complexity is also a consistent and thought provoking aspect of Tactility.
