Aboriginal art

VISUAL ART AND MEANING

introduction

• Aboriginal visual art takes many forms, from the enduring rock engravings and paintings to the more ephemeral arts of body decoration, bark and ground paintings and ceremonial sculpture in wood.
• Ritual and utilitarian objects are made from stone, wood, paint, woven fibre and feathers, and jewellery is also made from bone, shell and seeds.
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• Regional variations abound: in Arnhem Land paintings on flattened sheets of bark are common, whereas ground paintings are made in the desert.

Although most traditional forms, ground paintings for example, continue to be largely restricted to ceremonial use, others, such as painting on bark and wood sculpture readily fulfil ritual functions and are made for the public domain as well.
Recent years have witnessed the flourish of some art forms and the demise of others. The adoption of new technologies and materials such as canvas and synthetic paints has led to the creation of new art forms which often complement rather than replace existing ones.

Aboriginal Australia embraces a number of distinct classical or long established artistic traditions within which conventional graphic designs and representational symbols are the most potent, but far from exclusive, carriers of meaning.
Each artistic idiom contains a lexicon of designs and symbols which may e used in a multitude of combinations and contexts. Unlike prose, the interpretation of Aboriginal designs and images is not a one-to-one equivalence. Like poetry with all its inherent complexities, multiple references and intended ambiguities, each symbol or icon within a work may encapsulate a variety of meanings.

“Each set of designs is interpreted according to the ritual, social and political situations in which it is presented. The levels of interpretation of an image or design depend on the ritual knowledge of both artist and viewer, and on an understanding of the ancestral landscape. ... Artists talk of two broad levels of interpretation, the “inside” stories which are restricted to those of the appropriate ritual standing, and the “outside” stories which are open to all.”

“Meaning is elaborated in terms of spiritual power. Religious images and designs, when applied to any surface, whether the body of a participant in ritual or the surface of a shield or a carrying bag, have the power to transform the nature of the thing from a mundane state to an extraordinary one, from the profane to the sacred. In ceremony, people’s bodies and objects are taken from a dull state to one of brilliance by the application of paint and designs. The concept of brightness often carries through into art intended for the public domain: not only does it evoke the radiant presence of supernatural power but it also provides a means by which artists explore concepts beyond the tangible qualities of life.”

from page 11; Aboriginal art, by Wally Caruna, Thames and Hudson, 1987