Possession Island 1992. Investigate the theories and ideas associated with anthropology, ethnography and phrenology. Bennett indicates the need to be reconciled within the context of culture and history to develop a full sense of identity. When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. 2, I cant remember exactly when it dawned on me that I had an Aboriginal heritage, I generally say it was around age eleven, but this was my age when my family returned to Queensland where Aboriginal people were far more visible. It speaks of colonial violence and the consequences of being on the 'wrong' side of history, purchased in 2019, this powerful and sobering work is a major acquisition for the QAGOMA Collection. January 26, 1988: Spectator craft surround tall ship The Bounty on Sydney Harbour as it heads towards Farm Cove while a formation of air force jets are in a fly-past overhead, part of the First Fleet re-enactment for Australias Bicentennial, A strategy of intervention and disturbance, Layering and re-defining Creating new language, Re-mixing and exchanging A global perspective, Outsider and Altered body print (Shadow figure howling at the moon), Installation of Triptych: Requiem, Of grandeur, Empire, 1989, in exhibition Gordon Bennett (2007), Visual images, forms and elements as signifiers, Art practice a multidisciplinary approach, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, International Audience Engagement Network (IAE), Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe in Ian McLean & Gordon Bennett, The Art of Gordon Bennett, Craftsman House, 1996, p. 20, Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe, p. 15, Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe, p. 21, These experiences are clearly reflected in the Home sweet home series 1993-4, Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe, p. 27, Kelly Gellatly, Conversation: Bill Wright talks to Gordon Bennett with contributions by Bill Wright, Justin Clemens and Jane Devery, Gordon Bennett (exh. Nearby homes similar to 2719 NE 21st Ter have recently sold between $824K to $1M at an average of $565 per square foot. Clear visual divisions are created with distinct black areas as well as large white areas. * *Collection: Museum of Sydney on the site of the first Government House, Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales. The reality is, however, that I have never really had much choice; and I have been faced with my work not entering some collections on the grounds of it being not Aboriginal enough, to being asked to sell my work through stalls at cultural festivalsGordon Bennett 2. Bennett simultaneously obscures and draws attention to the Aboriginal man standing next to Cook, overlaying an abstract geometric shape which recalls constructivist art and the Aboriginal flag. For example, Aboriginal deaths in custody was recognised as a significant issue. People tend to focus on the emotional aspect rather than the conceptual when interpreting my work, and that bothers me. Opens in a new window or tab. 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 his father, a Scottish . The images include historical footage of Indigenous people and details of some of Bennetts own paintings. Strange to think of Gordon Bennett as an almost classical figure in contemporary Australian art. From the beginning of his career, John Citizen had had a complex relationship with Gordon Bennett. Theosophy means god wisdom, the belief that everything living or dead was put together from basic blocks that lead towards consciousness. Appropriation was a tool that enabled him to open up and re-define stereotypes and bias. What does this comment suggest to you about the purpose of Bennetts questioning of history? Is this response informed by Bennetts work? Indeed, he explains that before the age of sixteen he was not really aware of his Indigenous heritage. It is based on a newspaper photograph of Bennetts mother and another young Aboriginal woman, dressed in crisp white uniforms, polishing the elaborate architectural fittings in a grand interior of a homestead in Singleton. Gordon Bennett 1. Gordon Bennett (1955-2014) is one of Australia's most important contemporary artists, and his works have received increasing critical acclaim over the past years - culminating with his retrospective exhibition at the QAGOMA in Brisbane, 'Unfinished Business: The Art of Gordon Bennett'. The Whitlam Government abolished the last remnants of the White Australia policy, established diplomatic relations with China and advocated Aboriginal land rights, to name just a few of these changes. Jenna Gribbon, Luncheon on the grass, a recurring dream, 2020. Once again, the arena of self- portraiture becomes a vehicle to take over and challenge stereotypes. Like words, visual images, forms and elements are powerful signifiers of meaning. Fundamentally, he deconstructed history to question the truth of the past. His joy . The 'cancel culture' debate winds me up. Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007. Some supporters applauded his escape but his claim that he left to pass on his knowledge about how to fight the Japanese - given his lack of success . Place each photograph on a separate layer, overlap and morph or merge all the portraits into one image. The persistence of language references the way language controls and defines how we understand ourselves and our world. Bennett has included the framed photograph in the panel, to the right of the painted figure. His "history painting," as he called his large-scale canvases at the time, provoked a radical revision of Australia's past, fueling the meteoric rise of a career that left an indelible mark on Australian art . Bennett repositions the subject of the painting in other ways too, by including black footprints that diminish into the background of the composition. It is uttered by all good Muslims before a good deed. 3 Beds. Bennetts art practice was interdisciplinary and encompasses painting, photography, printmaking, video, performance and installation. Other significant works: Gordon Bennett, Possession Island; Glenn Brown, The Day The World Turned Auerbach; Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of the Living; Glenn Ligon, Notes on the Margin of the Black Book; Gabriel Orozco, Crazy Tourist; Cornelia Parker, Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View In Bennetts painting the bedroom becomes the site of violent conflict that involves complex and intersecting personal and cultural histories. Bennett used 9/11 and its global impact three months after the event as the stage for his discourse on cultural identity. One hand holds a torch a symbol of Enlightenment values that is also seen in The Statue of Liberty in New York that sheds light on darkness. The early 'Possession Island' (Abstraction))' 1991 was one choice. Curated by Zara StanhopeThe intelligence and passion of Gordon Bennett's politically committed post-appropriation art struck a chord with the postcolonial ambitions of the 1990s. He had identified with the experience of the fair complexioned, African-American conceptual artist Adrian Piper, who wrote: Blacks like me are unwilling observers of the forms racism takes when racists believe there are no blacks present. The Politics of Art. Would you include work by Gordon Bennett in a text book on Australian history. Bennett painted his version after Australias bicentennial celebrations in 1988. During 199495 at summer school Bennett learnt to make digital videos on an Apple PowerMac computer. Dates/events to consider and research include the 1967 Australian Referendum, the 1992 Mabo and 1996 Wik Native Title court cases, Paul Keatings 1992 Redfern address. They are strategically and prominently placed at the centre top of each panel, each radiating an aura of light created by white dots. Calverts image becomes one of the layers of the painting. Image credit: Gordon Bennett - Possession Island (1991). Australian politics is fraught yet the Australian public is disengaged. While Bennetts art is grounded in his personal struggle for identity as an Australian of Aboriginal and AngloCeltic descent, it presents and examines a broad range of philosophical questions related to the construction of identity, perception and knowledge. The other was 'Number . There are a number of reasons why I began painting abstract paintings that focused on overt visual phenomena, as opposed to explicit visual content. EUR 7,81. The indefatigable artist has been the subject of exhibitions at the worlds most prestigious institutions, from the Museum of Modern Art and Centre Pompidou to the Stedelijk Museum and Tate Modern. Particularly when academics claim that they are afraid of expressing their 'true' findings for fear of losing their careers. The dresser draw labelled self is closed while the drawers for history and culture are ajar. These act as disturbances. In Possession Island No 2 this figure is concealed and transformed into an abstract totem or geometric monument coloured with the signature black, red and yellow of the Aboriginal flag. Bennett used it to question notions of self. Gordon Bennett . This culminated in the Notes to Basquiat series in 2003. Fri. 10-9, Sat. I am that I am, Exodus 3:14 is God naming self. Discuss with reference to examples in at least two works by Bennett. Explore a range of ideas and media within your work. Discuss with reference to one or more works by Bennett. In Notes to Basquiat (Jackson Pollock and his other) 2001, Bennett confronts these issues within a global context. Eventually Bennetts mother earned an official exemption that allowed her to leave the Mission. These images are fused and overlapped in a dynamic composition underpinned by Mondrian-style grids. These signs can also be read as evidence that disputes the claim that Australia was discovered terra nullius or nobodys land. Appropriation art is an established postmodernist strategy defined as: The direct duplication, copying or incorporation of an image (painting, photography, etc) by another artist who represents it in a different context, thus completely altering its meaning and questioning notions of originality and authenticity.1. While the conceptual framework underpinning Bennetts art remained remarkably consistent, his art practice was characterised by some dramatic stylistic shifts over twenty years. The mirror at the bottom left-hand corner of the painting represents Bennetts own shaving mirror. John Citizen was a work in progress that allows me to follow other streams of thought in my practice. So, painting in an overtly abstract manner was a way to go silent on the issues involved and yet still keep painting. Gordon Bennett, Possession Island, 1991, oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas in two parts. Research the significant dates/events referenced in Bennetts artworks, including Myth of the Western Man (White mans burden) 1992 for some ideas. The incorporation of Blue Poles calls to mind an era of great reform in Australian politics. In the following year he was awarded the prestigious Mot et Chandon prize with his painting The Nine Ricochets (Fall down black fella, jump up white fella), 1990. These images are fused and overlapped in a dynamic composition underpinned by Mondrian-style grids. Gordon Bennett's "Outsider" is a highly emotive piece that conveys various ideas through appropriate symbolism. The jack- in- the box is surrounded by symbols, including the grid- like buildings and alphabet blocks, of the knowledge, systems and structures that represent an enlightened, civilised society. May 20, 2022 - Explore Benny O's board "Artists" on Pinterest. These racist terms confront an Aboriginal figure represented as a jack-in-the-box, as he is violently jerked from the box that contains him. Bennett not only used Basquiat images, but begins to paint in his style. His sudden death came just one week after the opening of the 8th Berlin Biennale, where a series of Bennett's never-before exhibited drawings from the early 1990s are currently on view. Examine a range of Bennetts artworks and their titles and discuss how the titles might provide a useful starting point for analysing and interpreting the images. Immersed within a White European culture, he was unaware of his Aboriginality until his early teens. They communicated important Christian stories to the congregation. Gordon Bennett is an Australian artist of Aboriginal descent. 1. * *Collection: Museum of Sydney on the site of the first Government House, Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales. How do the key themes/ideas and strategies in the book/film compare to those used by Gordon Bennett in early work such as. For more information, visit: www.qagoma.qld.gov.au for details. Home Dcor (Algebra) Ocean, 1998 synthesises the work of Piet Mondrian(18721944), Margaret Preston (18751963) and later in the series, JeanMichel Basquiat(19601988) among others. The titles of Bennetts artworks reflect the artists awareness of the power of words/language to suggest meaning. Roundels relating to symbols that denote significant sites in Aboriginal Western Desert dot painting also appear. SOLD FEB 10, 2023. Gordon Bennett: Selected Writings $45.00 Quantity Edited by Angela Goddard and Tim Riley Walsh A co-publication from Power Publications and Griffith University Art Museum Paperback with dust jacket RRP $45.00 AUD ISBN 978--909952-01-3 66 images, including colour plates 216 pp 297 x 210 mm 890 gms Among these was the harrowing struggle for identity that ensued from the repression and denial of his Aboriginal heritage. It is a monument that also unintentionally signals the subsequent dispossession of Aboriginal people from their homeland. ). Bennett was acutely aware that his own success paralleled the growing contemporary interest in Indigenous art and culture. Image: Gordon Bennett, Australia 1955-2014, Possession Island, 1991. It acts as a question with many possibilities and answers. This emphasises the works formal qualities and discourages any narrative or symbolic reading of it. Oil and acrylic on canvas, 182 x 182 cm. Every object is carefully and clearly painted, yet the images conceptually blur together as they intersect and interlace through the grid, across the canvas. John Citizen lets me take my Australian citizenship and cultural upbringing back from the netherworld of the imagined Other. Landing of Captain Cook at Botany Bay 1770 by E. Phillips Fox, for example, depicts Captain James Cook ceremoniously coming ashore at Botany Bay to claim the land for Britain. Since 1992 Bennett was involved in an ongoing non-performance by refusing to participate in public lecture programs in Australia. Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007. . The focus on reason, scientific learning and progress that characterised the Enlightenment (suggested by the measuring marks on the torch) lead to many significant discoveries and new ways of understanding the world. I didnt go to art college to graduate as an Aboriginal Artist. The emphasis on making art about art which was the focus of his non-representational abstract paintings, contrasts clearly with the focus on social critique that was integral to Bennetts earlier work, and was intended also to make people aware that I am an artist first and not a professional Aborigine.2 In this respect, Bennetts non representational abstract works, despite their overt emphasis on visual concerns, may be seen as reflecting his engagement with questions of identity, knowledge and perception. Gordon Bennett 2. For example, at the time Gordon was born she still had to carry her official exemption certificate with her, and she lived in fear of her son being taken from her . It was no accident that Bennett used Pollocks Blue Poles: Number 11. McCahon uses I AM to question notions of faith. . Bennett used perspective diagrams and visual symbols in Triptych: Requiem, Of grandeur, Empire . Possession Island displays a photocopy of Samuel Calvert's engraving, Captain Cook . The grid, with its characteristic ordered mathematical structure, appears in a range of Bennetts artworks in a variety of forms. Bellas Gallery. He gave several sponsorships in these fields, notably the Isle of Man Bennett Trophy races of 1900 to 1905 (subsequently a trials course on the island was named after him). Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007. Bennetts final year at art college in 1988 coincided with the Bicentenary of European settlement of Australia. The grand Romantic landscapes of Western art were intended to inspire the viewer with their dramatic beauty and effects of illusion. His work also includes performance art, video, photography and printmaking. The title of the work itself is unsettling. What key themes and ideas are explored in the book/film? JeanMichel Basquiat, crowned a black urban artist, was well known for his spontaneous and gestural paintings, which reflect the artists involvement in the graffiti culture of the United States. These binary opposites insider/outsider, black/white, primitive/civilised have had a powerful influence on perceptions of European and Indigenous people and culture. What values or ideas characterise the postKeating era in Australia? It was a way forward for me. It recalls the way stereotypes, labels, identities and systems of thought are fixed. Gordon Bennett 1. Kelly Gellatly 1. This central motif governs the composition which, similar to Calverts original etching upon which the painting is based, is largely reduced to a schema of black and white forms. all the education and socialization upon which my identity and self worth as a person, indeed my sense of Australianness, and that of my peers, had as its foundation the narratives of colonialism. Bennett's 'unfinished business' was to encourage a great sensitivity and action in terms of these conditions," said Ms Stanhope. ), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 2007, p. 101, Gordon Bennett, Conversation Bill Wright talks to Gordon Bennett, p. 97, the visual qualities and symbolism of art elements such as colour and shape, the symbolism and representation of subject matter/content (including text), the appropriation of the work of other artists, the presentation of the artwork (ie. At auction, a number of Picassos paintings have sold for more than $100 million. There was always some sense of social engagement. Today. The mirror, a recurring symbol within his work, is not a two- dimensional illusion but a literal construct. James Gordon Bennett Many a good newspaper story has been ruined by over verification. In 2003, Bennett embarked on a series of non-representational abstract paintings, marking a dramatic shift in his art practice, formally and conceptually. What evidence can you see in this self-portrait of Bennett linking issues of personal identity with broader issues related to history and culture? 3233, Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe, p. 33, Gordon Bennett & Chris McAuliffe, Interview with Gordon Bennett in Rex Bulter (Ed.) The artist Gordon Bennett led a reclusive life. In the Home dcorseries Bennett used gridded compositions that refer to the paintings of Dutch artistPiet Mondrian (1872 1944). Get this The Morning News page for free from Friday, July 7, 1972 Q90 wSu Fairfax Shopping Center Doily 10-6. This painting combines the story of Bennetts mother, and other young Aboriginal women in the care of the government or church, with the Christian story. . Egyptian painting or relief sculpture, Chinese scroll paintings, Aboriginal painting of the Western Desert. A gush of blood red paint shoots into the sky from his body. Gordon Bennett 1. Learn How rich is He in this year and how He spends money? For Mondrian the grid became the essence of all forms. Black angels replace traditional white cherubs. She looms large over the landscape in Requiem, as she does in the post- contact history of the nation as a symbol of the devastating impact that colonisation had on Indigenous people and culture. Possession Island No 2 is representative of Bennetts wider practice, which explores issues of post-colonisation and Aboriginal identity. Find examples of the work of these artists. However, in each image the grid effectively highlights the controlled order and structure of knowledge systems and learning in Western culture, and how these frame and influence perception and understanding of self, history and culture. Bennetts pictures leave us with questions rather than answers, with complexities rather than simplicities as if the origins of truth, identity and ideology are in metaphors and signs rather than in things, and hence are layered and relative Ian McLean 1. The distorted and exaggerated features of the form incorporate qualities that appear animal and human, male and female. For example, the association between the colour red and blood or violence is strongly influenced by the many representations and descriptions we are exposed to in Western culture, in which blood or violence is described/represented using the colour red. The coming of the light refers ironically to a term used by Torres Strait Islanders to describe the arrival of the missionaries who brought Christianity to the Islands in 1871. The first panel of Bennetts triptych, Requiem, depicts Trugannini (c. 1812 1876), a Palawa woman from Tasmania. Gordon Bennett This world is not my home 1988 Not Currently on Display Artwork Artist As a teenager, Gordon Bennett became aware of his Indigenous heritage, and art became the tool through which he could examine his identity as an Australian of both Aboriginal and Anglo-Celtic descent. The grotesque also interested Bennett as a means of disrupting conventional ways of seeing and understanding. The timeline could be presented in hardcopy for display in the classroom, or as an ICT project incorporating images and audio. This education resource accompanies the retrospective exhibition Gordon Bennett (2008) which showcased 85 works by this internationally acclaimed Australian artist. Altarpiece paintings traditionally occupied a central position in a church. While these may indicate the way maps are constructed to find different locations, they also represent the first letter of racial slurs.