Repair in Australian Indigenous art. (April 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Best, Susan
• Is Part Of: Journal of visual culture. Volume 21:Number 1(2022)
• Page Start: 190
• Page End: 205
• Publication Date: 2022-04
• Subjects: affect theory -- Australian art -- contemporary art -- Indigenous art -- reparative aesthetics; Visual sociology -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals; Arts and society -- Periodicals; Mass media and the arts -- Periodicals; Graphic arts -- Periodicals; Image (Philosophy) -- Periodicals; Popular culture -- Periodicals; Visual communication -- Periodicals; 700.5
• DOI: 10.1177/14704129221088289
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1470-4129

Abstract

This article examines artworks by three emerging Australian Indigenous artists who are revitalizing Indigenous cultural traditions. The author argues that their work is reparative in the manner described by queer theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick; that is, their art addresses the damage of traumatic colonial histories while being open to pleasure, beauty and surprise. The artists are all based in Brisbane and completed a degree in Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art at Queensland College of Art – the only degree of this nature in Australia. The artists are Carol McGregor, Dale Harding and Robert Andrew. McGregor's work draws on possum skin cloak making, Harding has incorporated the stencil technique of rock art into his practice and Andrew uses a traditional pigment ochre and Yawuru language.