Fiery Passions & Jason Wing
Today we read the extract from ‘Fiery Passions’, written by John McDonald, and were asked if urban indigenous artists have a right to express their anger at mainstream Australian society and if it help their cause. The reading was quite difficult, as John seemed to jump around a bit in topic. The article was generally about the topic of Aboriginals and their ‘need’ to produce work which comments on how hard it is to be a native in Australia and if they aren’t saying this, they 'aren’t proper aboriginals'. “If there are blackfelllas that aren’t angry then I’m suspicious of them” Ah Kee’s quote. The discussion in class was good and we all basically came to the same conclusion, that fighting racism with more racism isnt going to get anyone anywhere: The aboriginal people have a lot to complain and be angry about, in the way of what has happened to them as people in the past, but what happened, the laws and the attitudes of people have changed dramatically in the last 50 or so years. If they were producing this ‘angry’ art during that time it would have been fair enough, but there is no need for it now. Doing this just continues the issues and continues the separation between the people of Australia. There are more relevant issues nowadays, for Aboriginal and all Australians for that matter. Jason Wing, who currently has an exhibition at Tandanya, the national aboriginal cultural institute in Adelaide. His work, very subtly, reflects these opinions, but in a new and innovative way. His pieces remind us that drug and alcohol abuse are some of the most significant issues faced by contemporary Australia. He has installations of beds made from needles and spray cans (pictured below), demonstrating these issues which are a by-product of colonization, which the mainstream Australia often overlook, when examining the contemporary position of Aboriginal Australians.
Today we read the extract from ‘Fiery Passions’, written by John McDonald, and were asked if urban indigenous artists have a right to express their anger at mainstream Australian society and if it help their cause. The reading was quite difficult, as John seemed to jump around a bit in topic. The article was generally about the topic of Aboriginals and their ‘need’ to produce work which comments on how hard it is to be a native in Australia and if they aren’t saying this, they 'aren’t proper aboriginals'. “If there are blackfelllas that aren’t angry then I’m suspicious of them” Ah Kee’s quote. The discussion in class was good and we all basically came to the same conclusion, that fighting racism with more racism isnt going to get anyone anywhere: The aboriginal people have a lot to complain and be angry about, in the way of what has happened to them as people in the past, but what happened, the laws and the attitudes of people have changed dramatically in the last 50 or so years. If they were producing this ‘angry’ art during that time it would have been fair enough, but there is no need for it now. Doing this just continues the issues and continues the separation between the people of Australia. There are more relevant issues nowadays, for Aboriginal and all Australians for that matter. Jason Wing, who currently has an exhibition at Tandanya, the national aboriginal cultural institute in Adelaide. His work, very subtly, reflects these opinions, but in a new and innovative way. His pieces remind us that drug and alcohol abuse are some of the most significant issues faced by contemporary Australia. He has installations of beds made from needles and spray cans (pictured below), demonstrating these issues which are a by-product of colonization, which the mainstream Australia often overlook, when examining the contemporary position of Aboriginal Australians.
This also related back to the article, when other races are mentioned with Richard Bells quote “every new wave of boat people are slotted into Australian society over the blackfellas”. This is also interesting in relation to artist Jason Wing, because he is part Chinese and part Aboriignal, and seeing his views on this topic would be very interesting as an artist. He addresses issues of bi-cultural and indigenous political identity, by using both his heritages through his artwork, such as these Chinese and Aboriginal inspired pieces below. This piece comments on all of these issues, with the words ‘no exit’ and ‘go back’ within the figures.
Interesting Links:
- http://www.jasonwing.net/ (Jason Wing)
- http://www.tandanya.com.au/ (Tandanya, Adelaide)
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