gordon bennett possession island

In Possession Island, 1991, Bennett meticulously photocopies and enlarges Calverts image so that it can be projected, cropped and copied onto the canvas. Bennett adopted this alter ego to liberate himself from the preconceptions that were often associated with his Aboriginal heritage and his identity and reputation as the artist Gordon Bennett. Gordon Bennett Possession Island (Abstraction) 1991 oil and acrylic on canvas 182 x 182cm Collection: Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and Tate, purchased jointly with funds provided by the Qantas Foundation, 2016 The Estate of Gordon Bennett Gordon Bennett Possession Island , 1991 Oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas 162 x 260cm Museum of Sydney Gordon Bennett The Coming of the Light , 1987 Acrylic on canvas 152 x 274cm Queensland Art Gallery Collection All Artworks Subscribe Submit Follow Sutton Gallery 254 Brunswick Street Fitzroy 3065 A long-distance hot-air balloon race (The International Gordon Bennett balloon race), which still continues, was inaugurated by him in 1906. Roundels relating to symbols that denote significant sites in Aboriginal Western Desert dot painting also appear. He can be anything the viewer wants him to be: white, black or any shade in between, as was true of Australian citizens in general in our multicultural country. Thousands of dots fill the canvas. Watch. Physically, the kitsch Aboriginal motifs copied from Preston are trapped. With reference to at least two artworks, identify and explain some of the strategies and techniques you believe Bennett has used to engage the viewer. . How ideas might be encountered from different places and events interest him. Looking closely at the central panel we realise that the luminous sky is described with the dots that Bennett used in early works to signify Aboriginal art. Gordon Bennett (9 October 1955 - 3 June 2014) [1] was an Australian artist of Aboriginal and Anglo-Celtic descent. Who was Gordon Bennett? Gordon Bennett's "Outsider" is a highly emotive piece that conveys various ideas through appropriate symbolism. 2 All that he had understood about himself and taken for granted as an Australian had ruptured. In Calverts etching, an Aboriginal man holds a drinks tray. In Bennetts painting the bedroom becomes the site of violent conflict that involves complex and intersecting personal and cultural histories. As one of the dispossessed within this biased history, he claims that his only tool to combat this bias was the art of mimicry. Bellas Gallery. 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. Clear visual divisions are created with distinct black areas as well as large white areas. There was still no space for me to simply be. Reynolds wrote books and articles about the history of Australian settlement as a story of invasion and genocide. Lichtenstein 19231987). In Notes to Basquiat (Jackson Pollock and his other) 2001, Bennett confronts these issues within a global context. Bennetts referencing, appropriation and recontextualisation of familiar images and art styles challenges conventional ways of viewing and thinking and opens up new possibilities for understanding the subjects he explored. Find out more about binary opposites and identify some binary opposites that you believe have had a significant influence on your understanding of the world. Discover Gordon Bennett's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Consider what dates/events should be included in your timeline and why. This is the second of two works entitled Possession Island that Bennett painted following Australias bicentennial celebrations in 1988. 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. The title of the work itself is unsettling. 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 word DISPERSE was used by the colonisers to represent the killing of Aboriginal people. Finally, Ive never been one to make art about art before. As a self- portrait, the artist seems to be present everywhere within the installation but is in fact nowhere. Black angels replace traditional white cherubs. Ft. 2707 Coral Shores Dr, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33306. These signs can also be read as evidence that disputes the claim that Australia was discovered terra nullius or nobodys land. This pastiche of style and image is like a D J (Disc Jockey) sampling and remixing different styles of music to create new expressions. They absorb the flow of blood and recall the symbols often used in Aboriginal dot painting of the Western Desert to represent significant sites. Gordon BENNETT "Possession Island" (1991) Conceptual Painting Art Painting Contemporary Australian Artists Neo Expressionism Expressionist Art Collage Cultural Studies Indigenous Education Gordon BENNETT "Notes to Basquiat (The coming of the light)" (2001) Aboriginal Painting Drawing Prints Drawings Image Sheet Foley Present Day Explore a range of ideas and media within your work. John Citizen is an artist for our times: he reflects back to us citizens the white Australia of the postKeating era. However, the cross- like form in Bennetts painting has an image of Bennetts mother, kneeling before it, with a cleaning rag in her hand, recalling her early training and work as a domestic servant under the governments protection. Theosophy means god wisdom, the belief that everything living or dead was put together from basic blocks that lead towards consciousness. His status as an artist has been elevated to hero with his contribution to Action Painting. Opens in a new window or tab. Research references to existing images in Gordon Bennetts The nine richochets (Fall down black fella, jump up white fella) 1990. Possession Island 1992. This education resource accompanies the retrospective exhibition Gordon Bennett (2008) which showcased 85 works by this internationally acclaimed Australian artist. Gordon Bennett 1. The coming of the light suggests questions about the impact of Christianity on Indigenous cultures and people. $927,000 Last Sold Price. The effect is that they dissolve into a mass of colour, dots and slashes of paint . ), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 2007, p. 97, Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe, pp. Bennett has continued to work in new ways with materials, techniques and images throughout his career, resisting any classification or confinement according to style. As the foundation of a system of representation, perspective produces an illusion of depth on an essentially flat two dimensional surface by the use of invisible lines that converge to a vanishing point. Gordon Bennett, The Manifest Toe, in Ian McLean & Gordon Bennett, The Art of Gordon Bennett, Craftsman House/ G + G Arts International, Sydney, 1996, pp.962.Kelly Gellatly et.al., Gordon Bennett: A Survey, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 2007. The works I have produced are notes, nothing more, to you and your work Gordon Bennett 1. 1 0-5-30 j RED STAR Now 35 oft on all RED STARRED SIWFMIMUIS IliMMS . 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 mirror, a recurring symbol within his work, is not a two- dimensional illusion but a literal construct. Citizens more recent work includes a series of interiors inspired by the decorator and home magazines that circulate widely in popular culture. Often the basic alphabet letters ABC also appear with Bennetts perspective diagrams, highlighting the learned and culturally specific nature of the alphabet and linear perspective. Bennetts grid formations seem to imprison the figures within the canvas. Often describing his own practice of borrowing images as quoting, Bennett re-contextualised existing images to challenge the viewer to question and see alternative perspectives. What strategies have been used to communicate and explore these themes and ideas in the book/film? The Spanish artist Francisco Goya (1746-1828) used the power of the grotesque in the Disasters of war series, which depicts some of the atrocities that took place in Spain during the War of Independence (1814-18). Linear perspective is a system for organising visual information. She was once thought to be the last surviving Tasmanian Aborigine. When Gordon Bennett was labelled an Aboriginal Artist he was othered as an Aborigine and all the preconceptions that entails. 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. 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. Gordon Bennett, an Australian Aboriginal artist, demonstrates this theory through his work. What typically Australian qualities are associated with these characters? The viewer does not confront the artist, but self. At the same time I have resisted being positioned as a spokesperson for my people since I do not have nor do I seek, such a mandate by declining to speak about my work. It confronts the bigotry and discrimination suffered by Aborigines, using a rich visual language based in both Aboriginal and Western traditions. I found people were always confusing me as a person with the content of my work. Gewerblich. In the context of the other panels, which are all figurative, this black square could be seen as an absence, and possibly a representation of the oppression of indigenous voices by history. Performance with object for the expiation of guilt (Violence and grief remix) 1996, is a remix of an earlier video performance work, Performance with object for the expiation of guilt, 1995. This was common practice among young Aboriginal girls and women. Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? In a conceptual sense I was liberated from the binary prison of self and other; the wall had disintegrated but where was I? They powerfully describe pain and violence. Bennetts use of the grid in these and other artworks suggests questions and ideas. Explain how these images might have influenced perceptions of Australian identity? The graphic detail in these images, including mutilated, tortured bodies, continue to confront viewers today with the realities of human behaviour and suffering in war. The only clearly defined part of Possession Island is the black skinned male figure in the centre. His identity must remain fluid. There was always some sense of social engagement. Gordon Bennett 2. This artwork is constructed of obvious layers: The layers of dots, reminiscent of Aboriginal Western Desert dot painting, with lines of perspective a Western tradition. How does this interpretation and analysis compare to your own? Eventually Bennetts mother earned an official exemption that allowed her to leave the Mission. He was born in New York, May 10th 1841 and died 4 days after his 77th Birthday in Beaulieu near Nizza/France. This led him to adopt an artistic alter ego, John Citizen. His use of the perspective diagrams to frame and contain the figure of his mother alludes to the impact the values and systems of European culture have had on the lives of Indigenous people. At art college Bennett discovered how Australian identity was built on a subjective writing of history. The coming of the light also explores ideas, issues and questions related to the Enlightenment values central to colonialism. Once again, the arena of self- portraiture becomes a vehicle to take over and challenge stereotypes. Self portrait (Ancestor figures), 1992 deals with broader issues of cultural identity as well as personal identity. 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. He has written of his approach to his work: Bennetts practice include painting, printmaking, drawing, video, performance, installation and sculpture, and challenges racial stereotypes and critically reflects on Australias history (official and unacknowledged) by addressing issues relating to the role of language and systems of thought in forging identity. It demonstrates Bennetts understanding of the power of this image. Samuel Calverts engraving, Captain Cook taking possession of the Australian continent on behalf of the British Crown AD 1770, became the starting point for Bennetts exploration. Possession Island displays a photocopy of Samuel Calvert's engraving, Captain Cook . The distorted and exaggerated features of the form incorporate qualities that appear animal and human, male and female. People tend to focus on the emotional aspect rather than the conceptual when interpreting my work, and that bothers me. The timeline could be presented in hardcopy for display in the classroom, or as an ICT project incorporating images and audio. How might John Citizen be seen as reflection of the post Keating era? Possession Island (1991), for example, presents shadowy renditions of Captain Cook and his party against a watery blue ground, overlayed with . Both artists have an affinity with Jazz, Rap and Hip Hop music. Oil and acrylic on canvas, 182 x 182 cm. 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 . Gordon Bennett (1955-2014) voraciously consumed art history, current affairs, rap music and fiction, and processed it all into an unflinching critique of how identities are constituted and how history shapes individual and shared cultural conditions. It alludes to ownership and territory. Bennett only used two colours, symbolically, red and black. List some of your own qualities and attributes. His work is layered and complex and often incorporates images, styles or references drawn from sources such as social history text books, western art history and Indigenous art. Other aspects of the image, including the flat, stylised shapes of the head, reflect connections to both Western abstract art and Indigenous art traditions. Bennett depicts self as a black empty vessel, coffin- like with lash markings almost disguised by a thick layer of black paint. Gleichzeitig war es das erste Jahr ohne Stadt-zu-Stadt-Rennen, die nach dem Todesrennen" Paris-Madrid . For more information, visit: www.qagoma.qld.gov.au for details. The absence of the Aboriginal servant and the scuttling footprints in Possession Island No 2 suggest the physical dispossession that was to follow once the British claimed ownership of the land. Since 1992 Bennett was involved in an ongoing non-performance by refusing to participate in public lecture programs in Australia. Gordon Bennett an Australian Aboriginal artist demonstrates this theory through his work. Every object is carefully and clearly painted, yet the images conceptually blur together as they intersect and interlace through the grid, across the canvas. Typical of Bennetts early work, the painting appropriates an existing picture, in this case an historical painting, and transforms the content with carefully considered signs of Aboriginal identity. Possession Island (Appendix 1) 1991 and Notes to Basquiat (Jackson Pollock and his Other) (Appendix 2) 2001 will be discussed in relation to Henri's statement. 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. Gordon Bennett Possession Island (Abstraction) 1991 In Tate Modern Level 3: A Year in Art: Australia 1992 Level 3: A Year in Art: Australia 1992 Artist Gordon Bennett 1955-2014 Medium Oil paint and acrylic paint on canvas Dimensions Support: 1843 1845 mm Collection Tate Acquisition Bennett has included the framed photograph in the panel, to the right of the painted figure. The figure is dressed in tattered western clothing. In this work Bennett directly references historical British sources, namely Samuel Calverts (18281913) colour etching Captain Cook Taking Possession of the Australian Continent on Behalf of the British Crown AD 1770 c.185364 (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne), which is itself a copy of John Alexander Gilfillans (17931864) earlier, now lost, painting of the same title. They communicated important Christian stories to the congregation. In a letter written to Basquiat after his death, Bennett writes: To some, writing a letter to a person post humously may seem tacky and an attempt to gain some kind of attention, even steal your crown. James Gordon Bennett Many a good newspaper story has been ruined by over verification. Gordon Bennett Possession Island (Abstraction), 1991 Oil and acrylic on canvas 71 7/10 71 7/10 in | 182 182 cm Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) The Rocks Get notifications for similar works Create Alert Want to sell a work by this artist? Discuss with reference to the same works. Include in your discussion reference to Bennetts appropriation of The nine shots 1985 by Imants Tillers. Six years after his death at the age of 58, his Gordon Bennett did not describe himself as an appropriation artist. Born in 1955 in Monto, Queensland, Gordon Bennett lived and worked in Brisbane before his unexpected death in 2014. Literally opening up this black skin of paint are the words cut me. Viewed in this context, the black square in Untitled could be seen as a resilient black presence, asserting itself in the settlement narrative that Bennett deconstructed. Why do artists such as Gordon Bennett and Tracey Moffatt (b.1960) systematically decline to participate in exhibitions of Aboriginal art? Discuss with reference to one or more works by Bennett. For many Aboriginal Australians, these celebrations were instead received as a period of mourning and a time to remember the devastating consequences of colonisation on Aboriginal people. . But this approach is central to the way many people describe and analyse his work. Scan these into the computer using a photographic software package like Photoshop. While the conceptual framework underpinning Bennetts art remained remarkably consistent, his art practice was characterised by some dramatic stylistic shifts over twenty years. James Gordon Bennett, Sr., a Scottish immigrant, founded the New York Herald in 1835, building the paper from the ground up. Our understanding of the meanings associated with visual signs is linked to cultural codes, conventions and experience. The purchase of this artwork by the Whitlam Labor Government (19731975) was fraught with controversy. His father, born in Scotland in 1795, emigrated to the US to become a journalist and subsequently founded the 'New York Herald' in 1835. While these may indicate the way maps are constructed to find different locations, they also represent the first letter of racial slurs. Bennett was aware of the role binary opposites, such as self/other, play in constructing personal and cultural identity. 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. I needed to change direction at least for a while. However, while apparently recognising and presenting these motifs/symbols as signifiers of meaning, Citizen does not appear to have the same interest as Bennett in interrogating the systems and values these motifs represent or the role they have played in shaping identity, history and understanding. This is evident in many of his works, including Outsider. How do these systems/conventions reflect values and ideas important to that culture? Gordon Bennett born Australia 1955 Possession Island 1991 oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas (a-b) 162.0 x 260.0 cm (overall) Museum of Sydney on the site of first Government House, Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales. By overlaying perspective diagrams on images constructed according to the conventions of perspective, such as the landscape in Requiem, Bennett reminds us of the learned and culturally specific systems that influence knowledge and perception. Bennett used perspective diagrams and visual symbols in Triptych: Requiem, Of grandeur, Empire . Bloody handprints are stamped across the walls. He depicts how pain transcends place and event to encompass a global consciousness. The dresser draw labelled self is closed while the drawers for history and culture are ajar. Their confidence was rewarded when Possession Island 1991, a triptych in which each panel measured 162 x 130 cm, sold for $384,000. Gebraucht | Gewerblich. I decided that I would attempt to create a space by adopting a strategy of intervention and disturbance in the field of representation through my art. He holds a large whip with which he regularly lashes out at a black, coffin- like box. Here he is concealed under blocks of black, red and yellow, the colours of the Aboriginal flag. Bennetts final year at art college in 1988 coincided with the Bicentenary of European settlement of Australia. These paintings reflect Bennetts belief that after the Notes to Basquiat series of 2003, I had gone as far I could with the postcolonial project I was working through1. James Gordon Bennett Quotes - BrainyQuote American - Editor May 10, 1841 - May 14, 1918 I have made mistakes but I have never made the mistake of claiming that I have never made one. Bennett's work is held in over 100 public and private collections, including many major state institutions such as the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Gordon Bennett 3. The simplicity of I AM suggests a universality of thought. One reason is that I felt I had gone as far as I could with the postcolonial project I was working through. They reference the massacres of Aboriginal people in Myth of the Western man (White man's burden) (1992) and The nine ricochets (Fall down black fella, Jump up white fella (1990) and question the valorising of Captain Cook in Big Romantic Painting (Apotheosis of Captain Cook) (1993) and Possession Island (1991). These include the tall ship and the appropriated logos featuring kitsch and racist references to Indigenous people, and the ominous juxtaposition of bags of flour and bottles of poison. Such images have defined the nations settlement history for many generations of Australians. The dynamic juxtaposition of images, sound and other effects made possible by video, introduced new dimensions to Bennetts investigation of issues and ideas related to identity, history and language. Bennetts earliest works, including The coming of the light, 1987, reflect a raw and expressive style. Kelly Gellatly 5, By the mid 1990s, Gordon Bennett came to feel he was in an untenable position. Discuss with reference to Possession Island. Bennett lodges this image in layers of dots and slashes of red and yellow paint that refer to other artists and images. These joint acquisitions by MCA and Tate include two large video installations, one by Susan Norrie (Transit 2011) and another by Vernon Ah Kee (tall man 2010), two paintings by Gordon Bennett (Possession Island (Abstraction) 1991 and Number Nine 2008) and an artist book by Judy Watson consisting of sixteen etchings with chine coll (a . Here Bennett raises questions and matters about the stories that define us personally and culturally, and about the complex relationship that has existed between the Christian church and Indigenous cultures through history. 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. The artist Gordon Bennett led a reclusive life. Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA). During 199495 at summer school Bennett learnt to make digital videos on an Apple PowerMac computer. Gordon Bennett an Australian Aboriginal artist demonstrates this theory through his work. The Other is clearly marked out as not only different but by necessity inferior. Bennetts art engages with historical and contemporary questions of cultural and personal identity, with a specific focus on Australias colonial past and its postcolonial present. The linear diagram that frames the kneeling figure of Bennetts mother in the central panel of Triptych: Requiem, Of grandeur, Empire, and the diagrams in the lower sections of the two side panels, are typical of illustrations that explain the principles of linear perspective. Bennett worked in a range of art forms and with a variety of media and techniques. GORDON BENNETT AND HIS RACES From the Book: Die Gordon Bennett Ballon Rennen (The Gordon Bennett Races)by Ulrich Hohmann Sr along with articles by others.Many of his contemporaries have considered Mister James Gordon Bennett to be a spleeny American. Perhaps the most influential artist of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso may be best known for pioneering Cubism and fracturing the two-dimensional picture plane in order to convey three-dimensional space. What key themes and ideas are explored in the book/film? The grand Romantic landscapes of Western art were intended to inspire the viewer with their dramatic beauty and effects of illusion. New perspectives on familiar images and stories are presented. Compare and contrast this artists use of appropriation with that of Gordon Bennett. Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014. . Collection: Museum of Sydney, Sydney Living Museums The Estate of Gordon Bennett He quotes directly from this image, which is in fact a copy of a copy, as Samuel Calvert copied this image of Captain Cook landing in Botany Bay from an image by Gilfillan, which is now lost. Fundamentally, he deconstructed history to question the truth of the past. One of the most heroic and well-known images of Australias past is Captain Cook landing in Botany Bay in 1770. Van Goghs original bedroom evokes a feeling of peace and harmony. What does Bennetts goal for his work suggest to you about how he views the role of art? Create an artwork in a medium of your choice that highlights how the meanings, values and ideas associated with these binary opposites influence perception and understanding.

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