One Plus One Equals Three

i am a young austrAlien

It's a big (and somewhat early) call, but the winner of the 1+1=3 'T-shirt of the Year' award goes to artist Tony Albert, currently exhibiting in The Bodies That Were Not Ours show at Melbourne's Linden St Kilda Centre for Contemporary Arts.

From Linden's site: "... Albert is originally from Cardwell in the Rainforest area of Cape York, North Queensland. Now Brisbane based, his work explores his identity through an urban context. Provoked by the stereotypical representations of Indigenous Australians, his ironic use of wordplay in his work i am a young austrAlien examines cultural alienation and displacement. He is a member of the proppaNOW Aboriginal artists collective, a dedicated group of individuals whose urban expression questions the position that is ascribed to Aboriginal people and culture within Australia."

Analyse This

A fascinating article by Germaine Greer on Aboriginal art appeared in this weekend's The Age newspaper. It touches on the interface between white and Aboriginal cultures, aesthetics and ethnography, and what is 'acceptable' practice for an aboriginal artist producing art in contemporary Australian culture.

In particular, Greer refers to the important work of Aboriginal artist Emily Kngwarreye (pronounced Ung-warh-ay). Australian/white art critics in the past have tried to decifer Aboriginal art by locating familiar symbols and references in the work – perhaps they're maps? or diagrams? – in order to make sense of them, for us. Kngwarreye "steadfastly refused to identify her subject matter: it was all "awelye", "the lot", "the whole shooting match". Her paintings were a total, all-consuming experience – they were 'everything'.* They related to, and were inseparable from her own entirely personal experience.

Faux-boriginal (and lots of orange paint)

Qantas Airlines' new subsidiary airlines Australian Airlines and Jetstar are interesting additions to the local 'highly visible corporate branding' scene. Australian Airlines' brand identity is a curious one. An aboriginal artwork-style glyph of a kangaroo (a dot-styled version of the famous Qantas 'roo) has been used to denote that the "world's first full-service, single class international holiday airline" is unmistakably Australian1. That it may be, but the 'conversation-stopper at the BBQ' question is: were indigenous Australian people2 involved in its creation? And if not, given the societal position and problems encountered by indigenous Australians  – how could a non-indigenous designer merely copy a well known Aboriginal painting style and methodology?3