Honey pot ant mural
| Honey pot ant paintings |
|---|
| 7 Aborigines , 1971 |
| painting |
|
Papunya , Northern Territory
Link to the picture |
The honey pot ant mural (English: Honey ant mural or Honey ant dreaming ) was created in July 1971 (in other sources from June to August) in Papunya , Northern Territory . Papunya is considered to be the "birthplace of one of the most important movements in modern art in Australia " because of this mural created by seven Aborigines . This newly formed direction Dot Painting (German: dot painting ) and Papunya Tula called. The mural was lost in 1972; only a few photos of it have survived.
prehistory
The Aboriginal settlement Papunya, in which 150 Aboriginal artists live today, was founded in 1959 in the Western Desert to assimilate the Aborigines of the language group of the Pintupi and the Luritja of the white Australian society. The Aborigines were disenfranchised and could no longer move freely like hunters and gatherers. They were cut off from their living and cultural roots in the places they were forced to stay. In addition, this assimilation policy meant that a white Protector of Aborigines not only determined their whereabouts, but also decided where to work and whether and whom they could marry. Furthermore, a Protector could also bring Aboriginal children to rehab or white families against the will of their families, which led to the historical phenomenon of the stolen generation .
Geoffrey Bardon , who was employed as an art teacher in Papunya in the early 1970s, described the place as "a foreign, miserable place of alcoholism, drunken fighting, car accidents and murder" (German: "a strange, miserable place with alcoholism, Brawls for Drunkenness, Car Accidents and Murder ”).
In the settlement of Papunya there is a school building in which the young art teacher Geoffrey Bardon taught, supported by his assistant Obed Ragett, who is from the Arrernte tribe . In 1971, Bardon saw the Aboriginal people drawing circles and spirals in the sand. As a result, he initially encouraged young students to paint such pictures on the walls of the school building. This attempt failed.
Emergence
After several adult Aborigines, including Kaapa Tjampitjinpa , had painted smaller paintings on the walls, seven Aborigines teamed up to paint a monumental mural depicting the dream time story of the honey pot ants . This was done under the supervision of the keepers of the honey pot ant dreamtime Old Tom Onion Tjapangati and Mick Wallangkarri Tjakamarra. The seven artists were Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, who led the painting group, Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri , Long Jack Phillipus Jakamarra , Johnny Warangkula Jupurrula, and Don Ellis Tjapanangka .
description
The land around Papunya is called Tjala by the Aborigines. It is associated with the honey pot ant dream time in Aboriginal ideas. The symbolic language inherited from their ancestors was reflected in the representations of the honey pot ant mural in U and circular shapes as well as lines. The shapes of the mural were partially marked with dots, large circular symbols were lined up next to each other and connected by a ribbon. Next to it were smaller U-shaped structures, circles and linear patterns.
The characters and motifs on paintings used by Aboriginal artists create links to Aboriginal lands. The symbols are used ambiguously. For example, a circle like the one used on the honey pot ant mural can also represent a storage place, a billabong or a corroboree . The symbols used can also be part of a person, a tree trunk or plant stem, a central component of an edible plant or a landscape detail such as a hill. These symbols are also used for body painting and floor drawings.
When the mural was created, 50 male pintupi came there every afternoon to sing their songlines in front of the painting and to check whether "forbidden sacred symbols of the Aborigines" had been displayed during the creation and after completion. There were several detail changes and the painting had to be produced twice as a central violation of a "holy law" was found.
A final interpretation and understanding of the respective works of art of dot painting is only accessible to the appropriately initiated Aborigines.
Aftermath
After the honey pot ant mural was completed, other Aborigines began to paint as well. Bardon instructed them in modern painting techniques and materials. In this way, pictures could be created that were transportable on canvases or boards and durable thanks to the use of synthetic colors. These sculptures were able to leave their place of origin, and a broader appreciation of the art from the Australian desert began. This was previously not possible with pictures on rocks and in the sand. The few pictures that Aborigines had previously made on wood or bark were mostly not intended for sale.
In September 1971, the Papunya School Painters Co-operative was founded by three whites, including Bardon. Bardon founded in November 1972, eleven other Aborigines, including Long Jack Phillipus Jakakamarra and Ronnie Tjampitjinpa that Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd , in order to safeguard the economic interests of painting Aborigines. In 1974 this organization already had 40 members. This form of organization took into account the social and economic interests of the painting Aborigines and was exemplary for others. In 2009 there were 42 such "desert indigenous art communties".
The name Tula comes from the smaller of the two hills near Papunya, an area of the honey pot ant dream time. The first chairman of the Tula Artists was Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, who was in charge of the creation of the honey pot ant mural. The Tula Artists Company had 49 indigenous shareholders and 120 members in 2011. Today the Punya-Tula community is referred to as the "flagship of a multimillion-dollar Indigenous arts industry" (German: "Flagship of an indigenous multimillion dollar art industry"). Amnesty International Australia estimated in 2011 that the national Aboriginal art sales of 200 million AUD generated.
After Bardon left Papunya, the honey pot ant mural was destroyed in 1972 due to an applicable school building "cleanliness ordinance".
Web links
- creativespirits.info : Photo of the honey pot ant painting with Geoffrey Bardon in the foreground (August 1971)
- ngv.vic.gov.au : Photo of the honey pot ant painting with school building (1971)
- papunyatula.com : Official website of the Papunya Tula Artists (English)
- ausemade.com.au : Explanation and illustration of some symbols of the Aborigines (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Australian Government on australia.gov.au ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Papunya Tula art movement of the Western Desert , in English, accessed August 22, 2012
- ↑ a b Wally Caruana: The Art of the Aborigines , p. 107 f., Singapore 1996, ISBN 0-500-95051-2 (German edition)
- ↑ a b c National Museum of Australia at nma.gov.au : Papunya collection , in English, accessed on August 21, 2012
- ↑ a b Book review: Geoffrey Bardon and James Bardon: Papunya: A Place Made After the Story: The Beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement . Hampshire (UK) and Burlington (Victoria), Lund Humphries (USA) 2006, ISBN 0-85331-947-2
- ↑ a b National Gallery of Victoria at ngv.vic.gov.au : The Honey Ant Mural, July 1971 , in English, accessed August 21, 2012
- ↑ a b creativespirits.info : Are dot paintings traditional Aboriginal art? , in English, accessed May 31, 2014
- ↑ National Gallery of Victoria on ngv.vic.gov.au ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Papunya Tula Artists Company , accessed August 21, 2012
- ↑ amnesty.org.au ( Memento of the original from September 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Tom McMahon: Homelands: The “art + soul” of the outback , in English, November 28, 2011, accessed August 24, 2012
- ↑ Wally Caruana: The Art of the Aborigines , p. 108, Singapore 1996, ISBN 0-500-95051-2 (German edition)
