Sunday 1 July 2007

Pay Attention


This glorious painting is by Gloria Petyarre from the Utopia Aboriginal community. See more of their work here. I find contemporary Aboriginal art fascinating and mesmerising - especially when you are standing right in front of the works. They can leave you feeling dizzy and disoriented!
I was browsing through some aboriginal art on the net after chatting to my son in New York - he is going to an exhibition of works from Utopia. We reminisced about our trip to Central Australia in 2006, where we learned a lot about the Papunya Tula school. If you've never seen Australian Aboriginal Art, check it out - it's amazing.
Sadly, our aboriginal communities are in the news at present. With an election looming, our government has finally decided to try to make up for years of neglect. There are many health and social problems in the isolated communities - as a country, I feel we have treated our indigenous people very badly.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous artwork. Looks very 3- dimensional.
My niece lived in Australia for 3 years before coming back home with a couple pieces of gorgeous aboriginal art.
I agree, the neglect of these people is heartbreaking.
The Utopia exhibit your son is going to sounds amazing.

eb said...

I love aboriginal art - and it has inspired many of the art classes and camps that I have done with children

beautiful!

xox - eb.

Serendipity said...

eb- can't find your blog, would love to find it!