Pay Attention: Aboriginal Art in NSW

Abstract

Despite extensive academic focus on Indigenous Australian art, sustained engagement, particularly in the discipline of anthropology, has largely focused on artists and artworks from the central, northern and western regions of Australia. Academic works examining art-making in the south east of Australia, particularly New South Wales (NSW), are relatively few, despite news articles, exhibition catalogues and monographs penned by artists and curators providing evidence of vibrant communities of Aboriginal artists and solo practitioners working across NSW. In light of this, this thesis addresses the relative academic silence around Aboriginal art-making in NSW. It asks, broadly, what kind of art is being made in NSW and why?

Drawing on fieldwork undertaken across NSW – including interviews with 65 artists, curators, arts workers and others – and on primary analysis of several data sets – including material from the Australian Art Sales Digest and Parliament of NSW Aboriginal Art Prize catalogues – this thesis seeks to pay attention to Aboriginal artists working across NSW in order to document the work they make, the technical, creative and social processes through which they create art, their experiences of the art-world, particularly the art market, and their motivations for making.

As a result of this attention, this thesis focuses on various themes, issues and topics. The history of intellectual and commercial engagement with Aboriginal art produced in NSW since British colonisation is canvassed in order to contextualise and make sense of the concerns and creative interests of research participants. Participant use of art to represent, affirm and constitute diverse personal, cultural and professional identities is explored and it is demonstrated that identity-focused works reveal that Aboriginality is conceptualised, by artists, in overwhelmingly non-essentialist ways, although the nature of this non-essentialism is varied. Diverse art practices undertaken by Aboriginal artists in NSW are described, including detailed analysis of two visual forms (south eastern designs and dots) and two styles or genres (urban art and contemporary art) which are commonly created, or are felt to be significant, by participants. These forms/genres are positioned by artists and others as traditional and non-traditional to NSW, sometimes simultaneously. Analysis of engagement with these forms reveals the ways participants conceive of culture especially as it pertains to tradition, authenticity, change and continuity. Finally, consideration of the sale of art in various art market spheres illustrates that selling work is significant for artists, and confers meaning upon artworks offered for sale.