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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 May 2000 Issue No. 482 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 May 2000 Issue No. 482
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Features Heritage Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters 
PRINTS BY SEVEN Australian Aboriginal Artists -- which continues at the Mubarak Library until the end of the month -- represents a rare opportunity to view works by the indiginous peoples of Australia, works that, until the late1960s, had not only almost entirely escaped the attention of art historians but which were, if indeed noticed, seldom if ever treated as art by the cultural establishment. That position, thankfully, has now been changed.
It is no accident that the reassessment of Aboriginal painting coincided with the birth of the modern Land Rights Movement in Australia, for both constituted a restatement of the identity of a people who had, since European settlement, been systematically dispossessed of their land and culture. The catalogue accompanying the exhibition makes this clear:
"When we paint -- whether it is on our bodies for ceremony or on bark or canvas for the markets -- we are not just painting for fun or profit. We are painting as we have always done, to demonstrate our continuing link with our country and the rights and responsibilities we have to it. Furthermore, we paint to show the rest of the world that we own this country, and that the land owns us. Our painting is a political act. Unfortunately, non Aboriginal people often remain ignorant of this fact, or deliberately choose to ignore that element in our work."
The exhibition, which includes lino- and wood-cuts and colour screen prints by Robert Campbell Jnr, Ellen José, Banduk Marika, Sally Morgan, Jimmy Pike, Pooaraar and Bedetungulatam, is part of a touring show curated by the Print Council of Australia, allows the Egyptian public their first glimpse of traditional Aboriginal motifs in a decidedly non-traditional format -- print making is a relatively new medium for a people who inhabited Australia for 40,000 years before the arrival of Europeans, but one that is, fortunately, eminently portable.
For exhibition details, see Listings.
