J'y étais comme un enfant, émerveillée!!! Emerveillée par la découverte de Julie Dowling, parce que son ouvre aborde l'art aborigène d'une façon atypique et originale.
Il s'agit presque d'un clin d'oeil comme si nous passions de l'âge du noir et blanc aborigène (complété par le jaune et rouge) à un monde nouveau à la palette variée. Cela revient à une sorte de transition, de rupture comme le fut l'irruption de la couleur dans le 7e art ou en photographie.
La couleur souriante et vibrante sur certaines toiles ne doit pas nous faire oublier qu'elles ne symbolisent pas toujours la joie ou l'enthousiasme. Dans l'art aborigène, certaines teintes sont sacrées ou représentent des périodes très douloureuses, comme le sang versé par ce peuple noir au fil de son histoire.
La couleur chez les aborigènes invite également à voir l'invisible, à décliner les palettes du sous-sol, à appréhender plusieurs dimensions. Dans ces compositions complexes, profondes se révèlent ainsi différents niveaux de lecture, cependant uniquement accessibles aux initiés. Sur ces tableaux, la couleur attire, surprend, permet des compositions de plus en plus audacieuses, et suggère dans l'abstraction des formes plus anciennes.
Il y a de la pétillance dans cet art aborigène, une dynamique de renouvellement, une invitation à la rupture, à la naissance d'artistes et d'individualités brillantes.
Julie Dowling is one of Australia's most collectable artists and yet she and her identical twin sister are the ultimate misfits. Aboriginal but white skinned. As they grew up they had almost no place in modern society - twin white waifs to a single mother, rejected at birth by their father, entirely dependant on welfare. But because of Julie's talent, and crucially because of the support the twins give each other, she is the first in the family to be revealing the long history through her art.
"Dowling paints stories told to her by her family, they are the oral history of the Badimay/Yamatji community. She illustrates her heritage, not only by writing the words but by depicting the emotions contained in their spoken syllables. Through a confident combination of European and Indigenous imagery and stylistics, and by mixing media from both worlds - acrylic, red ochre, plastic, and blood, Dowling offers us an art of reconciliation.
We are attracted to the decorative surfaces of these works then, after careful examination of the intricate patterns and imagery, discover stories of pain and suffering. These works present visual records of actual events and the haunting black faces that stare out at us are witness to them. Any recrimination we happen to read into these faces comes from within our own hearts as the artist has only painted fine portraits of her family and members of her community.
The excellent series of 8 small icons entitled The Seven Deadly Sins, 2000 is a perfect example of this concept. 'Avarice' relates to the mining of coal which is no longer needed in Austalia; 'Pride' shows us salt damage to the land; 'Lust' refers to diamond mining; 'Wrath' to pulling uranium out of the land for nuclear weapons; 'Greed' illustrates open cut mining for gold; 'Sloth' refers to air pollution; but 'Envy' says it all, as here we see suburban estates carved out of another's land only to retain words from the original owners as street names. Oh yes, the eighth image is 'Sorry' which cries for the stolen generation.
Dowling's small works are jewel-like with glowing faces set in glittering surrounds. But the artist must be wary about overdoing the glitter factor or she could be in danger of falling over the line into kitsch. At present, the honesty of content and strength of portraiture holds the work above the abyss.
Her larger images are less decorative. More sombre in hue, they narrate true stories from the past. In The Dance a white Air Force Sergeant-Major proposes to a pretty black girl (the artist's grandparents) while his mates look on in horror. Another story tells about a group of black boys in mission white robes who staged a protest by Taking God for a Walk. They removed the sacrificial offering from the church prior to High Mass, much to the distress of the priest.
In all her works, large and small, the artist reveals her ability to blend European style with Aboriginal symbols to tell her people's history in a visual vernacular we can all understand. Her canvasses provide a neutral ground where we can contemplate the truths of the past, identify the present situation and plan for a better future".
Reviewed by Judith McGrath
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