Week 10: Culture Couture

Troy Anthony Baylis was the speaker this week. His lecture focused on Design. There are links to design in everything. All works of art are based on a premise of design or story. All the examples shown were what Baylis described as being created out of expression and therefore storytelling pieces of design.

 

As the worlds oldest living culture, Australia's Indigenous people could be regarded as the fore bearers of design. As Aboriginal people did not record their own historiography until after colonisation, because Aboriginal designs were not patented, as western cultures did, and because most Aboriginal material designs were made of organic substances, it is difficult to determine a date when Aboriginal designs in practice and material culture came to be. However, it is likely that designs for tools, clothing, song, dance, communication, shelter and trade of Aboriginal artefact's began thousands of years ago. It can be argued that it is design that enabled Aboriginal peoples to survive, adapt and practice culture in what novelist Marcus Clarke described as a "frightening and untamed landscape".

 

 

Anthropologists and Archaeologists and historians first discoveries of Indigenous artefact's included digging sticks, ceremonial and 'modesty' clothing, didgeridoos/yidaki, boomerangs and hunting tools such as woven nets and spears. Although it is difficult to date the inventions and material culture of Indigenous Australians there are rock art representations which date back thousands of years.

 

Many of the pieces discovered had decorations or coloured markings on them which gave them an ornamental element of design.

 

The piece 'Water Carrier' created by artist Jacqui Langdon, a descendant of Mannalargenna, is an example of reclaiming traditional design knowledge. The artist wrote: "This is an important piece as it is the first water carrier I have made with my mother teaching me the traditional methods."

'Water Carrier' 2009 bull kelp, river reed & tea tree.

 

This piece was created in Tasmania which has particular significance as almost all of the Indigenous Australians were decimated. It is important for them to reconnect with their culture and traditions.

 

Yvonne Koolmatrie is arguably Australia's most well known weaver. She uses traditional Ngarrindjeri techniques in her work and in 1997 represented Australia in the Venice Biennale.
Her work 'Eel Trap' was woven from native grasses. The piece reminds people of the River Murray and its poor conditions. An interesting fact is that despite Yvonne and her family using the reeds for various uses for years, she had to ask permission to use them for her works as the materials were heritage listed.


'Eel Trap' 2008 woven sedge.

 

Yvonne also teaches her family how to weave and has encouraged her son to revive the practice of net weaving. The following image shows her work 'Duck Trap' which was a collaboration with her son based on a traditional design.

'Duck Trap' 1997 Maningrida string.

Brook Andrew's piece 'Jumping Castle War Memorial' is a great example of ancient designs of Indigenous Australian's shifting into Contemporary Art and public design. The Jumping castle was shown in 2010 at the Sydney Biennale and was based on the pattern designs from the artists people, the Wiradjuri tribe. It urges people to consider if they are stomping on Australian Indigenous culture and shows how Aboriginal design and patterns can be and is used for contemporary expression.

'Jumping Castle War Memorial' 2010 inflatable.

Artworks featuring ancient designs used in a modern way, question what it means to be an Urban Aboriginal person in contemporary Australian society.

Artists Fiona Foley, in 2008 created an installation based on symbols of plants for Redfern Park. Her involvement in this project was notable because unlike other projects similar to this where Indigenous people are asked for permission to use their designs which are then created and produced by non Indigenous people, Foley was involved from the beginning to the end of the work.

'Lotus Cross' 2008 Redfern Park Public Installation

Is there an Aboriginal design aesthetic?

"There is a visual language created by Indigenous artists that is distinctive and is recognised by people as Indigenous. I like the word language because it speaks of place and person. There has been a rich history of Indigenous theatre that connects with ceremony, painting, music and dance in the thousands of years previously and this has helped to shape what Indigenous theatre is today. In a sense, this connection with Indigenous history and culture has inadvertently shaped the images you see on stage, crating a kind of design language." -Jacob Nash

'Terrain' set design in progress

"As a designer I have to go further than just what is in a script or an idea and find meaning in the subtext...Just because there is a red dirt road in the script doesn't mean you have to put it on the stage. I ask myself what else could this be, how can I keep pushing these design ideas forward? For example in Terrain, in the section called 'Salt', I had to firstly find out what a salt pan looked like and break down all the elements that made it a salt pan. This gave me a colour palette, a texture, scale and an emotional response. All of the creative ingredients were in front of me- pastel colours, ochre whites, textured clays- and I could express the land in a more abstract form that captures the essence of place. Its like trying to stir up the memory of the audience to an experience they have had and letting them connect to it in their own way. When all the elements of dance, design and music become one and the dancers begin to tell the story, I feel that I have journeyed some way in capturing that sense of country." -Jacob Nash

http://www.bangarra.com.au/performance/terrain

The quote by Jacob Nash is an excellent example of the types of ideas and questions that are considered when exploring and producing creative work.