Aboriginal Australian Aesthetics Colin Ducharme & Courtney Self

Resources •Environment•Limited Materials

Why do Aborigines make art?

“[Art] is the voice through which the human soul speaks to the spirit of nature.” (Anderson)

Eternal Dreamtime

Spiritual world

Ritual & Performance

Scarification

• Mobile art mediums: the human body

• Techniques

•Purpose: - mourning - initiation rituals - social status - enhancement of

beauty

Body Art

• Techniques - greased/ochers- blood/ kapok

plant - paint

• Enhanced appearance

•Ritual purposes

•Painted designs were owned by the individuals who wore them

•Clothing to decorate not to cover

Do you think body modification qualifies as

art?

Cave Art

Bark Painting

Tjurungas- flat, oval, or circular slabs of wood or stone, often bearing complex paintings and incised patterns

Art makers used subjective vision- representing things not as they appear to the eye, but as the mind knows them eternally to be

Paint and blood

Used to educate future generations

Art making

Initiation Ceremonies

Ceremonies were performed to sustain the realm of human

Initiates were altered in appearance:

- Pulling out teeth/ hair

- Scarification

- Genital Mutilation

Aboriginal Religion continued…

Fertility Mother: Kunapipi (Gunabibi) focus on increased magic

- perpetuate natural order of the Eternal Dreamtime

Ritual & dance

Aboriginal and the Contemporary World

In recent decades, the aborigines had two options:

- Reproduce traditional paintings (bark, paper, or canvas)

- Or the Western easel-painting styles of the non-Aboriginal world

Scholars have interpreted the art to be valuable and influential in Australia’s cultural heritage