Michael RILEY Untitled, from the series cloud [locust] 2000
Sights Unseen at the NGA
SMH review by Robery MacFarlane http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts-reviews/sights-unseen/2008/03/20/1205602549425.html
I like Michael Riley's work, this series is simple and unqiue and makes you think. Why is there a cow floating in one of the works? When everything else makes sense to be floating in the sky. I think I;m bias because I love the blue sky, because my favourite colour is blue! The photos are simple but still have detail, maybe through the use of macro photography.
LECTURE NOTES:
- Indigenous heritage
- Notions which inform the work
- “to be aboriginal is to be political”
- From NSW, Dubbo, moved to Sydney
- Passed away 22/10/06
- Aboriginal experience informs his work
- Political + historical resonance
- His approach from subject to character
- Eyes closed for example
- Changes the way we respond to it
- Series “Clouds”
- Generic: subject is to put onto a background of clouds
- Different aboriginality’s
- Decontextualized + isolated (feather image)
- Falling but stuck
- Falling on its side (horizontally), free “agent”, free “spirit”
- Feathers used in spiritual garments
- Death + loss
- Why is it floating? Where is the bird?
- Could suggest an arrow, don’t shoot the messenger
- Cow: Mother figure (or God), symbol of colonization, white fellas brought them in, has a tag, European agricultural degradation + economic dominance
Tracey Moffatt
LECTURE NOTES:
- QLD, Townsville (origin)
- Own studio
- First jobs Series:
- Canteen 1984
- Stall 1977
- Fruit Market 1975
- Hair washer 1976
- Housekeeper 1975
- Meat packing 1978
- Parking Cars 1981
- Pastel, old style, caricatures
- Old movies (contextual)
- 50’s/60’s but it’s the 70’s/80’s
- Drawn/sketched/historical photograph, décor
- Historical + archival photos which have been touched up
- Jobs, shitty jobs you do first up
- Her jobs from 15-17
- Reason so her mum wouldn’t buy her clothes
- Put herself into all the photos
- Humour
- Feminism
I don't really like this image, because it spooks me. It makes me feel uncomfortable and I don't understand it! It has excellent use of light and editing, but again I don't understand it and the composition feels all over the place. I do appreciate the idea and maybe her intention was to make you feel uneasiness.
The artist's opinion on feminism…
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