HELEN S. TIERNAN - KAMAY - SONGCIRCLE

 HELEN S. TIERNAN
KAMAY - SONGCIRCLE,  2020
106 x 106 cm
oil on canvas
 
PROVENANCE
Lake Tyers, VIC
Direct from the artist, ACTCooee Art, NSW 
 
STORY
Another articulation of Tiernanā€™s cross-cultural narratives is the interweaving of symbolic references to instruments and vehicles of navigation, the subject of paintings from her earlier exhibitions that highlighted the technologies of innovation which has existed for both cultures. She inhabits her paintings variously to elaborate on this context, using sailing ships, canoes with mobile kitchens, paddle steamers, boats, and most recently a space shuttle, stone walled fish traps, and spears as tools of technology that supported efficient food harvest. The technology of navigation is referenced by quoting variously to cardinal points on the map, nautical navigational charts, star configurations, rock art, Songlines and scar tree carvings.Aboriginal peoples fishing in the sea and along inland waterways is testament of their traditional lives that continued almost undisturbed in remote areas during the colonial years. Her use of gold in this context references at once the preciousness of the landscape to Indigenous Australians, and from a European view, its value as a commodity of capitalist trade and development.
 
EXHIBITED
MEMORY SPACE, April 2021, Cooee Art Redfern