HELEN S. TIERNAN - TWO WORLDS WITH BORA CIRCLES
HELEN S. TIERNAN
TWO WORLDS WITH BORA CIRCLES, 2020
100 x 100 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. ā€¦Two Worlds (100x100cm) This symbolic early intercultural encounter suggests the naĆÆve, open hearted intimacy offered by Indigenous peoples to visitors to their lands. This is supported by the attitude of the family portrayed and the warm golden palette and all-over imprint of Indigenous body painting and engravings. Charging the encounter with the spirit of Indigenous cultural inflection, is the presence of three ghostly outlines of large shields, hovering in the sky over the ship like sentinels or Ancestral Spirits, posing questions perhaps about the outcome of this encounter. The Large crescent engraving is referencing Indigenous astronomy and the use of Cardinal points to gauge the seasons in such ancient sites as the Bora-Rings and Stone Arrangements at the Carisbrook site in Victoria, either end of the instrument refers to east and north, with the inscriptions ā€�Eā€¯ and ā€�Nā€¯ directing toward the respective sites.
EXHIBITED
MEMORY SPACE, April 2021, Cooee Art Redfern
