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JONATHAN JONES: THE APPROACH

I am challenging western romanticism and perspective, and critiquing the grand, colonial narratives of western art that have been imposed on an Australian setting to create a new Aboriginal framework. 

Concerned with making a connection to the local, I looked at the landscape of the south- east and the region’s main artery, the Murray-Darling River system. The rivers connect both Kamilaroi and Wiradjuri in the upper catchment with Ngarrindjeri at the mouth of the river. This connection is the foundation to the region’s traditions, including linguistic commonalities where languages like Kamilaroi and Wiradjuri are set on similar syntax to that of Ngarrindjeri in the south. During the initial stages of colonisation the rivers’ connection was evident, with smallpox carried along the river ahead of any contact with white people, severely decimating the population.

The fallen tree displaces the Gallery’s colonial depictions of the Murray-Darling River country, many of which use the traditional colonial framing device of placing a tree in the foreground. By re-sitting the ‘position’ of the tree, I am challenging western romanticism and perspective, and critiquing the grand, colonial narratives of western art that have been imposed on an Australian setting to create a new Aboriginal framework.

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