Let's all be Art-Dumb together

 I am a STEM major. Didn't take art in high school. Only occasionally draw, and when I do I do it badly. I know next to nothing about the history of art, nor many famous artists. (I mean, Van Gogh and Monet were cool but that's the standard "I don't know anything about art" answer.) 

HOWEVER, that doesn't mean that I can't enjoy art (however dumb I may feel). 

I recently moved to Brisbane. (Life's been insane. (That's okay.)) I love going to art museums by myself and looking at beautiful things that I don't understand, so one weekend I walked to the Gallery of Modern Art, got caught in the rain, was soaking wet, and appreciated some cool art because we don't have to be Art Smart to enjoy it. 

This is what I saw.

(Note: I didn't plan ahead and didn't think I was going to turn this into a blog post, thus I didn't think to get the names of any of the artists. Sorry. Dear artists, your stuff is great and I'm dumb. Go support (while social distancing) your local museums, people.)

These are three examples of probably fifty different Aboriginal/Torres Strait Island shields that the museum had on display. The two on the left were created by modern artists while the one on the right is about 100 years old. Most shields on display were from central to southern Queensland. Aren't they gorgeous? 

According to the info plaque:

"Shields are some of the most collected of all traditional Aboriginal objects. These large and portable objects, often richly decorated in customary designs, were popular among anthropologists, ethnographic collectors and everyday frontiersmen. For many Aboriginal groups, countless artistic traditions and inheritances were devastated by colonisation and Christianisation. Today, shields contain some of the best records of regional Aboriginal mark-making and artistic traditions."

Ever since moving to Oz I've been trying to get better with my Aboriginal/Torres Strait Island history and cultural awareness. I'm certainly not where I want to be (or where I should be), but everything about this ancient and still-living culture is fascinating, especially when I stumble across exhibits like the above.

These portraits were fascinating because they were all of queer people of colour, but in a change from the regular modus operandi the subjects were paid for their time and were able to chose how they were portrayed by the artist. 

I didn't get a close-up, unfortunately, but the items on the letters "ASH" are ash trays depicting (*cough* racist *cough*) stereotypes of Aboriginal Australians.

This was probably one of my favourite exhibits. These are old car hoods (or bonnets for all my Aussies out there) that Kayili artists from Patjarr painted after the cars broke down in the harsh Australian environment. These pieces depict (according to the info plaque) "topographic maps of [the artists'] country, and the ancestral journeys that formed it."

Hopefully you've enjoyed this little journey into the world of Australian modern art. Stay safe, my friends.