APRIL 19, 2012 - MAY 19, 2012
In 1826, French explorer Jules Dumont d’Urville set out to circumnavigate the world in the corvette l’Astrolabe. With a crew including artist Louis Auguste de Sainson, l’Astrolabe anchored in King George Sound (the site of Albany, WA) on October 15th, 1826.
During ten days on the south-west coast, the crew including de Sainson, explored the surrounding area and had dealings with the Minang people. De Sainson produced a number of sketches documenting the expedition which were produced as a folio of lithographs in 1833.
The paintings in this exhibition are derived in part from de Sainson’s 19th century lithographs. The largest painting, Welcome to Country, replicates part of a small de Sainson work held in the National Gallery of Australia (pictured above and below), while Land Release 3 and Open Plan Living refer directly to a work held in the Art Gallery of Western Australia.
These works explore the conflicts and connections between traditional indigenous culture and contemporary western ideologies.
Geometric house floor plans float symbolically over carefully rendered scenes of traditional living in some works, marking the shift in land use and the disruption to local ecologies.
In some works, cross sections of the seed and blooms of native and introduced flora morph into wallpaper designs featuring repetitive motifs and regimented decorative patterns. Pease likens these to decorative wallpaper which adorned the walls of buildings and houses during the Colonial period, oftentimes featuring wildflowers from their home country.
Pease’s practice holds a unique and critical place in Australian art with an approach that is deeply embedded within Australia’s colonial history of oil painting yet offers a fresh interpretation of indigenous storytelling.