Queensland Art Gallery - Queensland Government

The visibility and success of Aboriginal art has transformed the way Australians understand
modern and contemporary art. Its diversity of practice, strong formalist sensibility and inclusion
of customary objects as part of its ambit have created productive dialogues, some of which also
inform contemporary Pacific art. Awkward divisions between art and craft, secular and ritual,
and urban and remote have slowly become less rigid, allowing for a far richer appreciation of
what constitutes Aboriginal creativity. The fact that audiences are able to see such a diversity
of practice allows non-traditional media, such as fibre art, for example, to be critically explored,
while the accompanying debate continues. 5 Most recently, the academic Ian McLean has
sought to historicise Central Australian Aboriginal art practice, arguing for a more critically
engaged view, and allowing for alternative modernisms within the art historical canon:
The fear that applying theories of the modern to remote Aboriginal art will assimilate its
differences into Eurocentric concerns is paternalistic and ignores the ways in which Aboriginals
have, since the time of first contact, readily sought to translate and assimilate and use the
cultural products of modernity. 6
Sometimes, as is the case for the sculptures from Vanuatu shown here in APT6, novelty and
artistic autonomy are not readily apparent. Consisting of a number of mague (ranking black
palm figures), temar ne ari (ancestor spirit figures), atingting (slit drums) and guardian of tabou
house figures, the grouping invites comparison. Yet, what is more rewarding, and as Ruth
McDougall explains, is a historical account of how these practices have adapted and changed
to suit the needs and artistic impetuses of the community who makes them. 7 Ambrymese
carvers’ translations of a number of stylistic, as well as actual, rites from the neighbouring island
of Malakula occurred over a long period of time, and were the result of complex inter-island
canoe trading and intermarriage.
Although house paints have mostly replaced natural pigments and ochres (except in the case
of the guardian of tabou house figures), according to anthropologist Kirk Huffman: ‘influences
from the white man’s world have had very little stylistic effect on the art styles on Ambrym’. 8
Covering the torso of a temar figure we see a fluorescent green; previously derived from a
particular moss it is now conveniently available in acrylic. This vivid hue, combined with the
ancestors’ red markings on a white face, forms a striking representation. 9
As part of the group of black palm figures is a selection of mague that feature a more
experimental use of paint. Many have bright blue and lime fish forms which appear to emerge
from the figures’ mouths, their noses and crescent-shaped eyes often contoured in bright pink.
One of the figures is said to feature the receding hairline of the man who commissioned it. 10
This design (if it does not already belong to somebody else) is now governed by copyright,
and other makers will have to negotiate its future use. Such a system — infinitely more complex
than that conveyed — can be seen as an impetus for constant invention, yet the practice of
all four types of carving has not dramatically altered over time, suggesting that Ambrymese
artistic interests and priorities lie elsewhere. These probably do not conform to Western ideas
of artistic production or evolution; however, we can surmise that the visibility of these art forms
outside Ambrym — whether on the streets of the capital of Port Vila, which are lined with black
palm ranking figures, or in Australia and Europe — will lead to further developments. Indeed,
there may be a commercialisation of these objects, which, as Ian McLean so cogently argues in
terms of Australian Aboriginal art, does not necessarily mean it will be to the detriment of the
works and the rites accompanying them.
Mansak Family
Vanuatu b.unknown
Temar ne ari (ancestor spirit) c.1995
Natural fibres, clay, synthetic polymer paint, ochres,
coconut shells, bamboo and sticks / 145 x 50 x 25cm /
Purchased 2008. The Queensland Government’s
Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund /
Collection: Queensland Art Gallery
Michel Rangie
Vanuatu b.c.1981
Mague ne sagran (ranking black palm) grade 4 painted
c.2005
Carved black palm with synthetic polymer paint /
195 x 38 x 48cm / Gift of David Baker through the
Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2008 /
Collection: Queensland Art Gallery
36 37