Gordon_Bennett

Question 1: Gordon Bennett: Notes to Basquiat • Gordon uses his personal experiences and backgrounds of the aboriginal culture. • The impact of the European’s are shown through the city buildings. • Bennett shows a relation to both aboriginal and European culture. • Western symbols used were the nails, buildings, clocks and planes. • Bennett expresses his aboriginality through non-traditional forms and his art reflects his exploratory relationship to his identity. . Question 3: “Essay” The cultural frame shows us the influence of society and cultural identity in artworks, whether it is race related, gender concerns, class or social status, politics and religion. Gordon Bennett shows us his aboriginal identity and concerns about the way the European’s have change the way of the living for all aboriginals. Bennett does not paint in the traditional aboriginal way as this would not show the exact definition of what he means and is expressing, complex ways in which he engages the historical and questions of cultural and personal identity. Bennett’s artworks focus on Australia’s colonial past and its postcolonial present; the way in which society has changed. His artwork is guided by postmodernist aesthetic that has enabled him to represent the politics and histories that determine the identities of any people. Gordon Bennett’s artworks are challenging us to think and question the stereotyping and racial labelling that many people categorise the Aboriginals as. Bennett investigates the way stereotyping has put a label of aboriginals; also how stereotyping is constructed by exploring words and images in opposites. Gordon Bennett explores the way stereotyping ads pain and suffering to the people who once owned this land many years ago. Gordon Bennett’s artwork (notes to Basquiat) he has used western symbols including nails, buildings and clock. He uses his personal experiences and backgrounds of his aboriginal culture; he also shows how he distinguishes his own identity through his paintings. Guan’s artworks show the lack of harmony between human kind and nature. Wei uses common objects in his works to show that life is precious and easily damaged and then needs to be protected. He wishes to create a visual language to take account of the ways the scientific world and developments have shown and presented us with the different universe to that of which we knew years ago. The grey in his earlier work represented not only the physical environment of Beijing but also his state of mind while he was living there. Guan does a lot of research before he starts any project and many of his artworks have a scientific theme. Guan makes his artworks the way he does so that they can be interpreted. In some of his artworks he uses political influence as sometimes in this art making he wouldn’t give them mouths as some people didn’t have the right to speak, even if this did make them look unpleasant. Guan has used his experiences of living in Beijing to living in other parts of the world and we can see this in some of his artworks where they are grey. He uses different cultures within his artworks. Guan uses images and objects that reflect upon aspects and definitions of family and place. His artworks consider contemporary actions and their implications in the future, but also the way the scientific technology had changed and gotten better. He shows people through his paintings how humans have understood and changed the environment. Gordon Bennett and Guan Wei have both used their experiences throughout life to help them in their art making and to make statements about certain things they find are important to the Australian history.