1.4 Heart at Boomali

Transcript

Hey, I’m Matt. And I’m Aiden. This is Hung Up, coming to you from Sydney. Each week we’re going to go to a gallery and talk about what we see. When we talk about art it

feels like there’s too much emphasis on getting it. It makes it feel like you need to be qualified just to be in a gallery. Why can’t we talk about art the way we talk about music and movies? Follow us at hungup.au on Instagram so you can see the pictures from this show. This week we’re at Boomali Aboriginal Artist Co-op in Leichhardt for Heart.

This… Dolphin? Okay, I’m yeah I’m seeing like a baby dolphin humanoid. It’s beautiful. I wanted to talk about this one. So we’ve got this like… it looks like part dolphin human fetus in like a womb surrounded by beautiful… the sort of the body of this

mother is like… and this beautiful blue and white like dot painting with these kind of bigger planets or circles within that body that are… they look like to me like sort of close-up details of something. Like scientific close-ups. Exactly, they look like scientific details. Yeah. But they’re also like part of the form.

Yes. As well as giving you the detail. And then the child I guess we could say is like got this really sort of happy like peaceful dolphin smile. It’s it’s the head of a dolphin and the body of a baby, you know. Yeah, like a big kind of fat baby. Yeah. And like adding to that comfort,

they’re really in this like classic curled up like fetal pose. Their one top foot is like across the bottom ankle and their wrists are crossed in like this fist shape. And yeah, he does have this real blissed out energy. Yeah, it’s a little bit weird. Like it’s a little bit creepy. Sure. Yeah, sure. Yeah, it’s it’s the the dolphin human thing because especially since like we know dolphins are like

very, you know, human-like in some ways they’re like mischievous and stuff like they get up to no good, you know, yeah, they bone stuff like well, I mean all animals bone but yeah, like they bone for fun. They bone for fun. That’s true. They masturbate and stuff. Do they really? Yeah, yeah, totally. Sick. Um, yeah, it’s it’s beautiful. It’s got this like, um, I mean, well, one thing I wanted to say was

that like it’s sort of I think deliberately avoiding like gendering the child, right? Like that’s right. Okay, and then on the body of this child is these kind of splotches of white paint like yeah, it also looks quite rude like you know, what’s that? It looks like white out like the paint is so thick and like tacky

like it looks like if you like spilled your white out all over the page. Yeah, and yeah, like it looks kind of jizzy. Yeah, yeah, looks a little bit like semen especially the one on it’s like butt. Yeah, they look like a swimmer. Splooshes. These ones look a little bit like, you know, more like patterns or something. Like sauce. Yeah sauce or like scars or like some kind of it’s interesting because like the dolphin is so flat like yeah,

and it almost looks uh, I know like something out of like a comic book or something like the way it’s kind of like got these little dots, but they’re all quite like neat and like yeah performing this role and then these big white white out splotches are like thick and kind of a little bit chaotic in terms of like, you know, the rest of the elements of this image that don’t quite fit.

When I walked past it at first, the first thing that jumped into my mind was these like furry communities. Have you heard about this? Sure. Yeah. So like I was thinking about um, just sort of uh walking past it. I was thinking about how um, how that looks to me or how that seems to me, which is like these um, people who are finding um, some kind of like refuge in the identity of an animal and like

that feeling safe and whole to them. Sure. That’s the expression that I’m seeing on this dolphin’s face. It’s like a human’s yearning to be a dolphin. Sure. Yeah. Because dolphins, I’m sure they have something like happiness, but this has got its like, it’s almost like it’s got its cheeks wrinkled up and you know, what we would call genuine human smile. Yeah, sure. It’s almost like a, you know,

like a baby kind of like does, is expressive, but so a lot of that is like an adult putting all the richness of like an adult feeling onto a baby’s like, you know, the way it looks like it gives you a weird look and you’re like, oh, well, it’s really like mean baby because it like, like, furrowed its brow. Right. But that’s, that’s also to say, I mean, you know, like

that babies or like all humans have, you know, the muscles, it’s all set up to, to smile or frown, right? Like we’re all, we’re all tooled up for that. Like you can’t, I mean, you can invent your new, a new expression, but we’ve just got this kind of range that we’re born with. A hundred percent. You’re just like, I think some babies aren’t quite aware of what they’re doing with their kid. Yeah, absolutely not. Yeah, absolutely not. They’re just new on the tools,

but they’re firing them off. Just bang, bang, bang. Like, yeah, you know, doing farts and stuff. That’s so cute. There is, I think bliss is cool. I was also thinking about those white splotches and everything else is like so flat and like everything else has this real tone. And yeah, that’s why I was thinking like kind of scars for me. It’s like something that doesn’t stand out,

but it’s kind of, you know, like what would the image be without those things? Because the rest is like, you know, it’s kind of smooth and soothing. There’s lots of like round shapes with the dots. And there’s like an umbilical cord that sort of forms the outline of the mother’s womb or whatever, that the sack that the animal is in. Yeah. I’m kind of fascinated by these like white splotches on the

dolphin baby, dolphin human baby, because they’re so different, like formally to everything else. That’s right. They’re jumping off of the page, whereas everything else is, is so flat. You could almost print it. So flat and so neat. And then everything is kind of like, you know, from every

sort of compositional way you look at it, like, you know, it’s round and it’s neat and it’s like, uh, organized and structured. And then these white splotches are chaotic and irregular and thick. And it’s almost like, yeah, it’s just, I don’t know. I’m really fascinated by like that decision. Like,

it almost makes me think it was like, it was done. And then it was like one last touch. And then you just slap the white out on top. I want to talk about this one. Sure. So this is beautiful. It’s, it’s on a big black background.

We’re looking at this, um, sort of canvas, um, uh, forest scene, I would call it with these, uh, sort of diagonal rays of sunlight coming through, but the artist has, um, captured little motes of dust in the sunlight. Like they’re sort of trapped in these shafts of sunlight and it’s all yellow. It’s like

dripping with honey, basically all these beautiful gums and like a dead tree that’s been burned down. There’s like some bushfire damage that’s being, um, sort of regrown. It’s it to me at first glance, it seemed like maybe a kind of easy subject matter or something, but I think the, the amount of yellow

in it just makes it so like, um, sort of odd and like modern to me. I walked past it at first. Cause it just, you know, I thought like, Oh, another landscape, but the, the kind of like, um, see how like this whole frame has no real like focus or like subject, you know, in the center of it, it’s not really

like composed as a photograph of like, you know, a person would be, it’s like this kind of, you could almost reduce this to like a print pattern, like, you know, but it’s got all the rhythms of natural, you know, randomness to it. And then there’s just this overarching like yellow everywhere. Yeah. It’s beautiful. I just love the, like the kind of, um, the lack of a subject that’s,

that’s really beautiful to me that you could say there’s like a little walking path down the middle, maybe, but there’s just no real like sort of big, you know, fat love heart in the middle of it or whatever, like that work. It’s just sort of, it’s blank in terms of the subject, which is, which I think is really beautiful. Yeah. I think you’re right. It feels so different to like

any traditional landscape that I would have seen. It feels very like flat and close to me, like the composition. Yeah. And, um, it’s, it’s, you know, it’s like a, it’s more like a window, you know, um, rather than, I don’t know, a shot from a movie. If you think of like traditional landscapes, they’ve kind of got all these layers and like curvy, like composition lines,

like leading lines running through them. But this is just, it’s kind of, um, rejoicing in its own texture. It’s so cool. I mean, I always want to say it’s like some of these colors are like ugly. Yeah. Talk to me more about the colors. I like that word shocking. Like it’s like pissed yellow and like, again, like asphalt black, like they’re not, they’re not supposed to be like

pleasant, but, but through it is this, is this like pleasantness and this appreciation for one of those, like, you know, photographers moments, like, you know, the sun is only going to be in this angle catching the, you know, catching the dust at sunset for 20 minutes or something. And then it’s gone, maybe 20 minutes, maybe five. Yeah. And, and so it’s kind of like

this fun, this really beautiful tension between the, the beauty of, of a fleeting moment, but also this kind of like, like tough, like ugly, you know, manufactured color, maybe like. Yeah. And it’s a, like a unique kind of ugliness. Cause maybe usually if you think of like painting or art and you think ugly, you think like brutal and you think maybe like, you know, it has to be horrifying.

And I think that’s not really happening here. It’s really interesting. Like you’re quite close to it now. And some of these almost look fuzzy and digital. So that’s what I was about to say is that the very background of this could be a digital print on this canvas. Like you can see the shiny paint that we’ve got here on this tree, but, but also in the very background, it looks to me like,

yeah, like a sort of low res digital shot. Like I, I am a hundred percent sure that that’s a print right in the background that the artist has kind of put on top, but I just want to go back to that word ugly for a second. Um, I’m looking at this thinking ugly in the sense of, um, my mom doesn’t want to listen to John Coltrane cause it sounds ugly to her. It’s like squeaky and scrunky, but to me,

I’ve been describing a lot of music like this, um, to some friends recently. It’s like a stinky cheese. It’s like, I love how it stinks. You know what I mean? And this is that same type of like discomfort. I think with these colors, like it’s crunchy and it’s like challenging. It’s not, it’s not sort of begging me to like it.

Right in the middle of the gallery, we’ve got this beautifully painted, uh, piano. It’s like, I would call it a mini grand. It’s like a miniature grand piano and it looks like a pretty good one. It’s got, um, a nice comfortable stool in front of it and, um, all these different patterns around it makes us, it’s making us walk around it now. So we’ve got like dots and stripes and like natural

colors and then these kind of white splotches, like they’ve been, um, thrown at the thing. There’s something beautiful about a piano to me, the musician of us too, the kind of like all the limitless potentials of a piano’s strings, but also obviously in this world, um, has this kind of like

Western art is good kind of dominant, um, authority in air quotes, you know, and this particular piano has, um, what looks like ivory keys. Um, it’s got this like natural, can you see the grain on the keys?

It’s, it’s very inviting to me. Like it just, it’s so fun. And like, you know, I want to see people like dancing to someone playing this thing. It reminds me of like, um, like South African art where they’re like, there’s these, um, these like huge, big, like, uh, patterns that like are allowed or there’s this kind of rejoice in the, like what we would maybe call like clashing and you

know, um, but yeah, they’re, they’re, um, I don’t know, they’re very harmonious.

We’re going to do a tutorial. Okay. Tutorial, be a wanker. No, it’s, uh, actually, it’s a, it’s a legitimate employment. It’s a legitimate employment. It’s a legitimate employment. Such a wanker. Necessity. You’re fired, dude. I’m not fired. This is my podcast. No, I’m not fired. No, no, I’m not fired. I’m not fired. It’s my idea. My name. I can replace you like that.

I’ve got all the, I’ve got all the, I’ve got all the Instagram account login details. What’s the past one? Can you share those with me? No, sucked in. I can do one of those requests, like you’ve stolen my identity. I’d like to see you try. So we’re looking at like, yeah, three, uh, kind of medium size paintings here. And I kind of want to start in the middle because the two on the outside have figures and the one in

the middle is abstract. It’s just like really drawing my attention formally. Let’s step in. Yeah. Yeah. It’s beautiful. I’ve got these, like, um, this kind of burnished, like, bronzy gold background and then, um, yeah, the very traditional dot painting style, but with, um,

these like stunning colors, which are all kind of, they’re all kind of talking to each other, but they’re all slightly like from different worlds. I don’t know. I’ve got this like kind of fluoro orange and then, um, a kind of a soft sort of turquoise and then a purple. And then this very soft sort of body pink, um, little bits of white and sort of very light,

light, light golden brown. And then, yeah, there’s this really interesting play. Once you, you know, we started with the abstract, uh, image that was in the center and then to kind of place on top of that, like actual objects, like, I don’t know how common that is, but it’s really interesting, uh, to have, you know, the kind of these abstract patterns and then also like figures and, and, and

natural forms. I don’t know how abstract, like on some of these to do with like land markings. Yes. Yes, that’s true. Yeah. Really like they’re not figurative, but they’re not like, they’re not meaningless either. Yeah. Sure. Well, like in the sense that any abstract form can be like meaningless, it’s such a beautiful kind of world to get lost in. And it’s something that like,

yeah, I, I haven’t seen that much like contemporary indigenous stuff, especially once we take it into this world of, I don’t know what world exactly we’re in, in this gallery right now. Like it’s kind of my first time here, it’s new to me, but it’s really exciting to feel like this interplay between like this ancient, ancient tradition and then like modern and it’s so kind of deft and thoughtful.

And I feel like that’s why we keep getting sucked in to these, like almost every work we’re getting like sucked in and pulled in and lost inside them.

Thanks so much. Thanks so much. That was a really great show. Yeah, we really enjoyed it. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, thank you. And sure. I’ll send you the episode when it’s out. Yeah, maybe. We would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which this episode

was recorded and pay our respects to their elders past and present. We extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples listening today. Next week, we’re at First Draft in Woolloomooloo. See you later. Bye. Bye.

Show notes

Hi! This week Aiden and Matt visit Boomalli in Leichhardt, and discuss works by Ella Noah Bancroft, Luke close, and Kyra Kum-Sing. Included themes: ugly=beautiful, who’s firing who, abstract forms, and the interplay between ancient and modern practices The show runs until 19th April Follow us on instagram to see the pics from this show :) https://instagram.com/hungup.au