Sometimes you just have to go with the flow. I had been asked by The Arts Society (formerly NADFAS) – as part of their imaginative Lockdown outreach programme – to make a short film about Aboriginal Art based on some of the pictures in my collection.
As I pondered how best to approach the project, I became horribly aware that almost every building in our street was having construction work done on it. The sound of power-tools and jack-hammers was incessant. It was going to be a challenge to record anything. After several days spent waiting for it to ease up, and with the deadline rapidly approaching, I realised that we would just have to get on with it – and seize the occasional moments of quiet.
My first thought had been to try and tell the history of the Aboriginal painting movement through ten pictures in my collection. But – once we started filming (with Nikki expertly wielding the iPhone camera) – I found myself carried away by the art.
It is so easy to take the pictures hanging on your own walls for granted. They become familiar, and merely decorative. It was wonderful to have the chance to look at them afresh, to engage with them in a new way. They evoked new emotions, they revived old memories – of the artists who had made them, and who had come to stay with me in London – and they suggested new connections.
The half-hour filming-time flew by, and we had not even covered half of the originally intended pictures. So – if you enjoy the attached film – there is plenty of scope for a sequel….
Content © Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery
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Thank you Rebecca, for sharing this culturally sensitive lecture and for sharing these exquisite gems from your collection. I am slightly in awe of the fact that not only have you met, but were friends with, some of the greats of Aboriginal art, like Clifford Possum and Emily Kame Kngwarreye! Studying Aboriginal Art at La Trobe University was one of my BA highlights. I have been looking around for Aboriginal galleries in England which is how i found out about you. I will most definitely be emailing you soon! I am an Australian ex-pat in England also (not quite as long as you), and have recently made my first purchase of Aboriginal art from the Tjanpi Desert Weavers, which is …
Fabulous. Thank-you, Margaret
What a stunning collection and fascinating to hear Rebecca talk about the artists who created them. I look forward to Part 2.
Beautifully presented lecture on Aboriginal art by Rebecca. Seeing treasured works of art of such diversity has indeed wetted my appetite to acquire more. I look forward to the sequel !
A very informative and sensitive lecture; I hope it gains a very wide audience - I loved it and, as someone who has been collecting Aboriginal art and working with Aboriginal artists for 25 years, it resonated beautifully.