This is the second occasion that Jane Tangney has exhibited her work at FAC. She is a local Fremantle artist and people will remember her for her sumptuous use of oceanic colours that depicted abstract scenes of the Fremantle Port. Taking a different palette this time, Tangney attempts to reconcile her memories and experiences of Rajasthan, India in this body of work.
Equally as stunning and distinctly progressive from the Harbour series, Jali is overflowing with symbolism and metaphor. The Jali are carved marble screens used by Islamic people as a shield of privacy. They provide ventilation and light to internal spaces, the subtle barrier between inside and out and Tangney is enchanted by the way they influence the act of looking.
Seeing through a screen has connotations in various dimensions. People widely interpret their surroundings through viewpoints, physically being reflective at a window we sum up our environment. Television is another screen, providing the public with multitudinal images of the world, factual and fictional. Art too in its various media provides a screen between the real and the manufactured. To the dreamer, images have permanence of memory. Tangney utilized these facts in the production of art, filtering information onto canvas via the mode of abstraction.
The result of this process of investigation is a collection of canvases at various levels of the sublime. Tangney has a depth of inquisition and dedication to her work that is rare in modern artists. This current work could be divided into two categories; those that are soft and reflective and some that are boldly expressive. In equal terms the artist is concerned with light and texture, with delicate shifts of colour and shadow, incorporating a universal perhaps ancient symbolism.
Repeated patterns alluding to the Jali screens are created by means of screenprinting, which Tangney then paints over. The images interlace, they reverberate like spinning wheels, and transport the eye around the canvas. Other paintings that have this capacity are Aboriginal Western Desert paintings, with which Tangney is familiar. The substance of Aboriginal art is the notion of the spirit within the landscape, a concept that is of great interest to the artist. Two paintings are in structure, similar to the Tingari Cycle paintings of the Pintupi men, like the long columnar painting Jali - Chandra Mahal - Jaipur, which is blissful in effect, and Jali - White Palace, a large square piece. They have the appearance of a continually flowing plaid, like the symbol of DNA it seeps deeply through the viewer, with its transparent quality of paint. These flowing paintings are among this reviewer's favourite, along with Holy Ganges and Peacock Man featuring soft mysterious rays of light that radiate with the charm of seeing the stars in the night sky. Another pair that are similarly uplifting are Shadow Play - Blue and Shadow Play - Grey. They are interesting studies in texture, with wavy lines flowing in rhythm superimposed on geometric Jali shapes.
One painting that is definably uncharacteristic of the artist is Sadhu Man, a bright orange optical hypnotic square piece that the artist discribes as "the intimidation you feel when confronted with one of these powerful holy men." Tow paintings in particular stand out as recollections of Tangney's previous linear landscape style, they are View From Jaisalmer Fort and one part of the diptych Behind the Taj Mahal, which features earthy hues and a scratchy, lined texture.
Jali encourages the viewer to anticipate the next body of work from
this artist to witness again the evolution of her oeuvre.
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Balgo is an exhibition of work by the Warlayirti Artists from the Balgo Hills area in Western Australia, toward the border of the Northern Territory. The art of this community is characteristically bright and bold, featuring primary colours in traditional rhythmical patterns hailing the dreamtime stories.
People from all over the world vigorously collect the work of this group, and this current demand is reflected the fact that the show was practically sold out on opening night. The paintings are consistently stunning and what's new is the work in glass. Previously an unexplored medium, except for the Warburton Artists slump bowls, glass is incredibly soluble of colour, which the Balgo artists use to full extent.
Particularly outstanding are the geometric patterns of Nellie Njamme's Nandalarra I and Nandalarra II. On a square format they are beautifully balanced compositions of mosaic type effect incorporating flat and metallic colour. Some obvious signs of tradition pervades the incredible modernity of these glass objects. Featuring designs of the country and deep waterholes they fixate the viewer's eye. Coolamons, which are normally designed of wood and bark, are shaped in glass by Patrick Olodoodi, a prominent male artist from the group, and Alison Gill. Obviously these artworks were not designed with their usual utilitarian purpose in mind.
The themes of the acrylic on canvas and linen paintings are from the usual array of dreamtime mythology. An untitled painting by Patrick Olodoodi dominates the space with its continuum of squares intertwined, recalling desert journeys of the ancestors. Ningie Nanala's Turlalpa features a serpent with soakwells and hills, and Susie Bootja Bootja's Kaningarra is a women's ceremony alive with excitement and dotted background colour.
This exhibition is typically dazzling and reflects the highest of world class contemporary cutting edge art being made by traditional Aboriginal artists in remote areas of this country.