To describe language as discourse is to acknowledge that linguistic communication is not just determined by an abstract set of rules and systems. Discourse recognizes the fact that every utterance is embedded in particular social and cultural contexts and circumstances. In short, discourse is language laden with, and determined by cultural, historical, political and moral ‘baggage’.

Much of this baggage contains evidence of social prejudice and power structures. It reveals ways in which language takes on regularized and dominant forms to the exclusion of irregular or unorthodox voices. Language that tries to break through or to disrupt these dominant forms is often ridiculed or ignored, usually because it questions the prevailing power structures or because it causes discomfort and confusion to those who uphold them. One of the many reasons that non-conformist language causes discomfort is that it draws attention to the ways in which power is both lodged within and perpetuated by the dominant forms of discourse.

Those who try to speak outside these dominant forms face several difficulties. Not only are they seen as disruptive, but they are also deprived of a language and a voice through which to express their concerns and experiences. One strategy for making the mainstream more inclusive is to use satire in an attempt to expose its shortcomings. Another is to claim validity for unofficial, marginalized or personal forms of discourse.

This is what Geoff Vivian does in his exhibition entitled, Where are the Love Songs?  In this extremely personal ‘expose’ about relationships between white men and aboriginal women Vivian presents five paintings of aboriginal women. His concern is that Australian history has chosen to ignore the fact that "most aboriginal people are now descended from at least one white man". It has chosen also to disregard both the inter-cultural and personal relationships that must have been involved in giving birth to such people. The only ways in which our history has acknowledged these relationships is to place them outside mainstream values and discourses and to disapprove of them. Vivian attempts to question these values and to ‘interrogate’ the discourses that support them, and he does this through a series of ‘narratives’ – narratives told through a combination of images and text.

The first of these is a painting entitled Bamboo Yorga. This shows just the eyes, nose and forehead of an aboriginal woman. The nose, cheeks and forehead are bathed in light, but the dominating feature is the darkness of the hair and of the eyes, especially the eyes. The eyes are barely visible, receding back into a blackened mask-like ‘frame’. They are deeply sad and troubled, but also commanding. On closer inspection it becomes noticeable that the small areas of white within the eyes have been overwritten (or underwritten) with a typed text.

The next narrative painting reveals the source of this text. The same face appears again, but this time the text is more extensive, and parts of it are quite readable. It is a passage from Xavier Herbert's long (1938) novel entitled Capricornia. In this novel Herbert explores the relationships and undertakings of a group of people in the Northern Territory. One of his major themes is the exploitation of the aboriginal people and the pretentious of the white characters to racial superiority. Any sexual contact between white men and aboriginal women is referred to as Black Velvet, and the men concerned are generally judged to be ‘unspeakably low’ and treated with contempt. Only one character challenges this prejudice by claiming that the love of aboriginal women actually contributed to the process of white settlement because it made living in the wilderness more bearable.

It is Herbert's description of Black Velvet, and how it disrupts the life of a young white man, that is inscribed within Vivian painting of the aboriginal woman's face in Bamboo Yorga and in its companion piece Black Velvet. Combining an aboriginal face with an English language text indicates the fact that discourses of a dominant culture shape not only the attitudes of those who belong to that culture, but also the perceptions of those who are dominated by it. The social position of aboriginal women is determined by white discourse, but even worse than this is the fact that the women themselves are forced to see their own position through that same discourse. Their bodies and those of their male partners are constructed by, and written into white discourse along with its codes, values and stereotypes.

This same message is expressed differently in the painting of another aboriginal woman entitled Dolly. Here the image of Dolly is overwritten by the information that she was a "Tewi composer of love songs," and that her "cast-off lovers claimed the songs under tribal copyright". It seems that even someone who writes about such a universal experience as love does so from a position outside the dominant discourse if her love does not fit the moral codes of that discourse. Her lovers have some claim to the songs but she does not.

The fourth narrative in the series is entitled Primitive "wild-cats". This shows four young aboriginal women standing side by side. It is based on an actual photograph, which was taken mainly for the purpose of showing the tribal marks on their backs, legs and stomachs. The women are ‘displayed’, front and back, as if for some anthropological study. The caption under the photograph, however, indicates that the white photographer (or his editor) did not have an appropriate language is which to describe them. The women, whilst being posed as if to illustrate an article in National Geographic, are described as primitive "wild-cats" proud of their "beauty marks". A closer look at the photograph shows this to be pure journalism (of the girlie magazine kind) since the women actually appear to be passively compliant and somewhat embarrassed. Vivian painting draws attention to the failure of the text to relate meaningfully to the body language of the women.

The last of the paintings in this exhibition is entitled Portrait of the artist as a ridiculous stereotype. This shows a painting of the artist himself with the darkened shape of a woman's head resting on his shoulder. The title refers to the fact that white discourse has no way of celebrating, or even accommodating, such a relationship as ‘normal’. The white, male artist is forced to present himself as a stereotype and as both ridiculed and ridiculous. In so doing he confronts white discourse head-on with its prejudices and inadequacies.

The text in this image is a combination of aboriginal words and abusive English, suggesting that neither of these two languages have the capacity to include such a relationship. Neither the black female composer of love songs nor the white male artist is equipped by their respective discourses with the materials to compose Love Songs. Neither of them has the answer to their predicament, but they certainly have some important questions.

These works can be seen on Geoff Vivian web site at  www.skyboom.com/lovesongs