Sower and Reaper II

Artist Neil Healey

Date2014

Object number00054591

NamePainting

MediumOil, acrylic, ink, pencil and collage on board, 30 pieces of silver wattle

DimensionsDisplay dimensions: 880 × 880 × 20 mm
Overall: 920 × 1230 × 20 mm

ClassificationsArt

Credit LineANMM Collection

Terms

DescriptionA painting by Neil Healey titled 'Sower and Reaper II'. Healey depicts Captain James Cook walking through trees in a native forest as he scatters nails over the ground. In the background, a hooded human figure is looking at the viewer and holding a candle. The nails are designed only to spike curiosity, to astonish, to falsely impress the local inhabitants. HistoryNeil Healey looks at the idea of exchange as the language of encounter. He presents Cook as a mythical figure who casts nails through the native forest. Gifts were used as a form of communication by Cook and his crew and a means of accessing the land and its people. However, the Europeans’ trinkets were of little interest to Aboriginal people. Cook casts his offerings with a grand gesture yet he does not look directly into the land or towards the people with whom he wishes to engage, only the viewer. In this way Healey suggests the idea of miscommunication tahtsSignificanceThis painting by Neil Healey gives a contemporary perspective on first contact and the impact of European colonisation. The painting, as part of East Coast Encounters, is a voice in a shared story, re-imagined by Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists, to encourage cultural dialogue and promote reconciliatory understanding.