Colonial Wallpapers - Pacific Encounters (panel 5)

Artist Helen S Tiernan (born 1952)

Date2017

Object number00055118

NamePainting

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 1810 × 610 mm

ClassificationsArt

Credit LineANMM Collection funded by ANMM Foundation

Terms

DescriptionThe fifth image in a series of five painted panels by Helen S Tiernan titled 'Colonial Wallpapers - Pacific Encounters'. This panel has a map like background featuring compass points and navigation lines. There is a landscape of tall mountains in the background while large outrigger canoes under full sail appear off shore. A Maori warrior appears in the upper right corner blowing gusts of wind that are refleced in the rough ocean churning along the bottom of the panel. Based on the conventions and elements of early European sea charts, the painting 'Colonial Wallpapers - Pacific Encounters' incorporates a central compass rose, rhumb lines and wind gods in a reconstruction of the Pacific. Combining images of Cook's voyage artists with the mythical, romantic and ridiculous, this vast panorama questions the image of the Pacific brought back to Europe during Pacific Encounters in the 'Age of Discovery'.SignificanceArtist Helen Tiernan's painting 'Colonial Wallpapers - Pacific Encounters' is significant as an example of modern re-interpretation of Pacific history from an Indigenous perspective.