Colonial Wallpapers - Mantle of Perception (panel 1)

Artist Helen S Tiernan (born 1952)

Date2017

Object number00055150

NamePainting

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 1785 × 610 × 40 mm

ClassificationsArt

Credit LineANMM Collection

Terms

DescriptionColonial Wallpapers - Mantle of Perception by Helen S Tiernan, panel one of five. This painting depicts a landscape scene framed in thick rainforest vegetation. In the distance can be seen an open cut mine, the Gold Coast in Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef. In the foreground, a group of five Quinkan country spirits run towards the viewer with arms raised above their heads. The artist Helen S Tiernan paints a panorama intermingling Australian colonial and modern references. Vast in both its geography and timelines, the painting presents mixed European and Indigenous perceptions of the land, its uses and meaning.HistoryIn this series of five panels, artist Helen S Tiernan presents the viewer with various narratives of the impact of colonization on Australia. Here the buildings rise from the land as symbols of power yet they are miniature and seem precarious placed in a vast and "seemingly endless landscape 'created by Ancestors'". In this first panel of 'Colonial Wallpapers - Mantle of Perception', Tiernan poses the question of Indigenous Land Title and the destruction of land by European pursuits. The viewer is presented with the deep cuts in the earth created by open coal mining in Queensland, the crammed high rises and artificial canals of the Gold Coast and the potential destruction of the Great Barrier Reef. The impact on this ancient landscape since colonisation is laid out here by Tiernan. The ancient rainforests in the foreground stand firm, highlighting that Indigenous custodianship of over 50,000 years respected and left sacred land untouched. The running figures of the ancient Quinkan rock art give a sense of despair. More so that these unique paintings, although among the oldest and significant rock art sites in the world, are themselves under threat from industry. Tiernan has created a textured surface on the panels of 'Colonial Wallpaper - Mantle of Perception.' Underneath the paint are patterns made from embroideries - a lace like pattern that acknowledges the female presence here. Both European women with their imported designs of lace and wallpaper, and the culture of weaving for Indigenous women. In the issues of Indigenous Land Titles and the disputed destruction of land for industry, the feminine voice is one that is rarely heard, yet here it is present. SignificanceArtist Helen S Tiernan's painting 'Colonial Wallpapers - Mantle of Perception' is significant as an example of a modern re-interpretation of colonial history from an Indigenous perspective.