Colonial Wallpapers - Pacific Encounters (panel 2)

Artist Helen S Tiernan (born 1952)

Date2017

Object number00055115

NamePainting

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 1810 × 610 mm

ClassificationsArt

Credit LineANMM Collection funded by ANMM Foundation

Terms

DescriptionThe second image in a series of five painted panels by Helen S Tiernan titled 'Colonial Wallpapers - Pacific Encounters'. This panel depicts a map of the world as the background with Captain James Cook being lifted into the sky by two angels while holding a sextant. One angel is playing a trumpet and is half covered with a white tunic. The other angel, also half covered in a white tunic, shows her back covered in flogging marks down to her buttocks. In front of her is a Union Jack shield. Under the Captain and angels are two tall ships and on the lower right corner, a mythic sea creature. 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'.History 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.
Most post-colonial art takes its subject from earlier colonial times, but this doesn’t mean their interests are purely historical. To the contrary, the point of post-colonialism is to show how many unresolved issues from colonial history are embedded in the present.