Colonial Wallpapers - Mantle of Perception (panel 3)

Artist Helen S Tiernan (born 1952)

Date2017

Object number00055152

NamePainting

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 1785 × 610 × 40 mm

ClassificationsArt

Credit LineANMM Collection

Terms

DescriptionColonial Wallpapers - Mantle of Perception by Helen S Tiernan, panel three of five. This painting is the central panel of the series and depicts a sculptured bust of Palawa woman Trugernanner (Truganini) placed against a backdrop of stark striped wallpaper. On the left side of the sculpture is Laurie Nilsen's barbed wire 'Emu' and on the other is Daniel Mellor's kangaroo 'The Blue Collector'. 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 central panel in a series of five, artist Helen S Tiernan presents the viewer with various narratives of the impact of colonization on Australia. While in the background numerous tall ships seemingly pour into Sydney Cove it is in the foreground that Tiernan draws the viewers’ attention. Here Tiernan has placed an image of a sculptured bust of Trugernanner. Trugernanner was part of the Nuenome band of Bruny Island, part of the South East tribe. She would go on to lose her family to colonial violence, kidnapping, disease and by 1876 she was very much alone. Betrayed by bureaucracy, imprisoned and witness to the destruction of her people Trugernanner was removed from her land and traditional lifestyle and spent her remaining years as a border in Hobart. She died in 1876 and her body, against her specific wishes and well-founded fears, was removed after burial and put on display until 1947. The image of Trugernanner that Tiernan has chosen to depict here is based on a sculptured bust by colonial artist Benjamin Law who was based in Hobart while Trugernanner was detained nearby at Oyster Bay. Law also created a sculptured bust of Trugernanner's husband Woureddy. Sculptured by Law in 1836, the busts of Trugernanner and Woureddy are amongst the first sculptures created by a European artist in Tasmania and are a powerful symbol of the devastation that occurred after Tasmania was colonised by the British. The sculptured bust of Trugernanner by Law and the image of used here by Tiernan, suggests great sadness and loss. Trugernanner was portrayed by Law looking downwards with a sense of sorrow and awareness of all that has been lost in such a short and brutal time. It is a loss of life, of land, of culture and knowledge. She is depicted wearing a traditional Palawar shell necklace and fur cloak of Bruny Island where she was born rather than the European style dress she was frequently photographed in. On Trugernanner's right is Laurie Nilsen's 'Emu' made of barbed wire and to her left is Dani Mellor's 'The Blue Collector'. Although the partnership of emu and kangaroo is symbolic of Australia's coat of arms, here Tiernan uses them as symbols of the treatment of Indigenous Australian since colonisation. The restrictions placed on them and the absorption of their country and culture by Europeans. SignificanceArtist Helen Tiernan's painting 'Colonial Wallpapers - Mantle of Perception' is significant as an example of modern re-interpretation of colonial history from an Indigenous perspective.