From Bush Grass to Open Waves: Images of Oceania

This week we are comparing two different types of art work, one from the area of Australia and one from the Island lands of Melanesia or Polynesia. First, I’d like to focus on this piece from 1880, created by William Barak called “Corroboree”. Barak was a man who became a spokesperson on Aboriginal affairs in Victoria, according to the Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art. He worked often within the mediums of ochre and charcoal. Within this piece notice that while he depicts things like boomerangs that are curved in nature with curved lines as he would have to in order to depict them naturally, he then takes the liberty of depicting the legs of the men in the top row and distinct right angles. These right angles and very straight lines are rather unnatural and somewhat indicative of the influence of nature surrounding them and influencing them. Also notice the heavy influence of the many straight lines used inside each form for the purpose of detail. Even if a form’s main shaped is curved, like the snakes are, they are bisected many times by straight lines. This is one distinct way how their landscape and the straightness of what they saw around them every day in the form of grasses, etc. influenced their work.

These statues of Polynesian idols from the Puuhonua o Honauau National Historical Park in Hawaii are a great example of the rounded lines prevalent in Polynesian art forms. These rounded lines are a reflection of the nature seen around the island lands of Melanesian and Polynesia. These rounded lines are an example of the waves seen in the ocean, and the rounded lines you might see in many sea creatures you might find that these communities of people would use for food or materials for living.