Helen S. Tiernan: Mother and Child of Gippsland, 2004 By Rosemary Forde
TIMELINES by Helen S. Tiernan brings together, for the first time, works drawn from over twenty years of painting by this visually eloquent, technically masterful artist. The exhibition allows us to move through and between multiple timelines – tracking the artist’s own trajectory.
Upon entering the exhibition at Berninneit, we are met by the powerful gaze of Maggie Arnott, painted at a monumental scale on a three-by-two metre unstretched canvas titled Mother and Child of Gippsland (2004). Arnott, an Aboriginal woman, identified in archival records simply as ‘of the Gippsland tribe’, was photographed in 1878 by the German-born photographer Fred Kruger. In the original albumen print, a studio portrait is staged against a backdrop of forest leaves. Maggie carries her baby, swaddled to her side, wrapped not in a possum skin cloak as she may have once been, but in a government-issued blanket of the period.
TIMELINES by Helen S. Tiernan brings together, for the first time, works drawn from over twenty years of painting by this visually eloquent, technically masterful artist. The exhibition allows us to move through and between multiple timelines – tracking the artist’s own trajectory.
Upon entering the exhibition at Berninneit, we are met by the powerful gaze of Maggie Arnott, painted at a monumental scale on a three-by-two metre unstretched canvas titled Mother and Child of Gippsland (2004). Arnott, an Aboriginal woman, identified in archival records simply as ‘of the Gippsland tribe’, was photographed in 1878 by the German-born photographer Fred Kruger. In the original albumen print, a studio portrait is staged against a backdrop of forest leaves. Maggie carries her baby, swaddled to her side, wrapped not in a possum skin cloak as she may have once been, but in a government-issued blanket of the period.
Timelines, an exhibition of work by Helen S. Tiernan. Photo: Karli Duckett
Tiernan’s appropriation of Kruger’s photograph completely reconfigures and transforms the black-and-white image – one of hundreds of photographs made by Kruger that aimed to document Aboriginal life via what has come to be termed an “archaeological gaze”. Tiernan’s painting gives depth to the forest backdrop, brings rich ochres and fiery orange tones to contrast the dark skin and hair of Maggie and her baby, and layers the surface of the canvas with embossed patterns of line and circular motifs, referencing traditional body painting and adorned shields.
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Painting her larger than life size, Tiernan presents this mother as heroic, and goes some way to warming and restoring her memory. The gloriously rendered portrait brings Maggie Arnott, a nineteenth-century Gunaikurnai ancestor who lived at a time of vast and irreversible change, directly into our present and contemporary view.
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Timelines by Helen S. Tiernan is at the Berninneit art gallery until July 12. Catalogue launch & artist talk on Saturday 13 June, 2-4pm Speakers: Helen S. Tiernan, Rosemary Forde, Colin McHenry Free event, bookings required at Trybooking. |
Mother and Child of Gippsland is part of a body of work Tiernan first exhibited in 2004 titled Songlines – Journeys through Country. This project was an important return to Gippsland for Tiernan after she had graduated from the Canberra School of Art in 2001. In Songlines, Tiernan worked closely with Aboriginal communities connected with the former Lake Tyers Mission, gathering their stories and memories, and painting with permission from their family photo albums.
The artist in her Fish Creek studio. Photo: Rosemary Forde
Recently, Helen S. Tiernan said to me, “I’m repainting history with visual language, which is stronger than words, and I’m learning too”.
Tiernan’s visual language speaks clearly and expansively – offering us all a chance to learn with her, to take delight in her playful gestures and to get lost in the beauty of the deep green sea. But Tiernan also invites us to look closely and think deeply, as she does, about our world, ourselves, our histories and stories in the relationality between peoples, and between people and the planet.
Rosemary Forde is a curator and art historian based in Victoria. She is currently the Visual Art and Cultural Development Officer at Bass Coast Shire Council.
Tiernan’s visual language speaks clearly and expansively – offering us all a chance to learn with her, to take delight in her playful gestures and to get lost in the beauty of the deep green sea. But Tiernan also invites us to look closely and think deeply, as she does, about our world, ourselves, our histories and stories in the relationality between peoples, and between people and the planet.
Rosemary Forde is a curator and art historian based in Victoria. She is currently the Visual Art and Cultural Development Officer at Bass Coast Shire Council.