Divining moment in cultural history
Rex Butler; 28/4/08
The picture is irredeemably strange. An Aboriginal family - their bodies rendered in graphite, their clothes colourfully painted - is gathered around a makeshift cot on which a newborn baby sleeps. They are posed awkwardly, slightly unnaturally, as though unconsciously echoing some archetypal scene. It’s a candid snapshot of indigenous life, unflinchingly depicting the tattered clothes, the reduced circumstances, the flimsy humpy made of corrugated iron in which the family undoubtedly lives. But most astonishing of all, in the middle of this scene of everyday life, a white angel arrives, his arm outstretched, his garments fluttering, his wings miraculously holding him aloft. The work is called Intervention by Alice Springs-based artist Rod Moss, who is showing at Brisbane’s Fireworks Gallery.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23606477-5013577,00.html
Tags: Aboriginal, Art, Australia