Helen S. Tiernan

Ben-nel-long Meets the Governor (Diptych)

16
votes

Helen S. Tiernan

Ben-nel-long Meets the Governor (Diptych)

Code: 8366
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 186 x 30
Year: 2008
Price: $ POA

Tiernan superimposes Aboriginal figures with in the European altered landscape. She recreates images from artists of the early settlement to 19th century period of Sydney. Her technique refers to actual paintings of renowned artists like Conrad Martens his (1853) painting 'View of the heads Port Jackson', and Petrus Van der Velden (1903) painting 'Rock forms Bondi'. Revealing her own perspective she again repeats history.

Building on her own artistic practice, her own “art history”, Tiernan layers textures and surfaces as well as adding her own vision over that of previous images makers.
Using concepts she first developed in 'Shared Histories' 2006/7, Tiernan again delves into the multiple layers of repeated history, playing with glimpse of different realities, exposing the contradictions that lie beneath society's surface.

Her fascination with earlier painters styles, like Martins, Van Der Velden, Port Jackson painter as well as post modernist re-visions reminds us of the passing if time, the strains of colonisation.

Her subtle sense of mockery shows through the layers, unlocking some of the hidden stories of her dual heritage.
Most times Tiernan's works are ambiguous with many stories to read which totally depends on the viewer who inadvertently becomes the story teller.

We celebrate our survival.

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