Helen S. Tiernan
Gna-na-gna-na
15
votes
Helen S. Tiernan
Gna-na-gna-na
Code: 8367
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 33 x 153 cm
Year: 2008
Price: $ POA
Helen S Tiernan repeats and reinterprets the stories and images that are etched in our collective memory her own way.
One of the first attempts at painting an Aboriginal person was the portrait of Gna-na-gna-na by the Port Jackson painter (1790). In Tiernan's version Gna-na-gna-na turns his startled gaze on the intrusions of new people and strange objects into his familiar landscapes.
Tiernan reflects how the Eora people moved comfortably and effortlessly in their country, without desecrating it. First settlers imposed their presence and their buildings on the landscape, creating a “built environment” for their life style over the Aboriginal use of the natural environment.
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Further Research
Tags: unearthed - stories written in the land
Similar artworks: All the Jila | Kurtul Jila | Sydney Cove - Balloderree - Confronts the Colony (Diptych) | Ben-nel-long Meets the Governor (Diptych) | Port Jackson Land Fall - (After Conrad Martens 'View of the heads Port Jackson') | The Lost Estuary-Bondi - (After Petus Van der Velden 'Rock Forms Bondi') | Black Water | Long Dark Water | Bushfire Series - Kulyayi Waterhole | Bushfire Series - Kulyayi Waterhole |
