Ace History Desk – Aboriginal Dot Art: The simple dot style as well as cross hatching may be beautifully aesthetic to the eye but has a far more hidden meaning and deeper purpose; to disguise the sacred meanings behind the stories in the paintings.
Before Indigenous Australian art was ever put onto canvas the Aboriginal people would smooth over the soil to draw sacred designs which belonged to that particular ceremony.
Body paint, which held meanings connected to sacred rituals, was also applied. The designs were outlined with circles and encircled with dots.
Uninitiated people never saw these sacred designs because the soil would be smoothed over again, and painted bodies would be washed, which was not possible with paintings.
Aboriginal artists abstracted their paintings to disguise the sacred designs so the real meanings could not be understood by Westerners.
Dot painting originated over 50 years ago, back in 1971. Geoffrey Bardon was assigned as an art teacher for the children of the Aboriginal people in Papunya, a small community, 240km north west of Alice Springs. He noticed whilst the Aboriginal men were telling stories they would draw symbols in the sand.
Bardon encouraged his students to paint a mural based on traditional dreamings on the school walls. The murals sparked incredible interest in the community. He encouraged them to paint the stories onto canvas and board. Soon, many of the men began painting as well.
At first, they used cardboard or pieces of wood, which were later replaced by canvas.
This began the famous Papunya Tula Art Movement.
Bardon helped the Aboriginal artists transfer depictions of their stories from desert sand to paint on canvas.
The Aboriginal artists soon became concerned that the sacred-secret objects they painted were being seen not only by Westerners but also by Aboriginal people from different regions who were not privy to their tribal stories.
They did not want them to understand or learn the sacred, restricted parts of their stories, so the artists decided to eliminate the sacred elements and abstracted the designs into dots to conceal their sacred meanings.
Early Papunya paintings strongly represented artefacts, ritual objects, and spiritual ceremonies. This style disappeared within a few years.
The first paintings to come fromunya Tula School of Painters were never intended to be sold. They were purely created by the Aboriginal people who were displaced and living a long way from their original home country.
The works were visual reminders of their own being. They painted land that they belonged to and the stories that are associated with those sites. In essence, they were painting their identity onto the board’s, as a visual assertion of their identity and origins.
Originally, colours were restricted to variations of red, yellow, black, and white produced from ochre, charcoal, and pipe clay. Later acrylic mediums were introduced, allowing for more vivid colourful paintings.
These vibrant artworks burst with energy, showcasing delightful dots, playful crosshatching, captivating maps of circles, swirling spirals, lively lines, and dynamic dashes! This is the enchanting and long-established pictorial language of the Western Desert Aboriginal People.
When it comes to Aboriginal artworks painted in acrylic, they celebrate a joyful harmony of traditional and contemporary styles. The dot technique adds a magical three-dimensional effect, infusing each piece with a sense of movement and rhythm that truly dances before your eyes!
Many people comment that the paintings look alive and that they literally seem to jump out at you. The flat canvas comes to life with energy and vivacity just like the dreamings and rituals that inspired them.
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