Fiona Foley And Lin Onus example essay topic

Art Assignment Humans have a need to be heard and understood. We have a desire to express ourselves - our opinions, emotions and thoughts. A man named Karl Martino has written some inspiring words about 'living life as an expression' as a personal mission statement. Martino wrote these worlds to be an inspiration for all people. These missions include: "People feel the need to be understood, just as, or even more than the need to be loved.

Listen. People shine when they believe they can make a lasting impact; this may be the core of everything we do. Inspire. A life without passion is a life not lived. Live". - Karl Martino.

To enable ourselves to live our lives as an expression and make our own mark on this world we must find an outlet for this expression. One type of outlet is a talent such as music, writing, poetry or art. Art is a powerful medium for the expression of personal identity; it allows the artist to present visual images that are part of who they are. These images allow the artist to be better understood on a personal level be their audience. Fiona Foley and Lin Onus are two artists who use art not only as an outlet to express their own personalities but also as means to educate an audience about issues that they are strongly passionate about. Foley uses her work as a way to inform us about our complex society.

Her Aboriginal heritage and urban Australian upbringing allow her to move between cultures and give new meaning to traditional values and contemporary views. - appendix Through her work Foley attempts to educate her audience consisting of both Aboriginal and Anglo-European cultures about Aboriginal history and what actually took place in the time of Australian colonization. Survival (1988) portrays a Badtjala man of Fraser Island who is a 'Clever man' and a midden heap on Fraser Island. These images are presented in photography. The work depicts the impact western civilization has had on the native Australian people and their land.

For Foley these images are important as they put historical material into aesthetic documentation as well as being relevant to her own heritage. [Note to self - find out what is a 'clever man'] As a young girl Foley grew up in a small Queensland coastal town. After moving to the suburbs in her early teens Foley recalls how she experienced anguish because of the insensitivity and prejudice she encountered for being an Aboriginal student in a white school. "If people knew more about their own history there would not be the naivet'e that seems to be perpetrated today...

There is a lot of ignorance and prejudice that still occurs today and its mostly comes from not tackling the history of what actually took place". Foley says. - appendix pg 123 Foley was not deterred by the prejudice she experienced. She was inspired to learn more about her cultural heritage when her art teacher encouraged her to pursue her interest in Aboriginal art. She completed courses in art and teaching through which she became more aware of the cultural richness of Aboriginal art. She yearned to learn more about her heritage than what she could through textbooks and secondary sources.

She decided to investigate traditional regions for herself, traveling many times to Arnham Land and other Aboriginal regions. Foley draws on her experiences of the places she has traveled, events she has experiences and people she has met when completing her art works. Survival is part of a series of artworks in which she has aimed to redefine and reclaim the history of her people. Fiona states, "Its about putting Indigenous people up front in the world in every way - in fashion, in exhibitions and in the gallery system".

Lin Onus has very similar driving forces behind his artwork as that of Foley. He also has both Aboriginal and Anglo-European cultural influences in his life. He is the son of a Scottish mother and Aboriginal father. He was influenced from a young age by both classical western art forms and Aboriginal artifacts and souvenirs by his parents and extended family. Onus' upbringing influenced his personal artistic style, which is a blend of traditional European and Aboriginal art forms, which have their own narrative, often challenging their audience. The campaign of reconciliation, which began in Australia in the late 1980's, was a fixation of Onus' and a major motivation behind his art from this time onward.

Onus challenged the reconciliation concept through his works by presenting images of conflicting western and Aboriginal ideas. Like Foley, Onus' also had many travels to Arnham Land, spanning 14 years from 1986 onward. During this time he formed a strong friendship with artist and elder Jack Wunuwun who became his mentor. Onus' works were greatly influenced by his experiences.