Critical Analysis : Research and Enquiry module, MA Fine Art, part time year 1, semester 1.
Gillam, Barbara J. (2017). ‘Figure-Ground and Occlusion Depiction in Early Australian Aboriginal Bark Paintings.’ Leonardo. [Online] 50 (3). pp 255-267. Available from: http://muse.jhu.edu/article/662401 [Accessed on 2/11/2019)
excerpt: pp 255 – 256
Barbara Gillam was born in Australia and has been professor of psychology at the University of New South Wales since 1987. Prior to this she was professor of vision sciences at the State University of New York College of Optometry. Her work includes behavioural research in experimental psychology, looking at visual depth perception in relation to art.
In this paper, Gillam analyses the skills of Aboriginal artists in using occlusion and figure-ground imagery, and proposes that the sophistication of this art makes it valuable as a basis for experiential study of the way we perceive depth.
I’ve selected an excerpt of the text in which the author shows how Aboriginal art not only conveys conceptual meaning, but also uses visual artistic devices chosen to depict a particular way of perceiving the world. It’s this idea of different modes of perception and understanding how to incorporate them in a painting that I find interesting as I’m currently trying to make work that evokes a sense of otherness, that contains space and depth without specific points of reference.
The author starts by tracing the development of Aboriginal art; from an ancient and rich culture of drawing on rock, in sand and on bodies to recount creation stories and beliefs about ancestors and connections with the land, to work revered as modern art. Gillam then describes how the art form we see now only appeared in the early part of the last century, as a way of Aborigines setting down their stories and beliefs on movable surfaces for the benefit of western missionaries and anthropologists.
Gillam then establishes the status of Aboriginal paintings as modern art and not just as cultural artefacts. She highlights the Dreamings exhibition at the Asia Society, New York, in 1988 as a key event in bringing the work to the attention of the western world; then cites an exhibition in Dusseldorf in 1993, that was explicitly an art exhibition not a cultural one, as evidence of the significance and general acceptance now of the paintings as ‘important Modern Art’.
The author then posits that whilst the visual appeal of the paintings is highly regarded, (referring to a number of publications on the subject) this has not been the subject of deep examination; the major focus having hitherto been on the conceptual aspects of the works. Gillam quotes from Morphy (2007), who she considers, “the foremost authority on the art of the [Aboriginal] Ylongu peoples”:
“Ylongu, rather than using techniques of visual representation to imitate the reality of the seen, are more concerned with conveying the reality of the unseen. In this respect, then, Yolngu art might also be deemed more conceptual than perceptual.”
This quote and Gillam’s response epitomises the core of her argument. Gillam does not dispute the conceptual aspect of the work, but asserts that from her perspective as a psychologist, it also does in fact depict aspects of visual perception. It is the kind of visual perceptions that are depicted, how this is achieved and why that is particularly interesting. Gillam goes on to examine this in detail and the middle section of the text is quite dense.
Gillam refers to the way western (Renaissance) art uses linear perspective, and proposes that when Aboriginal art is described as more ‘conceptual’ than ‘perceptual’ what is actually meant is that it’s not ‘perspectivistic’; – it does not try to replicate what the eye perceives in the real world as viewed from a single point. Gillam asserts that, nonetheless, the paintings do depict the way the eye sees things from other points of view. She points out that all art necessarily draws on the same shared repertoire of visual perceptions, which, as she puts it are; “honed by evolution and experience to register properties of the environment relevant to the species”. This last statement is important. Gillam expands on it; reiterating that human visual perception goes beyond seeing three dimensions from just a linear perspective, and highlighting that the choice of which experiences to use in creating art depends upon the cultural background and technical ability of artists.
Gillam then introduces the idea that ground is especially important to hunter gatherers. She proposes that the visual perceptions Aboriginal painters draw upon are those particularly suited to showing things in relation to the ground, from above rather than receding into the distance, interacting and overlapping in a way that’s more like a map than a picture of a vista. Gillam shows that Aboriginal artists use perceptions of occlusion and figure-ground relationships; of things being below, behind or on top of each other, to depict depth and meaning in their paintings. In addition, she points out that the paintings are complex and might look ‘unrealistic’, but this is because they may include a combination of different perspectives; an overhead view combined with images of things as seen from the ground, combined with images of things being inside other things, for example.
Gillam asserts that whilst occlusion occurs in all painting traditions, it’s not as well studied as linear perspective and suggests that this is due to a mistaken belief that the experience of occlusion is one of intellectual understanding and not an immediate perceptual phenomena. She goes on to outline some of the difficulties of recreating the perception on a two dimensional surface, then appears to somewhat contradict her previous assertion by referring to detailed scientific studies into the principles underlying the psychology of occlusion perception. However, the point that Gillam is making is that whilst there is understanding of some principles, the way these are applied by artists has not been well documented and that Aboriginal artists, being sophisticated and imaginative in this respect, make them a particularly good study. This is what she examines in the remainder of the article.
The tone of this text seems to reflect a western-centric view of the work. There’s no mention of how it is regarded by Aboriginal people. Nonetheless, the argument for the work’s artistic value is well made and this supports the merit of analysing how and why the paintings work visually.
This text makes a persuasive argument for the fact that Aboriginal artists depict real-world visual perceptions in their paintings, and that the choice of using the perception of occlusion and figure-ground relations is determined by and is a reflection of the culture and belief systems of the artists. In addition it carries a more subtle message; – in depicting a range of spatial relations between things together with a range of conceptual ideas about the world in a single painting, Aboriginal art demonstrates a high level of complexity and sophistication.
End
Morphy, H. (2007). Becoming Art: Exploring Cross-Cultural Categories. Oxford. Berg Publishers