http://www.craftunbound.net/country/south-africa/the-german-forest-comes-to-namibia Craft at large Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:42:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.craftunbound.net/country/south-africa/the-german-forest-comes-to-namibia/comment-page-1#comment-13 Nalda Searles Wed, 30 Jul 2008 10:38:00 +0000 http://www.craftunbound.net/wordpress/?p=114#comment-13 The german artist Anselm Kiefer visited Australia as the keynote speaker for the Adelaide Festival in 1992. His talk was titled 'Boundaries, traces, tracks,songs.'<br/>It focussed on mixing an Aboriginal dreaming story with the journey of Ulysses.<br/>The dreaming myth was of a Lizard man who was pursuing his wayward wife.<br/>Bruce Chatwin's Songlines had impressed Kiefer and this was where he sourced his story from.<br/>By mixing the two myths, the south and the north he was attempting to show how we all need a sense of where we are going.<br/>ART AUSTRALIA carried the full transcription of Kiefers talk several issues later.<br/>And another instance which I know of.. the Anthony Gormley sculptures on the salt lake near Menzies, Several of the senior Aboriginal people that visited them were quite upset.They saw Anthony Gormley as 'copying' aboriginal people by making dark figures . Plus they are situated on a dreaming site. All the information about how and why it was done meant nothing to them. They saw dark figures on a dreaming site.<br/>I think it will be quite some time before non indigenous artists broach indigenous mythology. The german artist Anselm Kiefer visited Australia as the keynote speaker for the Adelaide Festival in 1992. His talk was titled ‘Boundaries, traces, tracks,songs.’
It focussed on mixing an Aboriginal dreaming story with the journey of Ulysses.
The dreaming myth was of a Lizard man who was pursuing his wayward wife.
Bruce Chatwin’s Songlines had impressed Kiefer and this was where he sourced his story from.
By mixing the two myths, the south and the north he was attempting to show how we all need a sense of where we are going.
ART AUSTRALIA carried the full transcription of Kiefers talk several issues later.
And another instance which I know of.. the Anthony Gormley sculptures on the salt lake near Menzies, Several of the senior Aboriginal people that visited them were quite upset.They saw Anthony Gormley as ‘copying’ aboriginal people by making dark figures . Plus they are situated on a dreaming site. All the information about how and why it was done meant nothing to them. They saw dark figures on a dreaming site.
I think it will be quite some time before non indigenous artists broach indigenous mythology.

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