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akrasiel — Displacement I
#australia #ayersrock #canada #colonialism #displacement #emigrant #emigration #grassland #immigrant #immigration #moose #outback #uluru #indigenous
Published: 2016-03-06 08:36:05 +0000 UTC; Views: 2241; Favourites: 132; Downloads: 0
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Description
The first in a pair of paintings for a BFA alumni exhibit at my university. The theme is 'sense of place' relating to our university's location in northern British Columbia, Canada. For those who don't know, I spent the first 25 years of my life in that town before immigrating to Australia in 2014. From the exhibit statement:"Displacement I features a moose near Uluru / Ayers Rock, an iconic sandstone formation in the Northern Territory of Australia. The site is sacred to the Anangu Aboriginals. ... The paintings reference the artist’s immigrant status while simultaneously acknowledging the ongoing displacement of indigenous peoples."
Kinda nice to challenge myself with a landscape painting and get back to something more academic.
The paintings complete a set with this poem, which draws on my roots in the Anglo-Celtic diaspora:
trying to call forth cathedral forests and splintered
coasts, a compass powered by the pulse
of faded ghosts
auroras tremble when I close my eyes
Canada goose lost among southern skies
circadian spirals, waking before midnight
because it's always daylight when you're a splinter
of an empire, one hand clutching ice and
one hand seeking fire
lay my veins over longitude and latitude,
map my blood and give Magellan my gratitude
crossed two tropics and a pacific sea
marked the spot where my heart should be
but uilleann pipes seep through my chest
and bring my soul back home to rest
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Comments: 26
Jeeez, i always loved Ayers Rock...if this is a genuine painting. well done you. but, have you used a real photo and traced over it? don't be offended by this. i think it's great if you do so. but i commend you if this art is just a digital panting. 
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It’s hard to define a ‘genuine painting’ here. I referenced various photos of the rock because I haven’t yet been there myself, and since it’s a sacred site, I owe it to the Aboriginal peoples of Australia to paint it as accurately as possible. That said, I painted the grasslands from scratch on the assumption that they constantly change. The moose is definitely an original addition since it wouldn’t be there in real life.
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Oh seriously, no worries about references, I admire the respect of the Aboriginal people you have and the painting is a brilliant tribute. I seen the Moose, i thinking, 'why is there a Moose in the Picture? lol. i really liked the painting.
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That place is still the coolest to meThat place is still the coolest
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Neat idea, I wasn't sure what I was going to be looking at when I clicked on the image. I was quite surprised to find the moose by the rock!
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Like everyone else, I legit thought this was a photo before I read your description and I was so so confused by the moose. But yes, very nice idea. Fits the theme perfectly!
Eugh, every time Uluru is mentioned I just want to go off on a big geological tangent... (No. Calm down Rochelle, restrain yourself!) Sometime I have to remind myself that nobody actually cares that much about rocks.
P.S. This picture is my jam. The more I think about it, the more I like it.
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Confusion is exactly the reaction I hoped for, that sense that something clearly doesn't belong. 
I don't know the first thing about rocks, but Uluru must be fascinating from a geological perspective. How does a colossal hunk of sandstone wind up in the grasslands? Just the other day I was reading about a hill in my hometown that formed from glacial erosion. (It also used to be an island in the late 1700s when Europeans first discovered it, since the dominant river in the area was in the process of changing courses.) As far as I know most rock formations in BC are due to water or volcanoes, so Australian geology baffles me. I'll gladly listen to your rambling; I should know more about the country I live in.
(Man, you definitely need to visit western Canada - between the Rocky Mountains, the hoodoos in Drumheller, Alberta, and the volcanic belt near the coast, it's basically geology porn.)
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I totally thought this was a photograph.
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Mission accomplished then!
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Same here. I thought it was a photo. Gorgeous work and an interesting concept.
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The thumbnail looked like a photo to me. Even still seemed that way when I clicked on it. I didn't realize it was a painting until I read your description then scrolled back up to have a closer second look. The colours in/of the sky are what I think fooled me the most. The depth of field seems realistic, too.
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That's the effect I was hoping for.
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