Continent of smoke (series)

Author Identifier (ORCID)

Paul Uhlmann’s ORCID record ORCID Logo

Keywords

art, exhbition, painting, process, impermanence, clouds, smoke, birds

Non-Traditional Research Output

Original Creative Work

Document Type

Non-Traditional Research Output

Date of Publication

2022

Research Statement

Research Background

This exhibition extends research conducted through a number of public exhibitions, such as the 2018 NGV ‘Colony’, depicting alternative histories of Australia to both understand our collective past and to work collectively to heal the immense psychic wound. This series of artworks represents the moment of first contact between the navigator, explorer, and photographer James Cook, Aboriginal First Nations people and the continent of Australia. 

Research Contribution

Cook and his crew sailing up the eastern coast in 1770, encountered many signal fires of First Nations peoples which set up great plumes of smoke. On leaving, Cook described the land as a 'continent of smoke'. This series of artworks ironically fold together these events with the recent mega fires of 2019–2020. Time and history collapse as described in the concept of fold (Deleuze). According to the World Wide Fund for Nature report of July 2020, the mega fires claimed nearly three billion animals—killing and displacing “143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 180 million birds and 51 million frogs” (WWF, 2020). The artworks provoke a rethink to the management of land and relations to Indigenous people of First Nations Australians who successfully managed the land through fire practices for thousands of years.

Research Significance

This work offers an important contribution to reconciliation between Aboriginal First Nations people and settler culture. Sydney Contemporary 2022 is the pre-eminent nexus for the art world to engage with contemporary practice; presenting 90 leading galleries annually from Australia, New Zealand, Asia and around the world. The Fair attracts leading critics and collectors including institutional museums and media. Since 2013, Sydney Contemporary has annually attracted more than 112,000 visitors. The work was highlighted on internet media including Art Collective and the links for the site. An artist talk was presented at the event.

Medium

5 paintings

Publisher

WA art Collective

School

School of Arts and Humanities

RAS ID

58048

Event Dates

September, 7-11, 2022

Event Venue

Sydney Contemporary 2022

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