Fig.one (gulf)

Gordon Bennett began formal art training when aged in his thirties, but rapidly won acclaim in Australia and internationally. His prolific practice was rich and diverse, ranging across mediums. He frequently referenced familiar styles, as in his celebrated Notes to Basquiat series, which posed a dialogue with the late American painter Basquiat. He also recontextualised historical images to challenge national identity myths, questioning the social conditioning that had made him feel inferior after he learnt he had Aboriginal Australian heritage. His work is thus post-modern, post-colonial and personal.

In his painting Fig.one (gulf), three police troopers fire rifles at an Aboriginal family across an ideological and cultural ‘gulf’. Between them stands a mirror incorporated into an isometric drawing, an illusion of depth and perspective that is in fact twodimensional. Bennett literally holds up a mirror to the binary colonialist construct from Australia’s past and present – so when white Australia perceives First Nations Australia as an ‘uncivilised’ Other, it sees itself. This work both reflects and refigures the nation’s vision of itself.

Barry Patton, Tarnanthi Writer & Researcher