HURDY GURDY (WRONG WAY AROUND)

Hurdy Gurdy (Wrong Way Around)

Clinton Nain is a contemporary hurdy gurdyist, whose imagery, created in an expressively carte blanche manner of application to canvas, conjures up echoes of Baroque music, carolling away at shifting speeds, encouraging the enchained monkey accompanist. The origins of the term hurdy gurdy are medieval, dating from the tenth century, but the popularity of the instrument peaked during the Renaissance period of the fourteenth through to sixteenth centuries.

Fitting, then, that Nain has become a major player in the renaissance of contemporary Indigenous visual culture of the past decade, grounded in the vibrant metropolis of Melbourne, while drawing inspiration from his customary affiliations with two of the oldest continuous cultural groups in the world: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Born in Carlton, Melbourne in 1971, Clinton Nain has spent most of his life a long way from the traditional homelands of his people in Far North Queensland and the Torres Strait. His multiple, intertwined identities as a proudly Indigenous, gay, cultural activist with communal ties from the remote north-east of Australia, whose life experience is strongly influenced by living in the south-eastern state of Victoria, are the impetus behind and foundation for his life and work.

Nain’s visual art practice and performance work address the issues within this composite identity, overlaid by a heightened sense of sardonic wit and humour, which is apparent in much of the work of his fellow contemporary, urban-based Indigenous peers, such as Destiny Deacon, Gordon Bennett, Richard Bell and Gordon Hookey.

Nain generally utilises a sparse palette, ranging from sinuous and sensuous black and white, dark brown and cream, iridescent blues through to incandescent reds. When someone is described as being ‘incandescent with rage’, it is referring to an individual being so consumed by anger that they seem literally to become luminescent with emotion – an experience not uncommon for many Indigenous people today as we continue to be marginalised in all areas positive, and over-represented in all areas negative. Plus. Minus. Under. Over.

2007 heralds four decades since the historic decision achieved through the holding of the Australian Referendum 1967 (Aboriginals), known colloquially as The Referendum.

The referendum of 27 May 1967 approved two amendments to the Australian constitution relating to Indigenous Australians. Technically it was a vote on the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginals) 1967, which after being approved in the referendum became law on the 10th August of the same year. The amendment was overwhelmingly endorsed, winning over 90 per cent of voters and carrying all six states. (1)

The majority of people today continue to confuse the outcome of this altering of the Federal Constitution, which discriminated against Indigenous people, as being about approving citizenship for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and allowing us the right to vote; both of these ‘rights’ had been approved in 1947 and nationally in 1965, respectively. Yet, can we truly and confidently state that much advancement has actually been achieved, fought for and gouged out of that ‘pot-holed road’, forty years later?

Aspects of Nain’s work for this exhibition make reference to the Referendum in a chilling manner; Forty Reasons, 2007, portrays forty crosses, overshadowed by a giant target, appearing above like an eclipse of the sun. Are these markers from graves – one for each anniversary since that time four decades ago - of his/our forebears who sacrificed their lives fighting for their lands? Rendered in bitumen and acrylic paint, there are also shades of American Master artist, and one of the acknowledged twentieth-century international greats, Jasper Johns, both in imagery and tactility.

Hurdy Gurdy, 2006, seems to share links with Scottish-born, quintessentially Australian-formed artist, Ian Fairweather (1891–1974), with the roughly scripted, opaque text in blue, mirroring the pristine waters surrounding the Torres and Timor Straits (the former being the spiritual/customary home for Nain, the latter a source of adventure for Fairweather over half a century past), melding with target and cross symbols underneath, like skin encasing corporeal matter.

Nain is part of a highly creative and inspirational family – an elder sister, Destiny Deacon, is a renowned contemporary artist; his elder brother, Johnny Harding, is a playwright, author, activist and performer. Other members of the family are associated with Indigenous art and culture – all have been lifelong activists.

The strongest influence on Nain was his mother, Eleanor, and much of his work reflects homage to her life, in depictions overt and oblique. His imagery is sparing yet poignant, with the ‘mission-brown’ house paint of earlier canvases replaced by sticky tar – bitumen – a touch of the ‘tar brush’ perhaps, equating the canvas with the body, and the surface materials to body paint worn in ceremony and mourning.

Forty years on, the existence of our peoples still appears to be marginal. From that overwhelming acknowledgement of the right of all men and women to equal representation forty years ago, much of the powerful echelons of Australian society in 2007 appears to be mired in the Dark Ages; medieval in its intent to persist with marginalising the first custodians of this country. The work of artists such as Nain challenges the inaction of those who choose to stand inert; those who, instead of encouraging us to move forward together, keep going the wrong way around.

Forty days and nights in the desert. Forty years on. Forty thousand and more. Always was, always will be.

© Brenda L Croft 2007
Brenda Croft is Senior Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_referendum,_1967_(Aboriginals)