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An image of Fruit bats by Lin Onus
Alternate image of Fruit bats by Lin Onus Alternate image of Fruit bats by Lin Onus Alternate image of Fruit bats by Lin Onus

Lin Onus

(Australia Dec 1948–24 Oct 1996)

Language group
Yorta Yorta, Southern Riverine region
Title
Fruit bats
Place of origin
Victoria → Australia
Year
1991
Media category
Sculpture
Materials used
polychromed fibreglass sculptures, polychromed wooden disks, Hills Hoist clothesline
Dimensions

250.0 x 250.0 x 250.0cm overall:

a - 100 fruit bats; 41 x 14 x 8cm; All bats vary in size, these measurements are those of an average sized bat.

b - 603 polychromed wooden disks; 3cm; diametre

c - Hills Hoist clothesline; 250 x 230 x 230cm

Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
Credit
Purchased 1993
Accession number
395.1993.a-c
Copyright
© Lin Onus. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney
Location
Yiribana Gallery
Further information

Yorta Yorta painter, sculptor and activist, Lin Onus developed a distinctive visual language from a combination of traditional and contemporary Aboriginal imagery.

Lin Onus was unjustly expelled from school on racist grounds at the age of 14, yet later attended university. He worked as a mechanic and spray painter, before managing his father's boomerang workshop in Melbourne. A self-taught artist, Onus forged a brilliant career and held exhibitions throughout the world.

Onus's political commitment was inherent in his work. His Scottish mother was a member of the Communist Party, while his Aboriginal father, Bill, and uncle Eric were leading lights in the Aboriginal rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

After a visit to Maningrida in 1986, Onus began his long and close association with the late Djinang artist, Djiwut 'Jack' Wunuwun and other central Arnhem Land artists, including John Bulunbulun. Onus then developed his signature style of incorporating photorealism with Indigenous imagery. It is a virtuoso effect, in which the landscape is overlaid with traditional Indigenous iconography, reflecting his strong ties with his father's community at Cummergunja Mission, on the Murray River. Onus's works from this period often have a riddling, Magritte-like quality. A memorable motif in his work is the breaking up of a seamless surface into jigsaw puzzle pieces – a metaphor for the sense of dislocation he felt, caught between black and white, urban and rural, worlds.

In Onus's sculptures, irony, wit and whimsy are the predominant features. 'Fruit bats', 1991, is made up of a flock of fibreglass sculptures of bats decorated with rarrk (crosshatching), hanging on a Hills Hoist clothes line. Beneath this icon of Australian suburbia are wooden discs with flower-like motifs, representing the bat droppings. In this powerful installation, the sacred and the mundane combine. The work was inspired by Murrungun-Djinang imagery, which Onus was given permission to use. In 'Fruit bats', the artist shows a head-on collision between two contrasting sets of values, and throws in a few inversions of his own.

The backyard – suburban Australia's haven of privacy – becomes spooked by the formidable presence of these noisy animals. The pre-colonial bats seem to have taken over and reclaimed their place, in a story worthy of Alfred Hitchcock.

George Alexander in 'Tradition today: Indigenous art in Australia', Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2004

© Art Gallery of New South Wales

Bibliography (23)

Hetti Perkins (Australia) (Author), Art + soul: a journey into the world of Aboriginal art, Carlton, 2010, 90-91 (colour illus.), 92, 280.

Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Author), Art Gallery of New South Wales: highlights from the collection, Sydney, 2008, 38-39 (colour illus, detail), 40 (colour illus.).

Cambridge visual arts: stage 4 2008, 2008, 162 (colour illus.).

'Lin Onus', pg. 14-15., Australia's best: artists & designers 2004, 2004, 14, 15 (colour illus.).

Artwise: visual arts 7-10 2004, 2004, 172 (colour illus.), 173.

Hetti Perkins (Australia) (Author), Theresa Willsteed (Editor), Tradition today: Indigenous art in Australia, Domain, 2004, 114 (colour illus., detail), 115 (colour illus.).

Introduction to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art 2003, 2003, 13 (colour illus.).

'Naturalisation: recent Australian art and the natural' by John Mateer, pg. 4-7., Art Monthly Australia Dec 2001-Feb 2002, Dec 2001-Feb 2002, 4 (colour illus.).

'Sculpture by Lin Onus', pg. 85., Countering racism 2000, 2000, 85 (colour illus.). resource sheet no. 3

Margo Neale (Australia) (Author), Urban dingo: the art and life of Lin Onus 1948-1996, Brisbane, 2000, 18, 40 (colour illus.), 52, 125. plate no. 6

Margo Neale (Australia) (Editor), Sylvia Kleinert (Australia) (Editor), The Oxford companion to Aboriginal art and culture, South Melbourne, 2000, 273 (illus.), 277. illus.no. 163

'Millennial Icons for Australia' by Joan Kerr, pg. 212-221., Art and Australia (Vol. 37, No. 2) Dec 1999-Feb 2000, Dec 1999-Feb 2000, front cover (colour illus., detail), 154, 220 (colour illus.), 221.

Bruce James (Australia) (Author), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Director), Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, Domain, 1999, 231 (colour illus.).

The Art Gallery of New South Wales - Jul-Dec 1997 Calendar Jul 1997-Dec 1997, Jul 1997-Dec 1997, (colour illus.). This image appears in detail.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales - Jan-Jun 1997 Calendar Jan 1997-Jun 1997, Jan 1997-Jun 1997, (colour illus.). This image appears in detail.

'The rest is history' by Graham Pitts, pg. 14-15., Artforce Dec 1996, Dec 1996, 15 (illus.).

The Art Gallery of New South Wales - 1996 exhibitions 1996, 1996, (colour illus.). This image appears in detail.

Margo Neale (Australia) (Author), Yiribana: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander collection, Sydney, 1994, 116, 117 (colour illus.), 137, 139. plate no. 57

Ewen McDonald (Australia) (Editor), The Art Gallery of New South Wales collections, Sydney, 1994, 106 (colour illus.).

Yiribana 1994, 1994, 18 (colour illus.).

Soyen Ahn (Korea) (Author), Victoria Lynn (Australia) (Author), Strangers in Paradise - Contemporary Australian Art to Korea, Seoul, 1992, 62, 64 (colour illus.), 65 (colour illus., detail), 94, 101. cat.no. 21

Victoria Lynn (Australia) (Curator), Australian Perspecta 1991, Domain, 1991, 80, 81 (colour illus.).

Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award 1984-2008: celebrating 25 years, Darwin, 2011, 190, 193 (colour illus.).

Exhibition history (7)

Australian Perspecta 1991, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 07 Aug 1991–15 Sep 1991.

Strangers in Paradise, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea, 05 Nov 1992–04 Dec 1992.

Recent Acquisitions of Aboriginal Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 05 Jul 1993–12 Sep 1993.

Strangers in Paradise, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 23 Jul 1993–12 Sep 1993.

A material thing - Objects from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 31 Aug 1998–09 Feb 1999.

Another Country, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 04 Jul 1999–02 Apr 2000.

Country Culture Community (2008-09), Art Gallery of New South Wales, 12 Nov 2008–19 Apr 2009.