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

Sculpture

Medium

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

Location

Not on display

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

Bibliography (23)

Art + soul: a journey into the world of Aboriginal art (2010), Hetti Perkins (Australia) (Author), The Miegunyah Press (Australia), Carlton, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Art Gallery of New South Wales: highlights from the collection (2008), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Author), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Cambridge visual arts: stage 4 (2008), Marianne Hulsbosch (Australia) (Editor), Cambridge University Press (England), Cambridge, England.

Australia's best: artists & designers (2004), Anna Fern (Author), David Llewellyn (Author), Reed International Books Australia Pty Ltd (Australia), Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Artwise: visual arts 7-10 (2004), Glenis Israel (Author), John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Milton, Queensland, Australia.

Tradition today: Indigenous art in Australia (2004), Hetti Perkins (Australia) (Author), Theresa Willsteed (Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Introduction to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art (2003), Margo Neale (Australia) (Author), Ann Jackson-Nakano (Australia) (Author), Barrie Publishing, Port Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Art Monthly Australia (Dec 2001-Feb 2002), Philippa Kelly (Australia) (Editor), Art Monthly Australia Pty Ltd (Australia), Acton, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.

Countering racism (2000), Department of Education, Training and Employment (South Australia) (Australia) (Author), Department of Education, Training and Employment (South Australia) (Australia), South Australia, Australia.

Urban dingo: the art and life of Lin Onus 1948-1996 (2000), Margo Neale (Australia) (Author), Queensland Art Gallery (Australia, estab. 1895), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

The Oxford companion to Aboriginal art and culture (2000), Margo Neale (Australia) (Editor), Sylvia Kleinert (Australia) (Editor), Oxford University Press (Australia), South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Art and Australia (Vol. 37, No. 2) (Dec 1999-Feb 2000), Laura Murray Cree (Australia) (Editor), Fine Arts Press Pty Limited (Australia), North Ryde, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

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

The Art Gallery of New South Wales - Jul-Dec 1997 Calendar (Jul 1997-Dec 1997), Editor Unknown (Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales - Jan-Jun 1997 Calendar (Jan 1997-Jun 1997), Editor Unknown (Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Artforce (Dec 1996), Susan Charlton (Editor), Visual Arts Board, Australia Council (Australia), Strawberry Hills, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales - 1996 exhibitions (1996), Editor Unknown (Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Yiribana: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander collection (1994), Margo Neale (Australia) (Author), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales collections (1994), Ewen McDonald (Australia) (Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Yiribana (1994), Margo Neale (Australia) (Author), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Strangers in Paradise - Contemporary Australian Art to Korea (1992), Soyen Ahn (Korea) (Author), Victoria Lynn (Australia) (Author), National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea (Korea), Seoul, Korea.

Australian Perspecta 1991 (1991), Victoria Lynn (Australia) (Curator), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award 1984-2008: celebrating 25 years (2011), Museum and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory (Australia), Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.

Exhibition history (7)

Another Country, (04 Jul 1999–02 Apr 2000), at Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Art Gallery Rd Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2000.

Recent Acquisitions of Aboriginal Art, (05 Jul 1993–12 Sep 1993), at Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Art Gallery Rd Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2000.

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

Australian Perspecta 1991, (07 Aug 1991–15 Sep 1991), at Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Art Gallery Rd Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2000.

Country Culture Community (2008-09), (12 Nov 2008–19 Apr 2009), at Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Art Gallery Rd Domain Sydney New South Wales Australia 2000.

Strangers in Paradise, (23 Jul 1993–12 Sep 1993), at Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Art Gallery Rd Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2000.

A material thing - Objects from the collection, (31 Aug 1998–09 Feb 1999), at Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Art Gallery Rd Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2000.

Collection

Lin Onus