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Art Sets.

Cultural renewal

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By the Art Gallery of NSW

Designed for students, this education resource presents ideas for thinking about and making art inspired by selected Aboriginal artists from New South Wales.

Lola Ryan

1925–2003
Tharawal/Eora, Sydney, South-east region

Making

Select materials from your own environment such as pebbles, bottle tops, seed pods or wrappers. Make a collection of these objects and arrange them into categories according to size, shape and colour. Using cardboard, clay or polystyrene foam, build a three-dimensional model of an object of interest to you. Consider whether to paint it, cover it with paper or fabric, or leave it plain. Decide how to arrange and attach your objects to form patterns. Have a class exhibition of your finished works and include a written report on your materials, where they can be found and the choices you made.

Looking and responding

Look at Sydney Harbour Bridge 2000 by Lola Ryan. Do you recognise this object? Is it a realistic depiction of the original? In what ways is it different?

Describe this sculpture in detail, thinking about texture, materials and colour. Describe and draw the different kinds of shells you can see, naming them if you can.

Ryan collected shells on the beach to use in making her artworks. She knew her country very well, knowing the right places to find each different kind of shell in different kinds of weather. Picture a place you know very well and describe it to another person, naming every detail you can remember. Ask this person to draw the place based on your description. Assess how well the results match your mental image.

Badger Bates

born 1947
Baakantji, Wilcannia/Broken Hill, Southern Riverine region

Looking and responding

Look at the three images by Badger Bates and identify similarities and differences between them. Describe the colours, shapes and patterns you can see. Focus on Thina yappa (foot prints) 1993 and locate the boomerang, club, hands, snake and kangaroo and emu foot prints.

Bates makes images in response to stories told by his Granny Moysey and in response to his environment. Find out about Baakantji culture, including country and language. Locate Mutawintji National Park on a map and research the geography, plants and animals from this area.

Making

Badger Bates uses line to create images of places that are important to him. Go for a walk around your school or home and observe lines in different places. Draw branches or twigs on a tree, cracks in the pavement, electric wires, the palm of your hand, spider webs. Experiment with different drawing tools such as soft and hard pencils, charcoal or bamboo skewers dipped in ink. Select one drawing to transfer onto scratch foam and make a series of prints.