Title
Xanthorrhoea takes over the suburban backyard
1995
Artist
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Details
- Cultural origin
- Waanyi, Gulf region, Brisbane, North-east region
- Date
- 1995
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 75.9 x 106.0 cm stretcher
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Gift of Joseph and Patricia Pugliese 2014. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 47.2014
- Copyright
- © Gordon Hookey
- Artist information
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Gordon Hookey
Works in the collection
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About
'Xanthorrhoea takes over the suburban backyard' 1995 is Hookey's response to the hysteria surrounding the issue of Native Title and the fear campaign that ignited widespread paranoia that private landholders were at risk of losing their property to Aboriginal people. This assumption was false and failed to recognise the restrictions and complexities of the title.
The works depicts the average quarter block, complete with trampoline and barbeque against the Sydney skyline with a setting sun. The red brick home is surrounded by a white picket fence that has been infiltrated by Xanthorrhoea shrubs, a native plant to Australia, formally known as black boys or spear grass. The plants in the foreground have indeed become spears. In the lower left corner a figure has the site under surveillance and views the Australian flag being fired from the gun in the top right. A Hills Hoist clothes line is situated in the centre of the backyard, a symbol of domesticity within the surrounding chaos.
Gordon Hookey is a member of the Brisbane-based collective ProppaNOW, whose members also include Richard Bell, Tony Albert and Vernon Ah Kee. During the mid 1990s whilst studying at the Sydney College of Fine Arts he was a member of Boomalli Aboriginal Artist's co-operative.
Hookey's work combines figurative characters, iconic symbols, bold comic-like text and a spectrum of vibrant colours. Through this idiosyncratic visual language he has developed a unique and immediately recognisable style. Hookey locates his art at the interface where Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cultures converge. He explicitly attacks the establishment and implicates our current political representatives.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 3 exhibitions
Blak letter law: Indigenous artists frame the law, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra, 1997–Unknown
Our Land, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 21 Jan 2017–18 Jun 2017
Gordon Hookey: A MURRIALITY, Galleries UNSW, College of Fine Arts, University of NSW, Paddington, 30 Jul 2022–02 Oct 2022