The Significance of Blue in Aboriginal Art
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Aboriginal art uses colour as a means of communication that tells complex stories in terms of culture, spiritual belief and country. There are as many colours as the Indigenous artists use in their work but, among them, blue is particularly significant. This article seeks to outline and explain the cultural perception, uses as well as the development of the blue colour within the artistic context of the aboriginal art.
What does Blue Represent in Aboriginal Art?
In relation to art of aboriginal tribes, blue is a colour full of meanings. Primarily, it represents two fundamental elements of the natural world: water and sky. These elements are not simply the geographical elements of the territory, but are associated with spirituality and religion, Dreamtime, and existence in the ethnic Australian context.
Why is Blue Important in Aboriginal Art?
Blue is now widely incorporated in contemporary Aboriginal art, but it is more important than its colour value. It carries out such features that meet the basic requirements of Indigenous cultural and spiritual practices and relationship to place.
Blue as a Representation of Water
Amongst other things, water symbolises life in the mostly arid Australian environment and is a main feature in many of the Dreamtime narratives depicted in the art. Blue is often applied to represent waterholes, rivers and rain.
- Waterholes: As circles of blue circles within circles, waterholes are represented as placing for meetings – social and supernatural alike. For example, the Arrernte people of Central Australia use blue circular patterns signifying water sources of black abundance on the ancestral territories.
- Rivers: Sinuous blue lines which are characteristic of contemporary Aboriginal art often signify rivers. The Murray River is Australia’s longest river and as with many tribal peoples, the Ngarrindjeri tribes portray the river in their artwork through flowing ‘blue’ curving shape, signifying the actual and spiritual aspects of the river.
- Rain: Tiny blue circles, or wavy vertical blue lines are used to signify rain usually. In the art of the Yolŋu people of Arnhem Land blue cross hatching can represent the bountiful rain of the wet season.
These representations are very much connected to Dreamtime narratives of forebears providing formation of geographical features of land and sea.
Blue as a Symbol of Sky
In Australian Aboriginal peoples’ cosmology, the sky is as another world of the ancestors and spirits. Blue is used to represent this infiniteness as it portrays the link between the physical realm and the divine. Open spaces are symbolised by blue dotwork or linework; this is the sky domain of ancestral spirits observing the territory and its inhabitants.
- Celestial Realm: Most Aboriginal communities believe that the sky is a domain where their spirit ancestors reside. The Central Desert art has adopted fields of the multiple “dot work” usually by the Warlpiri people to depict this sub sphere.
- Astronomical Phenomena: Blue is also utilised in representation of significant astronomical occurrences as well. The Pleiades star cluster, which Aboriginal people of many regions known as the Seven Sisters, is sometimes depicted with a pattern of blue and white dots on a black background.
- Creation Stories: According to one of the subgroups of Dreamtime stories, the sky was created as a lid that separates the earth from heavens and was lifted by early ancestors. This act of creation is sometimes done using shades of blue to illustrate the transition from the earth sphere to that of the sky.
Dreamtime Stories and the Colour Blue
Blue appears to convey a very important meaning in associating Dreamtime stories with creation stories, ancestral beings as well as with abstract spiritual connection between humans and nature.
- The Rainbow Serpent: This powerful creator being is often depicted as having blue motifs which symbolically depicts water. In the artwork of Yolŋu people, the Rainbow Serpent may be depicted in the manner of blue and green twisting line and therefore depict the mastery of the water and the weather.
- Seven Sisters: Blue is often used in depictions of the night sky through which the sisters travel escaping from a persistent suitor, which is a Dreamtime story common to many Aboriginal groups.
- Great Flood Stories: Almost all the Dreamtime of the aboriginal people contains stories of great floods during early times and these are usually illustrated by the blue vastness of the waters.
The Use of Blue in Dot Painting
Blue has become integrated into dot painting as an art movement that began with the Papunya Tula artists of the Western Desert in the 1970s.
- Water Symbols: Blue dots can be used to form geometrical patterns such as waves, rain, shimmering of water etc. Kathleen Petyarre has employed this technique to great success, painting blue landscapes that look as if they have a heartbeat.
- Sky Representations: A field of many blue dot works may depict the space of the sky with sometimes the small white dot to represent star energy or spirituality.
- Topographical Features: In some dot paintings, blue shades are employed to articulate the precincts of the geographical location especially where the pain is in the aerial view of the territory.
The colour blue in dot painting practices has undergone changes in the past. Though the first dot paintings were ranged in restricted earthy shades only, the use of acrylic paints after the 1970s enabled artists to experiment with more colours including blue one.
Blue as a Symbol of Healing and Protection
From Aboriginal culture perspective, blue colour was considered as one which had protective and healing effects. The meaning of having an element of blue in artworks is connected with religious practices, when people paint for strength, healing or to put an evil eye. Blue is thought to be not only relaxing but possessing rejuvenation effects; and this is in line with the effect that is associated with the colour with water and the sky.
- Healing Ceremonies: Blue ochre, when obtained, has been used in healing ceremonies. For these reasons, contemporary arts has it that blue is used by artists in pieces that are meant for healing reflecting this old practice.
- Protective Symbols: In some Aboriginal Aboriginal societies blue is used in protective symbols or design. For example, the Yolŋu could use blue in some of the rarrk cross-hatching motifs thought to possess guarding force.
- Spiritual Connection: The role of blue as a colour is mostly associated with spirituality and tranquillity. Works that contain most colours with shades of deep blue might be made as an instrument for meditation or prayer.
How does Blue Represent Journey and Movement
Blue is often used to represent journeys and movements around regions within materials associated to Aboriginal art.
- Songlines: These are some of the pathways that cut across Australia and are at times depicted by blue lines or dots which represent the movement of ancestral spirits within the land.
- Animal Tracks: Blue might be used to portray the paths of animals around the water resources, talking of the histories of movements and hunting of the various species.
- Human Migration: A portion of the present Aboriginal artists symbolically employ the blue hue for the removals during the colonisation or, the movements of particular groups in the early days voluntarily.
Rivers depicted in blue may indicate systems as well as routes followed by ancestral beings or traditionally. Likewise, long or dotted blue lines may represent the flow of people or animals from one point to the other of cultural or historical importance.
Famous Aboriginal Artists who Incorporate Blue in their Work
Several notable Aboriginal artists have made significant use of blue in their artworks, each bringing their unique cultural perspective and artistic style:
- Emily Kame Kngwarreye: Although Kngwarreye was particularly famous for her bright colours, those in the “My Country” series commonly utilised deep blues for the sky and water of Utopia, Central Australia. In her abstract paintings, shapes were painted in blue patterns superimposed on top of each other to give an illusion of depth in motion.
- Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri: As one of the pioneers of the Western Desert style art, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri incorporated the blue colour into his fine dots work. His work titled “Man’s Love Story” which was created in 1978, uses blue to depict some significant water resources in his country.
- Lin Onus: This contemporary Indigenous artist was of Yorta Yorta people and mixed traditional and more modern methods; he often employed bright shades of blue to illustrate water and water’s reflection. His paintings about water lilies are a perfect example of how he uses the blue colour to make an artwork look like a reflection.
- Judy Watson: Judy Watson a Waanyi artist is also seen to incorporate abstract blue washes and fluid forms in her art as a means of water. Her work “Our Bones in your collections” (1997) employs subtle blues that comment on the historical relationship with the country.
- Michael Nelson Jagamara: Jagamara is well known for his bright reds but in Dreamtime painting, he does use plenty of dark blue. One of his powerful stories – Five Stories made in 1984 uses blue for major hydraulic and stellar motifs.
Blue in Traditional Art vs Contemporary Art
Blue in aboriginal art has become particularly used in various ways over the years. Traditionally, they simply painted primary earth colours, rarely using blue because the pigments for that colour were rare. If used it was meant for special or sacred subject matters or areas of discourse.
Whereas, the present Indigenous artists are free to incorporate more plural colours such as different hues of blue. This has led to more colourful and innovative concepts of traditional themes and the development of new ideas and styles.
Traditional Use of Blue:
Traditionally, Aboriginal people did not use blue often in paintings because there are few natural sources of blue pigments in most parts of Australia.
When it was employed it was usually obtained by extracting metals from gems such as azurite or else from traded stock.
Contemporary artists also made ‘blue’ from other forms such as white and black to give a blue feel.
It was employed sparingly especially in cases where there was an opportunity to depict special or sacred topics owing to the scarcity of the material.
Contemporary Use of Blue:
It was not until the advent of acrylic paints in the 1970’s that the role of colour in the Aboriginal Contemporary art movement advanced dramatically, making a multitude of blues easily accessible.
Varieties of blue have become the preference of artists of modern society, with the light blue of the sky and sandy shores and the deep dark blue of the night.
Presently, blue is employed non-discreetly in the extent that it symbolises the conventional meaning of free speech besides other meanings which have not been established earlier.
Some artists introduce the blue colour into their paintings as a keyword and thus, get visually impressive results that open a new page in the interpretation of the traditional meaning of this tinge.
Modern Interpretation of Blue in Aboriginal Art
Today’s Aboriginal artists are gradually distancing themselves from conventional symbolism and applying blue in more and more creative manners. Some interpretations include:
- Abstract Expressions: Artists such as Sarrita King incorporate different hues of blue in unpredicted patterns and forms, which reflect its peoples’ attachment to the country rather than depicting a physical geography.
- Political Statements: Some contemporary artists associate blue with such phenomena as water rights and climate change. For instance, Blue is used by Badger Bates through his linocuts to make the audience realise the significance of river systems.
- Cultural Fusion: Some artists like Brook Andrew use blue in works that combine Aboriginal symbols and graphics, pop art, and worldwide references to intercultural conversation.
- Digital and Multimedia Art: More recent generations of Aboriginal artists are choosing blue in digital paintings, animations, and in multimedia works. For example, Yhonnie Scarce glass installations use blue colour to refer to the effects of nuclear testing on Aboriginal territories.
- Textile and Fashion: Blue is incorporated in a new and different way in Aboriginal-designed textiles, and fashion. Companies such as Mulya have also incorporated elaborate blue patterns which are an emulation of conventional patterns.
Conclusion
The use of blue in Aboriginal art is a reminder of the substantial cultural potential of Indigenous Australian peoples. Even from its time-honored symbolism as the source of life and commenced spiritual arena of the sky to its more recent intellectualised symbolic representation, blue remains and remains to be a powerful vernacular for Indigenous artistic identities to convey their ethnic origins, world, and view and tie to the earth.