(Erased Scenes) From an Untouched Landscape #1, 2014, James Tylor
Inkjet print on hahnemuhle papers with hole removed to a black velvet void, 50cm x 50cm
Provenance: Paul Johnstone Gallery, Winnellie NT.
James Tylor is an Australian contemporary visual artist of Indigenous, Australian and Maori descent. He uses his multicultural heritage as a lens to explore Australian cultural representations, significantly during the 19th century and the impact of this time on the current landscape. He also works to explore the environment and social history. Tylor has a particular interest in utilising historical photographic practices, creating Daguerreotypes just as the original documentarians of Indigenous culture and the colonisation had (1).
From the authenticity certificate: Highlights the contemporary absence of Aboriginal culture within the Australian landscape and how this phenomena is a direct result of the impact of European colonisation. The first European colonists forced the local indigenous people off their traditional lands and into small Christian missions and government reserves. This allowed the new arrivals free access to clear the settlements, forestry and agriculture. This clearing of the landscape resulted in the removal of Indigenous cultures artefacts and our identity from the Australian landscape. Today the absence of Indigenous culture within the Australian landscape is censored by this process of colonisation and has left much of the Australian landscapes with the appearance that it was ‘Untouched’ before European arrival.