Israeli artist Michal Goren following the art of Aboriginal painters in Australia
Goren’s trip about 12 years ago to the Australian mainland created an immediate connection to the 5,000-year-old ancient art that was discovered in the rock paintings “The Olero” that is so identified with the continent, and is right in the center. There, Goren became acquainted with the history of the original native arboregans on the continent who were formerly hunters and gatherers and the creation stories called DREAMTIM.
Over the past 5 years, Goren has visited Australia numerous times to trace the Aboriginal traces. The trip included a visit to the reserves where they live, a visit to museums showcasing their works all over the continent, reading history books that tell their story, books with creation stories and myths, and even children’s books by native writers. The exposure to this rich and fascinating information stimulated Goren’s imagination, who described it as follows: “I felt my hands begging to draw from the database in my head.”
The picture of creation In the past the sky and the earth were connected and the sun was close to the earth, there was no place for creatures to live in such a place. The curbs, (a type of crow found in Australia) decided together to change the situation, each curb originally carried a stick and stuck it between the sun and the earth, until they lifted it to the sky, thus making room for all living things.
For non-native viewers it is very difficult to understand such paintings without knowing the symbols. The style of painting and technique differs between the different tribes and especially between the north and the south of the continent, in the south mainly dots are used, and in the north mainly lines, the subjects of the paintings also vary according to the lifestyle and nature around them. The work is very meditative and slow.
The desire to create such art burned in Goren’s fingers, but with it came to mind how much she is a non-Aboriginal who has the right to own this ancient art and if so how to give this art its interpretation in the most respectful and appropriate way.
Goren says: “In one place I read, how to connect children to these works, the way was to give them a page with the symbols and their interpretations as the natives used (symbols for water, footprints, road, rain, plants and more) and ask them to tell their own story and draw it. It got me on the King’s Road, the first painting I drew was painted this way exactly. The size of the painting is 2 meters long and 1.20 meters high. ”
