Blak Enough? (Bangalow, 2019)
As a fair skinned Koori woman, I am constantly justifying myself to white people as to why my greatest sympathies lie with my First Nations kin. My mother is white, and my father is half white – possibly more / probably less; so why would I align myself and my children with a people who have been trodden on, had their culture trampled, their land stolen and our lives ripped apart….because I am black enough and it is through black people (even those who are merely brown on the inside), that have a duty to change the future for Aboriginal people.
Both a journey of self-reflection and self-actualization, Konstantina bravely faces her biggest critic (herself) and such heavy subject matter in the only way she knows how…. With bold, bright, fabulous colour backed on black.
Konstantina’s contemporary practice of dot painting, whilst maintaining haunting negative black space on large format canvas panels will be stunning and large!
A total of 10 large format works (1010 x 1550mm) will depict a provocative & politically playful narrative with works such as ‘Tides are Turning’, ‘Sovereignty’ and ‘Country’ all included.
Konstantina is known for her ability to work glorious colour into everything she paints and illustrates; and this exhibition, on home turf (but not on country*) will be no different.
* Kate is of Gadigal descent and not from the Bundjalung nation. The artist has sought permission to exhibit on Arakwal Country which has been previously granted.
Didactic:
Cultural change is not only necessary but inevitable for all Australians. We must own up to the shame of assimilation, the white Australia Policy and the Stolen Generations. We must face the Truth, shake its hand, lower our heads and rebuild. The incoming feminine strength and power can and will shift all the things, trust in the women and the Tides will Turn.
It is the space between black and white that should occupy our grey matter. This grey matter is a place of resilience, beauty and dreaming. Perhaps our New Dreaming or perhaps we should call it ‘change’, can only occur here in this grey space, the invertible space between the two existent ‘things’.
Orange though, is often noted as the colour of urgency and change “It is the colour of Guantanamo Bay jumpsuits, Agent Orange and since 9/11, the second highest terrorist threat in the US. Orange is used in traffic signage and warning symbols on the roads, in part because it forms high contrast against the blue-grey asphalt…And the black boxes on aircraft which record flight information, are, in fact, orange, in the hope this will make them easier to find in the event of a crash.”
So in my New Dreaming, I want to be orange, not Blak nor white, nor the grey matter between.
The celestial region around the great mountain in our region, Wollumbin, is known to local mob to hold some really significant power.
It is said that when the sun rises to the East its first point of contact on Country is the peak of the mighty mountain. As Wollumbin is caressed by the dawning of a new day, the suns power activates the Land of the First Light, and anything is possible.
A self portrait of sorts. The confusion, chaos but also the connection between Blak and White. The connection to Country and land, but also the connection to all that is old and new.
