The painting of Gordon Bennett is a remake of Samuel Calvert’s painting that plays with the colours and changes painting techniques in order to change the perspective of the viewer – no longer are the British colonizers the main focus of the painting, they could formerly be observed all around in the painting in the people, the flags, the ship, but they have now become the background, and the Aboriginal man, which was initially lost in the painting, becomes the central figure of it. This essay will argue that this work is an intervention made in order to change perspectives, to show how fluid and subjective history can be, and how the central figure is created by the artist’s viewpoints.
This work is a direct reference to Calvert’s painting Captain Cook Taking Possession of the Australian Continent on Behalf of the British Crown, which is in itself a remake of another painting that bears that same title, which has been made by John Alexander Gilfillan, but has been lost. It is also followed by another work named Possession Island (Abstraction). The painting depicts Captain James Cook arriving in 1770 and claiming ownership of the eastern coast of Australia, for King George the third. It signifies the start of the spreading of Indigenous Australians from their own land and the beginning of their oppression.
Bennet starts from Calvert’s perception of this historic event, but he alters it by using a work style that is similar to Jackson Pollock’s. This could imply the life-force of man being willing to fight for himself, or for others that look at the painting, it could remind them of a captivity within one’s anxious mind. The colours used in the painting are reminiscent of the Aboriginal flag, which is half black and it represents the Aboriginal people of Australia, half red which represents the colour of the earth and a yellow circle which is placed in the middle, representing the sun, that gives life to everything and helps everything grow.
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The almost barren background of the painting is reminding us of ‘white noise’, the static on TV which replaces the picture and sound. But this ‘static’ becomes busier when it is covered in the chaotic, but colourful lines and dotting. Yet these are not longer set in the background, but tend to cover everything, except for the Aboriginal man that occupies the centre of the painting. We can associate the white noise with the British people, that are left in the background of the painting. Even though few of them are coloured in blue, they are concealed by the lines which cover them. It signals the first intention of shifting the viewers attention from what is being done by the colonisers, and perhaps even a switch in power, by overdrawing them as they are not as important, and their actions depicted in the painting are less meaningful than the one man which is their contrast. The lines and dots use the colours found in the Aboriginal flag, thus, by continuing the aforementioned idea, this is the colonized taking control of the perspective, taking over the painting and demanding the attention which had been taken away when they were occupied. In contrast to Samuel Calvert’s painting, which had depicted the British as well-dressed, attention grabbing, perhaps even eager to take a hold of the new land, and some of the Aboriginals are found in a corner hiding, barely clothed, afraid and illustrate the idea of ‘savage men’. The only one that is dressed similarly to them and that is not crouching in the corners is the one that is greeting and serving them.
The central focus of the painting is the Aboriginal man, whom is holding a tray with beverages to serve the ‘newcomers’. By him holding the tray it could be assumed that he is indirectly stepping into the role the colonizers had set for him under their rule. And yet, by showing hospitality and showing that he already knew how to prepare for ‘guests’, he displays just as much sophistication and education from his own civilization, that there is no need to be ‘civilized’ by the British colonizers. By placing him in the middle, Bennet forced the perspective to be from his position. His placement right in the middle of the painting is reminding us of the yellow circle of the Aboriginal flag, as he is the giver of life, the one who maintains life, the one who gives it purpose, in this work.
Bennett’s reinterpretation in this copy of a copy of an original, lost painting, is a rewriting of an historical event, a reminder that forces the viewer to actually see the one that had to suffer, to acknowledge the history from an objective point of view. It depicts in a way, how history can be endlessly transformed and reshaped by individual perspectives.
