Vol 4 Test 7 Part 4

PART 4

You will hear part of a lecture given by an art and design lecturer on the topic of Aboriginal textile design in Australia. First, you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40 on page 7.

Now, listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40.

The Indigenous People of Australia, or Aboriginals, have a long history of using animal and plant fibres to make a variety of fabric. Over the years, their traditional designs and stories have been incorporated into various textiles.

The Owner Bella Arts Centre is a place where local Aboriginals can produce their traditional craft and also learn new techniques to decorate fabric. For the first 30 years, the artists crafted rugs working with wool. These rugs incorporated their own unique designs. However, as they became less economical to produce, the artists were introduced to batik, which is an Indonesian method of dyeing textiles. Batik is quicker than weaving, so many of the Owner Bella artists started to produce it themselves. Screen printing was later introduced to the centre, and Owner Bella’s artists were commissioned to produce fabric for furniture that was to be used at popular tourist destinations such as the National Park Offices at Uluru.

Screen printing has also been used successfully by the Tiwi people who live on islands north of Darwin. Their company, Tiwi Designs, produces fabric that is inspired by their surroundings. For example, they incorporated bird motifs into their early designs. Tiwi art, culture and language are very different from those of mainland Aboriginal groups. The patterns on their fabric are related to the beliefs and legends in their culture. For instance, some textile designs are chosen because they are thought to cause rain.

Another successful Aboriginal design company was founded by Jimmy Pike. His dynamic prints, paintings and fabrics are greatly influenced by the Australian landscape, in particular that of the desert, which is often featured in his work. Pike worked with acrylic paint, oil pastels and screen printing. Surprisingly, his life as an artist began in prison, where he was serving a sentence for murder. The art teachers there recognised his talent and gave him the technical skills he needed to become a successful artist. After his release, Pike started his own company aiming to create products that would sell well commercially while still retaining their Aboriginal cultural identity. Eventually, he decided to bring his artwork onto textiles, which were used to produce clothing. The designs he selected were transferred onto cotton and had both a strong linear character and a good colour range.

Bronwyn Bankroft is one of the most successful Aboriginal artists and designers to date. She has produced a great deal of artwork and textiles, and many of her paintings are held by Australian art galleries. Her work reflects her Aboriginal roots but always with a contemporary and fresh view of family and the natural environment. In 1995, she was chosen by a charity organisation to paint a pair of jeans owned by Kathy Freeman, a famous Aboriginal Australian athlete. She used imagery of lizards moving quickly over the Australian terrain and added a rainbow to represent the optimism that Kathy symbolises for all Aboriginal people. In 2001, Bankroft was chosen to design costumes for the opening of the biggest street parade ever held in Australia, the Journey of a Nation parade. The people in her section of the parade all wore an outfit she designed, featuring the image of a snake with no head or tail to represent an ongoing culture.

Exploitation of creative work can be a problem for any artist, and copyright laws exist to protect individuals from the unauthorised use of their work. This issue is often more complex for Aboriginal artists, as the symbols and motifs used in their designs also hold cultural significance. One example of this was when a businessman had rugs made overseas incorporating images stolen from Aboriginal paintings. The “carpet case,” as it became known, was taken to court, where fortunately the artist won.

That is the end of section four. So now have half a minute to check your answers. That is the end of the listening test.
You now have 10 minutes to transfer your answers to the listening answer sheet. You have two minutes left. You have one minute left.

Please stop writing and wait for your question booklet to be collected.