My Favorite Artwork

Title:                                      Fruit bats

                                       1991

Artist:                                    Lin Onus

                                               Australia  

                                              1948-1996

                               Media category:                     Sculpture

                              

                             Dimensions:                        250.0 x 250.0 x 250.0 cm overall

Fruit bats 1991 is made up of fiberglass sculptures of bats decorated with rarrk (cross-hatching) hanging on a Hills Hoist clothes line. Under the Hills Hoist icon there is wooden discs designed by dot painting which representing bats’ dropping. Fruit bats sculpture is a mixed contemporary and traditional Aboriginal artwork.

The reason that I liked and impressed by this artwork was that in this artwork the artist shows different between two culture and the contrast between values. In this artwork aboriginals have been shown as hanging bats on Hills Hoist which is an invention of Australia representing western culture. By this artwork the artist means that according to Australian people, Aboriginals are all the same and one group, nasty and noisy like fruit bats. Beyond to this the artist decorated each individual fruit bats by different cross-hatching which shows that they are not the same, they have different groups, languages, stories and from different places. They artist shows that they have been hated by Australians and their natural way of living have been destroyed. As in naturally fruit bats living in tree branches, but by the time trees had been cut down and their nest had been destroyed so they have gathered on clothesline. the same it happened to Aboriginals and that is why they have gathered in small town.