THE RAVESTIJN GALLERY PRESENTS PATRICK WATERHOUSE

SHE GONE TO TOWN / RESTRICTED WITH MADELEINE NAPANGARDI DIXON, MELINDA NAPURRURLA WILSON AND POLLY ANNE NAPANGARDI DIXON, 2014 - 2018 Acrylic paint on archival pigment print 67 x 100 cm / framed 89 x 122 cm Unique piece

Amsterdam will open the gallery season, if the current Corona situation permits, with a collective opening weekend starting Thursday September 3 from 17:00 - 21:00, Friday 4 and Saturday 5, 2020 from 12:00 - 18:00. 

Patrick Waterhouse was born in the UK in 1981. The Restricted Images series is a collaboration between Waterhouse and the Warlukurlangu Art Centre. The works were made in the communities of Yuendumu and Nyirripi which are remote desert aboriginal communities in Central Australia. 

RED ENSIGN FLAG / REVISED WITH STEVEN JUPURRULA NELSON, 2014 - 2018 Acrylic paint on fabric 92 x 183,5 cm Unique Edition

​While the subject, quality and quantity of the images set a new standard for anthropological photography, the authors were largely oblivious to the impact they would have on the lives of the Aboriginals. The pictures revealed the gap in knowledge between the authors, whose goal was showing the exotic natives “in their natural state”, and the subjects, who were completely unaware of the new medium and how it could invade their privacy or reveal their secrets to a wider audience. Unwittingly or not, the authors also infringed upon Aboriginal cultural protocols by showing sacred sites and the dead. Attitudes have changed since Gillen and Baldwin Spencer first ventured in the Central Desert with a camera and institutions have taken extensive measures to ensure that cultural sensitivity is respected. Today, photography within Aboriginal communities is limited and historical images are often “restricted”. Over the past four years, Patrick Waterhouse has taken photographs in the Yeundumu and Nyirrpi Aboriginal communities, and in the surrounding Warlpiri country. After making prints, he returned to Central Australia to work with local artists and other members of those same communities at the Warlukurlangu Art Centre, so they could restrict and amend his photographs through the process of painting.

WHAT'S THE LIGHT LIGHT DARK DARK POINT POINT POINT / RESTRICTED IN WORKSHOP AT WARLUKURLANGU ART CENTRE, 2014 - 2018 Acrylic paint on archival pigment print 67 x 100 cm / framed 89 x 122 cm Unique piece

The publication in 1899 of The Native Tribes of Central Australia caused a sensation in Europe. The book’s authors, telegraph-station master Francis J. Gillen and ethnologist W. Baldwin Spencer, had written in depth about the customs and traditions of the Aboriginal groups living near Alice Springs and also illustrated their texts with 119 photographs, many of which captured rituals and ceremonies. While the subject, quality and quantity of the images set a new standard for anthropological photography, the authors were largely oblivious to the impact they would have on the lives of the Aboriginals. The pictures revealed the gap in knowledge between the authors, whose goal was showing the exotic natives “in their natural state”, and the subjects, who were completely unaware of the new medium and how it could invade their privacy or reveal their secrets to a wider audience. Unwittingly or not, the authors also infringed upon Aboriginal cultural protocols by showing sacred sites and the dead.

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