Blak Douglas is an Archibald winner. He says the art prize needs to change

Artist Blak Douglas, born Adam Douglas Hill, has opened a new exhibition at NSW Parliament House entitled Home Flown. (Supplied) Link copiedShareShare articleAcclaimed Dunghutti artist Blak Douglas is using his latest exhibition to challenge perceptions of Aboriginal art and the systemic issues creatives face in Australia. The four-time Archibald Prize finalist and winner of the 2022 competition, describes the exhibition at NSW Parliament House, titled Home Flown, as a "tangent" in his storied career which veers away from the recognisable painting style for which he has become known. Blak Douglas poses with his Archibald Prize-winning portrait of artist Karla Dickens, titled Moby Dickens. (Supplied: AGNSW/Felicity Jenkins) Douglas says he wants to find a "new and aesthetic way" to critique converging issues he and his contemporaries have been frustrated by for decades — from the Australian taxation and economic system, to the pressure they have felt to conform to making art that is "identifiably Aboriginal". "From Darling Harbour, The Rocks to Sydney International Airport gift shop you're going to see the same thing that is continually pitched to the lay person of which they associate as Aboriginal art, and now it's at a point where it ends up on the First Nations round jerseys for NRL or Marn Grook," Douglas says. Douglas is referring to the prevalence of certain styles of painting, and in particular, dot painting, which he argues has been co-opted into being synonymous with the term 'Aboriginal art' to the point of negating other practices. One of Douglas's roundels which features the laser-cut boomerang, dot painting and vintage 'Australian made' logo. (Supplied) Home Flown thwarts those expectations while grappling with the appropriation of Aboriginal iconology, in this case the boomerang on the retro 'Australian made' logo. "What I've done in this exhibition is I've kind of made a parody of that adherence to dot painting and also, pardon the pun, thrown in another icon that's generally related to Aboriginal culture generically when international visitors touch down in Sydney," Douglas says. There are ways to see into the deep past all around the country. "They're going to see a returning boomerang in the gift store, which is pertinent to the south-east region, obviously, but that's also been exploited to the point where they will often feature the dot painted-style motifs and whatever in those gift stores." The commentary on the ubiquity of dot painting is depicted through a series of roundels with a laser-cut boomerang in the centre, surrounded by dot paintings and featuring the vintage 'Australian made' logo. Douglas says these roundels parody the tendency to "Australian-ise" Aboriginal culture. "I'm driving home the double stereotype in the exhibition," he says. As someone who identifies as a sovereign Dunghutti person rather than an 'Australian citizen', Douglas says he wants audiences to understand and appreciate "the cultural and political ironies that have sat with me for a long time". Douglas's Boomerangs with financial terms comments on political ironies and his frustration with the system. (Supplied) He says one of these is the expectation of Aboriginal people to operate within colonial-based systems, particularly the tax system, despite the fallout of land dispossession, the stolen generations and being the most incarcerated group in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Douglas confronts this incongruity with another series of boomerangs, this time with tax terms carved into them, such as "minimal returns" and "stocks and bonds". The most striking of the artworks, and the pieces which are perhaps borne out of Douglas's biggest frustrations, are the large killer boomerangs. A killer boomerang with the words, 'payment to be made strictly in 14 days' is Douglas's powerful retort against the system. (Supplied) One in particular from Arrernte Country, a boomerang sometimes used for fighting, features words in the Black Lives Matter font. "That [boomerang] says 'payment to be made strictly in 14 days', otherwise I'm coming for you with my killer boomerang," says Douglas, on representing the frustration of artists who can be left waiting months for payments to be received from government departments. With a background originally in graphic design and drawing, Douglas has developed his own distinct and identifiable style and signature motifs, such as the flat bottom clouds. "The reason I painted the style that I did, ultimately, was to forge my own stereotype of myself that was strictly averse from the dot painting movement," Douglas says. It's fifth time lucky for the Sydney-based Dhungatti artist, who has become the second Indigenous Australian to win the Archibald Prize in 101 years. That distinct style won him, arguably, the most prestigious art prize in Australia, for his portrait of Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens. Douglas is adamant he won't enter the Archiba

Blak Douglas is an Archibald winner. He says the art prize needs to change

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