WA Indigenous art award winner explores Aboriginal identity and authenticity.
Chloe Papas. ABC Radio Perth. 6 July 2015.
A Melbourne-based video artist has taken out the top prize at the prestigious Western Australia Indigenous Art Awards in Perth, which showcases unique and challenging art from Aboriginal artists across the country.
Megan Cope won the night's top award with a video installation challenging ideas around how Aboriginal identity is seen and constructed in Australia.
The work, entitled The Blaktism, was the first video piece to take out the esteemed award, and earned Cope a $50,000 prize.
A Noonuccal/Ngugi woman originally from Stradbroke Island in Queensland, Cope was inspired to create The Blaktism after she was asked to produce a Certificate of Aboriginality from elders to undertake an overseas artist residency.
Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at the Art Gallery of WA, Carly Lane said Cope's work was "courageous" noting the challenging themes of the piece.
She said Cope's video was provocative, and used irony and humour to deliver a stark message.
"The Blaktism is kind of like a baptism," Cope explained.
"It's a sacred ceremony whereby everyday Australians anoint me with my cultural identity and authenticate my Aboriginal existence."
The Blaktism looks at the notion of non-Aboriginal people acting as "cultural authorities in the Australian landscape," she said.
"I want people to identify themselves and consider how they view Aboriginal people."
Ngaanyatjarra woman Eunice Yunurupa Porter won the Western Australian Artist Award, earning a $10,000 prize and recognition for her extensive work documenting the contemporary history of her community.
Porter's body of work explores her community's first contact with non-Indigenous people, and the affect that a changing environment has on traditional way of life.
Lane said the Art Gallery of WA hoped to further encourage the "unique vision" of all artists, and support Indigenous artists across the country through these awards.
The awards are held every two years at the gallery, and this year's finalists were chosen from 118 applicants.