Media release – Elizabeth Barsham, 17 March 2023
Told/Retold
You and your friends are invited to the opening of Told/Retold, an exhibition by Elizabeth Barsham and Allan Mansell
Hive, Level 1, 50 Main St, Ulverstone, Tasmania
2 pm on Saturday, 25 March 2023
“Throughout my life, the narrative of Tasmania’s indigenous people has been told and retold, changing from a tale of the sad but convenient annihilation of a ‘dying race’ (neatly culminating in the death of the ‘last Tasmanian’) to the reclamation of cultural identity by the palawa.”
Elizabeth Barsham, 2023
“The artwork I produce is unique, as the Tasmanian Aboriginal culture has largely been lost in a short period of time, consequently the images I create are my own, because the culture which we had was stolen, discarded, I have had to create my own story, description and style of images”.
Allan Mansell, 2023
In Told/Retold, Elizabeth Barsham and Allan Mansell reflect, from two very different backgrounds, on the stories that have been told and retold over the last two hundred years about the colonisation of lutrawita/Tasmania and its lasting impact on the palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal people).
Plangermaireenier artist Allan Mansell is a descendant of the survivors of British colonisation, who inhabited the islands of the Furneaux Group in Bass Strait and were among the last of the indigenous nomadic groups of lutrawita. Elizabeth Barsham is a descendant of the earliest convicts and colonists to arrive in Van Diemens Land.
The playful beauty of Elizabeth’s oil paintings, with their humorous characters and seductive colour, doesn’t quite obscure the darkness and violence of the subject matter as the colonisers set about the business of exploiting the antipodes.
Allan tells stories of this land, its flora and the fauna in his prints – looking at what was, what is and what can happen. These stories are conveyed in his distinct visual vocabulary of simplified forms of echidnas, leaves, ants, snakes, birds and more. It is in Allan and his works that the survival and continuation of his culture is exemplified.
Even though there are deep scars from British colonisation, the Tasmanian Aboriginal people are no longer considered ‘extinct’, but a living, thriving culture.
We look forward to seeing you at the exhibition opening; if you can’t make it to the opening, the exhibition continues until the end of May.
Elizabeth Barsham’s website: www.tasmanian-gothic.com/
Allan Mansell’s website: www.blackantart.com.au
