Gordon Bennett Identity

Created Through the Eye
Why do we all have different interpretations of art? Because we all are different in some way, our identity defines us and how we look at the world while our actions shape us and world around us. The works of Wenda Gu and Gordon Bennett both reflect aspects of their identity, whether that be personal, spiritual, cultural or psychological. Both artist are similar in many ways, notably for their reflection on personal experiences as cultural minorities.

Gordon Bennett successfully portrays his personal experiences as well as the cultural influences in his artworks. He highlights the concerns and identity of the cultures that have influenced him into creating his pieces of art. With In his artwork Home Décor Algebra

Presents accepted historical truths from a new perspective. The drowning man depicted symbolises that Anglo-Saxon people are drowning out the communities, and cultural differences of the African Americans and aboriginal people, ruining their unique identity. The group of indigenous Australians sitting around a camp fire and one larger figure on the right in the composition, portray Bennett’s feeling of not being accepted by either the Aboriginal people or the Anglo-Celtic. This painting directly links with the lost identity of Gordon Bennett and many others of the lost generation people with his confused cultural background. He raises questions through his artworks about both his own individual understanding of who he is and also the oppression and racism towards the Australian Aboriginal people particularly as recorded in

Their paintings reflect their experiences and identities as racially oppressed minorities and convey the isolation that they feel. Gordon Bennett’s paintings portrays how he feels about his place in the Indigenous Australian culture and how the Indigenous people’s traditions are slowly being drowned out by white culture and suppression. Wenda Gu also addresses cultural identity, but differantly through his use of bold colour set against black and white and bold red to highlight the mistakes made by both women and men in I Evaluate Characters Written by Three Men and Three Women. Gu’s painting Negative and Positive Characters uses binary oppositions to question what is correct within society. Both artist have utilised there cultural background to address the issues that are present across the world and also their personal concerns with