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Visual Analysis Of Eddie Mabo By Andrew Mezei

872 Words4 Pages

Psychological awareness and an indication of an inner life is central to a portrait – with certain techniques, an artist can represent the emotions and personality of the sitter as well as showing the effect and influence they had on people. Using symbolic colours, styles and depths, Gordon Bennett and Andrew Mezei are successfully able to characterize the inner life of their subjects.

Gordon Bennett’s “Eddie Mabo” is a portrait of Koiki (Eddie) Mabo, a Torres Strait Islander responsible for initiating a legal case for native rights against the State of Queensland in 1982. In 1992, Mabo’s case was approved, and it was decided that the Mer people (from Murray Island) were the traditional owners of the land, four months after Mabo died of cancer. …show more content…

The outside of ‘s head is outlined with neon blue lines in a pop art style. Contrasting with the dark image of Mabo is a golden background, covered in words and phrases that relate to the struggle and oppression that Aboriginal people have fought to overcome. Despite the massive amount of words, the bright background still shines through, almost rusting them away. Through this technique, Bennett shows that though Aboriginals have faced vast amounts of oppression, through the courage of Mabo and similar activists they can break through those words to not only receive the rights they deserve, but take pride in their culture. Below Mabo’s head to the left of the canvas is a geometric city …show more content…

Bennett himself said that when he thought of Eddie Mabo he ‘could not think of him as a real person… I only knew the Eddie Mabo of the “mainstream” news media, a very two-dimensional “copy” of the man himself”. Despite this, the painting holds strong connections between the subject and painter, as a result of their shared heritage and values. The painting not only communicates the subject’s experience, but also the feelings of the artist as he comes to terms with his own history and

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