2020 IB Extended Essays

Watson canvases are strikingly lyrical, filled with watery colour using natural materials found in situ. Textured backgrounds mimic an evocative Australian landscape and pulse with memories of the past, as an established layering technique which characterises her work highlights a dual heritage. Some pieces epitomize the inevitable devastation that occurs when two cultures merge while others show how, when valued equally, cultures can coexist quite beautifully. Encoded and hidden at first glance, usually by whitewash or veiled with objects, the artefacts slowly reveal themselves as Watson attempts to deal with the concealed truth of Australian Indigenous histories. In an initial gaze, the violence of Watsons tragic generational history is overlooked. Yet, the presence of pins, spines, hooks and scattered pigments of red seduces the audience and then presents them with a heavy truth. Incisions and engravings subtly infiltrate the aforementioned canvas, whilst illustrations of natural rocks spiral into the background creating spectral blues and browns that resemble an intense sense of serenity. Her paintings are never framed, but instead hung allowing them to float and flow in a space ( Judy Watson – pain and persecution in a lush and stunning landscape, 2018 ).

Judy Watson, Our hair in your collections,1997.