Marcia Langton AM (b. 1951), Foundation Chair and Professor of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne, is a descendant of the Yiman and Bidjara nations of Queensland. She has published widely in the field of Aboriginal studies, on topics including land tenure, agreement-making, art and film. Her publications include Burning Questions: Emerging Environmental Issues for Indigenous Peoples in Northern Australia (1998) and Settling with Indigenous People (2006). Langton is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences of Australia, a member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), and a board member of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 1993 for services to anthropology and advocacy of Aboriginal rights. In this portrait Langton’s seated pose refers to her interest in Buddhism; black and white skulls signal the politics of humankind; and a radiant diamond-sun alludes to her successful work with Aboriginal communities and mining companies. These symbols are deliberately open to interpretation: the overall feeling is one of dynamism and energy.
Brook Andrew (b. 1970), a Wiradjuri artist, placed Langton in a pose referring to the interest in Buddhism that she developed while living in Asia in the early 1970s. He says that the black and white skulls signal the politics of humankind, and the radiant diamond-sun alludes to the sitter’s work with Aboriginal communities and mining companies; but the symbols are deliberately open to interpretation.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2009
© Brook Andrew
Marcia Langton by Brook Andrew created in 2009. A huge and complex, screen print on paper, incorporating a variety of different printing techniques. The elements cut out and collaged, overlapping in places. It is 252 by 242 cm, with a simple, narrow wooden frame.
Marcia, a descendant of the Yiman and Bidjara nations of Queensland, academic and activist, is depicted life-size, dynamic and powerful, sitting cross-legged on the ground with three pairs of arms radiating from her shoulders. She is simultaneously real and magical. The flattened perspective, bold colours and crisply defined shapes and patterns in the background, contrast with the fuzzy, out-of-focus monochrome tones of her figure.
The background is divided neatly into two sections. The upper half is white paper with a perfectly formed circle suspended high up, in the centre. The circle is approximately 40 cm in diameter, filled with a brilliant yellow and orange faceted pattern that resembles a sparkling gemstone.
The bottom half of the matt background is pitch black, running across it is an irregular black and white zigzagging shape. The pattern, based on the Wiradjuri nation’s motif of a diamond – stretched and squeezed, distorted and repeated - pulses like a river of energy.
Reaching toward the circle in the upper half of the picture, is a pair of Marcia’s arms, hands wide open, palms out, streaked in vivid red, black and light tan. Her head, positioned between her two raised arms, tilts dramatically to the left side, disjointed from the torso. Her shoulder-length shock of wavy, white and grey hair frames her entire face, extending under her chin and around her throat like an Elizabethan collar.
She has a long, oval face, broad forehead and dark complexion. Thick, black eyebrows arch over her large, dark eyes. She gazes out. Below her long straight nose, fulsome kewpie doll lips, pursed, and pressed in at the edges, reveal the faint glimmer of a smile.
Another pair of her arms reach out horizontally from the shoulders, one to each side, elbows bent, the right arm held higher than the left, streaked with royal blue, black and light tan. Each wrist hinges downward, fingertips clutching the cranium of a skull, a black skull in her right hand, a white skull in her left. The skulls look out, jaws ajar, animated with sketchily drawn red features.
Marcia’s pear-shaped body sits cross-legged on the ground wrapped in blurry bands of darkness and light, a shadowy shawl of blurred Wiradjuri diamond pattern falls softly over the left side of her chest and arm. A deliberate vertical length of pale bronze colour streams down her body and crossed legs.
A third pair of arms hang gently at her sides, elbows bent, each hand resting on a knee, her right-hand positioned palm up, glows brilliant yellow. A small, swirling shape of flickering orange levitates above it. The left hand and wrist, positioned palm down, appear disconnected from the shadowy blackness around her waist, like a brilliant yellow disembodied gauntlet.
Starting at her knees, her shins and feet merge into a seamless curve, meeting in a wide point, balancing her figure in the centre and anchoring it to the bottom edge of the picture.
Audio description written by Marina Neilson and voiced by Carol Wellman Kelly
Marilyn Darling AC (30 portraits supported)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves: who we read, who we watch, who we listen to, who we cheer for, who we aspire to be, and who we'll never forget. The Companion is available to buy online and in the Portrait Gallery Store.
Meredith Hughes explores a key Portrait Gallery work, emerging into the infinite iterations of identity.
Brook Andrew, Marcia Langton and Anthony Mundine.
