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Lucas Grogan and the Eroticism of Aboriginal Art

In a series of paintings dating from 2008, artist Lucas Grogan attracted the ire of artists and curators for appropriating Arnhem Land rock art motifs. These works, including Yeah Babe, Its Been A Tough Night Out (2010), You’ve Been Out All Night Babe (2010) and Spit It Out Babe (2011), used cross-hatched patterning resembling Arnhem Land rarrk, as well as spirit figures resembling the mimis (figs 1–3). They were also cut to simulate the rough edges of bark paintings from the region. Fellow artists withdrew from being represented by Grogan’s gallery, curators withdrew from working on exhibitions in which he was included, his work was withdrawn from exhibitions and competitions, and he was personally threatened and warned not to do it again. Critiques posted on personal blogs and Facebook were vehement. While the appropriation of Indigenous motifs goes some way towards explaining the reaction, the collision of sexualised spirit figures with online opinion-making intensified it. As Grogan reports, ‘80% of the hate mail I received was gay related’. While Grogan’s paintings have precedents, not only in the history of appropriation but in a more specific history of eroticism around rock art motifs, they were also exhibited in a world transformed by the internet-affected culture of the twenty-first century. To begin, it is worth returning to the critiques of Grogan in order to establish the reasoning behind the controversy. There are two types of criticism of his work. The first lies in the artist’s ‘flagrant disregard for Aboriginal copyright’. As artist TextaQueen writes, ‘I don’t think it’s his story to be telling and I think he’s trading on controversy’. Artist Tony Albert is most succinct when he writes on Facebook that ‘Rarrk has meaning, it has purpose and it has ownership. Like the land it was never surrendered, sold or traded. Rarrk designs relate to ceremony and refer to people’s spiritual identity and connection to country.’ Canadian and M etis artist David Garneau complains: