LSN011
75 x 120cm
acrylic on linen
2003
In many of her paintings, Linda is revealing what it looks and feels like to Aboriginal people when they see spirits. The fact that they see them is a reality, because several people in a group are seeing exactly the same thing at the same time. They can only be seen in the night time, where they appear as a form of ghostly light. Linda says “they look like cotton wool” she also elaborates “only blackfellas see them…whitefellas see nothing”.
The spirits are painted in red, so that they can be seen. Similar images appear on a rock painting at Tjindara, estimated to be more than fifteen thousand years old. The four men sitting around a hole in the ground is in the sand painting style of the Central Australian desert. Stories have been handed down over thousands of years by scratching the imagery in the desert sand. The background lines, in the Western Desert dot painting style, indicate the electricity in the air which accompanies the spirits. This phenomenon can be felt, even in the daytime, when nothing can be seen. This artwork is one of a series of paintings that Linda began in February 2003, and was an instant response to the question “What exactly is it that Aboriginal people see in the presence of spirits?”
Russell Sims BDSc. Ph.D (Linda's husband)
