From cave wall to canvas to retail counter
Form usually follows function - and indigenous art is no exception
Works like Phillip Hall's Kangaroo have usurped boomerangs as the tourist gift de jour
The creation and trade of indigenous art, began over 30,000 years ago. Paintings were traditionally maps, didgeridoos, emu callers, boomerangs and other tools and weapons were a means through which different tribes communicated, hunted and understood the land and the Dreamtime.
Fast forward thirty millennia, one of Sydney's most respected purveyors of the aforementioned art has become a retail showcase-and-sale centre for these evocative dreamtime-inspired indigenous art pieces. Rainbow Serpent has retail outlets in the overseas departure terminals of Sydney and Brisbane International Airport, as well as a warehouse in Marrickville.
The company's managing director Caroline Friend recently took some time out from didgeridoos and contemporary canvas paintings to tell Time Out a little about what it is to curate an Aboriginal art store.
"There was a gap in the market then," Friend tells me, referring to when they store first began trading in 1991. Since first opening their doors, filling some of that market void, the gallery-like stores have fostered strong relationships with many established Aboriginal artists, including Ken Dundas and Phillip Hall.
Rainbow Serpent's scope for sourcing new art is rather extensive - with a particular focus on artists from NSW.
"A lot of our artists will drive down from various parts of the country and deliver us our orders. We get boomerangs from western NSW."
While they deal with individual artists they also have strong relationships with community-based art centres and family businesses - a noteworthy force in the industry.
A mark of changing times, especially in light of the store's airport locations, is the decline in sales of didgeridoos and boomerangs. "Since September 11, SARS and new policy, people are reluctant to take large boomerangs onto the aircraft with them," Friend informs me. "They think they are going to get confiscated. It's the same with didgeridoos."
For the sake of travellers considering purchasing these items before a flight, it's worth noting that most airlines allow passengers to stow these items in oversized luggage and customs will clear them if declared.
For those who want to get a little more down and interactive with their indigenous art, there's another store set to open in The Rock in just over a month. The store will provide a forum for guests to learn to play the didgeridoo and meet with some of the artists behind the work.
The Rainbow Serpent shop is at Pier C, Sydney International Airport; while they will be opening a new store in June, cnr George & Hickson Rd, Sydney 2000. (02 8577 5300).
Kat Hartmann
