Autumn Hanging

Colour Correction Series 'Fauna and Flora'

KONSTANTINA (KATE) CONSTANTINE

Colour Correction Series 'Fauna and Flora' 600 x 600 mm Synthetic Polymer Paints on Canvas KFA222500

COLOUR CORRECTION SERIES When you fix a mistake, you make a correction, a change that rights a wrong. When you correct a misspelled word, you've made a correction. Well done! Correction also applies to punishment, which is another way to right a wrong. A correction is an improvement or a revision when there's something that needs to be fixed. 
Konstantina known for powerful use of colour has put together a series of work that annotates today’s political and socio-political environment from her perspective as an Aboriginal woman, mother and activist. 
Each work plays on a double entendre based on typically European interpretations of words, though uses colour to counter that European meaning. 
Skin-on-Skin is a well-known practise for first contact between Western babies & their mother’s at birth; though Konstantina has exacerbated the colours of the most iconic skin tones in the world and has used them to tell a different story altogether in her contemporary dot-painting piece. This is just one example of the work included in this exhibition. 

FAUNA & FLORA
It is sometimes stated that the 1967 Referendum overturned a ‘Flora and Fauna Act’. This supposed act classed Aboriginal people alongside native Australian flora and fauna.
While no such act ever existed, the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 encouraged this belief. This Act gave the NSW government control over Aboriginal heritage and landscape.
In addition, some states did manage Aboriginal affairs through departments that also looked after flora and fauna.
At the time there was a better understanding of the number of sheep and cattle in Australia than the Aboriginal population.
*partial excerpt http://museum.wa.gov.au/referendum-1967