‘The Lost White Woman of Gippsland’ is an exhibition of recent paintings by Rodney Forbes comprised of twenty paintings exploring the myth of the ‘white woman’, which was circulated by Angus McMillan in the 1840s as a punitive excuse to carry out massacres of Gippsland’s Aboriginal people.
Forbes’ paintings address a difficult and highly emotional subject through paintings that are both dreamlike and surreal. Figures and objects float against Forbes’ trademark palette of luminous colours. While each painting explores a different aspect of the story, which culminates in Aboriginal tribes handing over a mermaid masthead from a wrecked ship, the works may be interpreted in many ways.
Gippsland Art Gallery – Sale
Until 28 June, 2015
Victoria
Death of Angus McMillan, 2014, oil on canvas, 51 x 102cm
Courtesy the artist and Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, Victoria
