News From The Pews’       A voice from the pews of St Stephen’s Cathedral, Issue 25, May 26 2000

 

 

 

Foley’s Comments in Courier-Mail

For 2 years now, Fiona Foley has sat back in silence while News From The Pews has published numerous revelations about her artwork in St Stephen’s.  

 

An “angry Ms Foley” was only drawn out to comment when finally contacted by the Courier-Mail.  In an article on 15 April 2000, it is reported that her work was only intended to be a record of Aborigines in the region “pre-contact with Europeans”.  She said that a lot of the work in question was just landscape paintings.  “Some of the imagery was tied up with symbolism from where I actually come from, which is Fraser Island and Hervey Bay, and a lot of the imagery is pertinent to that time I was making art”, she said.

 

Ms Foley claimed that she “had never even heard of Crowley”.  Yet, as reported in the last issue, the images in the shrine correspond perfectly with Crowley’s codes and images.  So many of the methods and codes used by Crowley are evident in the artwork and it is virtually impossible to have been a coincidence.  Crowley and his followers use these codes to represent images, which to them are a celebration of their devil-worshipping religion in much the same way as a cross is a symbol of Christianity for Christians.  

 

Ms Foley’s long-term silence concerning the shrine is curious, as The Human Search For God is clearly one of her major works and a career highlight.  Although her publicity material lists numerous other career accomplishments and many lesser works, somehow her work in St Stephen’s does not rate a mention. So, why has Ms Foley been silent about this particular artwork?  We know that she is aware of the controversy because the Courier-Mail article reported her comments about the information on the website of News From The Pews.

 

We know that Ms Foley does not mind upsetting people with her art and that she likes to make powerful and at times angry statements in her work.  Controversy has always been part and parcel of Ms Foley’s record as an artist.  We know from Ms Foley’s catalogue Lick My Black Art that she does not mind pushing the boundaries of public taste and acceptability.

 

Thanks to Ms Foley’s colleague Olu Oguibe, we know that Ms Foley is capable of “fist-in-your-face” artwork.  There is nothing new in this; it is a matter of public record. We know that Ms Foley uses irony and biting wit in her artwork, because the critics say so.  Yet, she claims that this work, about which she has been silent, presents mostly landscape paintings.  Her reputation and previous works suggest otherwise.

 

 

Foley’s Art

Fiona Foley’s artwork is abstract; it is meant to be “read”.  As she said in a video-recording Boomalli: Five Koori Artists, she uses different levels of meaning.  She shows how in her art, there is an ‘outer’ level of meaning and an ‘inner’ level of meaning.  So, how can we understand the meaning of her artwork?  

 

One way to read her art is to look at her previous works.  We know from Foley’s work elsewhere that the shrine’s seven panels borrow heavily from her other works, including Eliza Heads For Trouble, Gunabibi 3, Moon Fish and A Three-Legged Dog Day.  We have seen how the images and/or codes from these other of Ms Foley’s works have been replicated in the shrine.  Critics talk of Ms Foley’s images as “encoding” meaning.  The magazine Art Monthly quoted Ms Foley as saying, “I am making up my own visual language and not having to rely on other traditional sources and it is not derivative of any other Aboriginal art…each symbol in the work represents something - it’s not just placed there without a specific meaning.”  There is no such thing as “just landscapes” in Ms Foley’s coded, symbolic art.

 

We know from Ms Foley’s art elsewhere that alchemy - the art of achieving spiritual union with the devil - has been a recurring theme.  We know from the imagery and the codes that alchemy and the occult generally is a major theme in the shrine in the Cathedral.  It is very curious that an artist with such an interest in presenting these themes has never even heard of Crowley.

 

Church Statements

When St. Stephen’s was renovated in 1989, there were many articles in the Catholic Leader, however there was no reference to this shrine.  The only coverage of the shrine by the Church has been restricted to two Church publications with limited circulation, the 1989 St Stephen’s Cathedral commemorative booklet and Liturgy News which said of the shrine that:  “Fiona Foley chose a number of very specific elements to represent and symbolize highly complex and diverse systems of meaning”.  

 

Archbishop Bathersby said in a letter dated 29 June 1998 that “it acknowledges the Aboriginal people’s search for God."  If it is mostly landscape paintings and images from where the artist grew up, how can it - as the Church claims - represent the search for God unless there is some deeper meaning in the images?

 

News From The Pews has sought explanations from the Church as to the meaning of Ms Foley’s “complex and diverse systems of meaning”.  To date, the Church has not provided an explanation.

 

By letter dated 30 July 1999, a letter was received by News From The Pews signed by a Church official of Archdiocesan Services.  In part, the letter said, “..our own experts with knowledge in the area do not bear out your allegations.”  NFTP responded on 11 August 1999, saying, “I am always open to discuss the issues raised .. whether with you or your experts.”  There was no reply from the Church.

 

News From The Pews remains committed to talking to anyone the Church might wish to put forward.  So, where are the Church experts referred to in the letter?  And why have they not come forward to give us the benefit of their expertise?  Why the silence when the church says that this is “a fitting tribute to the Aboriginal people who originally owned the land on which the cathedral is built”?  Surely, they would want the matter resolved once and for all.

 

Enquiry Needed

The evidence presented to date has been detailed and is overwhelming.  The Church can no longer be silent about this issue.  An independent enquiry is urgently needed.

 

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Tim Pemble-Smith, 3 – 111 Central Avenue, Indooroopilly Q 4068, phone: 3871 2047.

Want NFTP by mail or e-mail?  For e-mail, let NFTP know at: trps@ozemail.com.au

 

Current & all back issues of NFTP are available on the Internet at the ‘News From The Pews’ web site: www.ozemail.com.au/~trps

 

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