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Arts & Communication Realist art of Kenneth Jack and rural towns

population will drift away and then the basic services will The postmodern turn in art refers primarily to artwork
also disappear. that emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s in America.
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In terms of my reference to absences, Allen alludes Important postmodern artists of this era included Jenny
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to the dialectical opposite of what can sometimes be seen Holzer, Sherrie Levine, Peter Eisenman, Mary Kelly, and
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in a painting—city people at the beach (in Victorian era Cindy Sherman. I can find no obvious postmodern
clothing) “hint by association” at the city offices that they aspects to Jack’s art as his work and statements about his
have left behind, as in Tom Roberts’ The Sunny South work, for the most part (I obviously do not have access to
(c. 1887) and Charles Conder’s A Holiday at Mentone every word that he put on the public record), are socially
(1888). In the second-mentioned work, the Victorian-era conservative. He presents comforting images, for the most
dress of the beachgoers includes top hats and suits for part, of rural Australia that depict honest communities
the men and long dresses and parasols for the women, and apparent timelessness, as evidenced by his revealed
although the parasol of the woman in the foreground is preference for peaceful midday scenes. Contradictions are
discarded or blown away. She sits reading on a chair, usually out of sight of the vista and nothing appears in need
strangely with her back facing the beach, perhaps to avoid of reconciliation. Old buildings are the order of the day,
glare or to catch the sunlight on the page. We see here “the rather than a juxtaposition of old and new as might reflect
pleasure of weaving anecdotal variations around […] the postmodernity. Even the dogs are at peace, reflecting the
banalities of everyday life”. 78 ethic of restfulness and serenity as if the community is
hidden away or out of sight, conserving energy. The tourist
Jack’s images serve another purpose—they reassure never makes an appearance, suggesting that the tourist gaze
European-origin peoples in the urban areas that “out is obtrusive, unnatural, inauthentic, a product always—
there,” in the remote emptiness, there are people just like already of commodification and possibly postmodernity.
them, a mirror image. Furthermore, by them being there Edward Hopper (1882 – 1967) and Andrew Wyeth (1917
they provide security in two senses—namely the food – 2009), American realist painters of the 20 century, may
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provision of the farmers and the existential protection of well have influenced Kenneth Jack, although their styles
occupation of the land. Even though the land is vast and are not similar. Their works highlight aspects of loneliness,
the population small, the spacing of towns and people and isolation, and alienation, thus creating pathos. A good
the logical spread of railway lines and highways (and dirt example would be New York Movie (1939) by Hopper,
tracks) can still be seen as a kind of power/knowledge in which depicts a solitary woman usher on the right-hand
that the land is inhabited strategically, or at least it would side alongside mostly dark empty or silent space. Another
appear to be. Jack’s book of his paintings of Queensland fine example is Hopper’s Nighthawks (1942), which depicts
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towns communicates this view. Rural dangers that threaten three people at a late-night diner with nothing on the
life and property in the urban areas, such as bushfires, walls and one man and the staff member not interacting
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floods, and drought, are nowhere to be seen other than with anyone. Empty spaces can be perceived as meanings.
in the dryness and harshness of the land in some of Jack’s The huge windows on two sides suggest that the outside
Queensland paintings. Jack’s images remain reassuring and random passerby can observe their world just as much as
comforting images to the urban dweller. they can observe the outside. The man sitting alone makes
The theme of work (labor) was vital to the Heidelberg no effort to converse.
impressionists and can be said to have had some 6. A darker side
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ideological resonance and usefulness. In Jack’s paintings,
work is yet an additional absence, but again it is hinted On the front cover of Jack’s book is a painting of a single
at: If the dogs are not strays, someone looks after them, building in a harsh and dry environment. Incongruously,
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someone built the buildings, and someone cleaned up the an empty white bathtub sits on the barren land close to
streets. But the buildings being typically old may suggest the side of the building and only a few meters from the
that it does not matter when the work took place, and the roadside. Here, I am reminded of the police operations
current generation might not be as active and hardworking around 2014 in tiny Yatina in South Australia when police
as their predecessors were (although they might be). searched for evidence of the bodies or blood of two young
(Nowadays, in many cases, work is intellectual and creative, girls abducted in 1973 from the Adelaide Oval during an
rather than manual.) Work, then, for Allen, was used to Australian Rules football match. 85,86 The suspect was the
deflect attention from a “dubious past” —the convict era, late pedophile Stanley Arthur Hart (1917 – 1999) who had
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colonization, and the “dispossession” of the Aboriginal links to Yatina and to the North Adelaide Football Club,
people. All these things are only implicit or latent in Jack’s which was playing Norwood that day. Two deep wells were
work, and not in any way upfront or obvious. excavated by police at Hart’s Yatina property, and his house

Volume 3 Issue 1 (2025) 7 doi: 10.36922/ac.3481