Blood Spilt In Antiwar Anger
The Age
Wednesday January 16, 2002
WHEN Ararat artist Geoff Todd decided to use his own blood as a painting medium, he was unprepared for the psychological result.
Todd had chosen to paint in his blood to make a dramatic statement decrying Prime Minister John Howard's decision to become involved in the war in Afghanistan. But when the images began to take shape on his canvas, the blood/paint took on an intimate meaning that the artist never foresaw.
``I was overcome by the fact that this was more serious than I intended," says Todd. ``It has a sort of sacredness."
The first of Todd's paintings, (to be catalogued as ``artist's blood, acrylic medium and charcoal on canvas") are now complete, with two to be entered in the Dobell Prize for drawing at the Art Gallery of New South Wales later this year. They are works expressing the artist's outrage over the decision to commit troops to a foreign conflict.
``It worries me that we were prepared to respond so aggressively, so quickly," says Todd. ``I think Mr Howard's response was too quick. No one took a breath and I know that politicians at that level are allowed to take a breath."
An artist of international repute, who is perhaps better known in Europe and SouthEast Asia than in his native Australia, Todd has never sidestepped controversy. At the opening of a 1996 Indonesian exhibition, a Todd drawing of a nude was ordered by police to be covered. The work was later shown at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta.
Then, as Indonesia prepared to go to the polls in 1999, he produced a oneman show at the Museum Benteng Vredeberg in Yogyakarta depicting the turbulent life of revolutionary hero Diponegoro. Todd's work struck a chord with Indonesians who were searching for candidates of substance, epitomised by the 19thcentury ascetic who nearly brought the colonial Dutch undone.
The idea to use blood as a medium came to Todd, 51, while working at his studio/home in the old Terminus Hotel in Ararat. Angered by reports that the provenance of works by Aboriginal artists were being questioned by urban art dealers, Todd reasoned that the only way indigenous artists would be able to establish authorship was to provide blood samples on the back of their paintings that could then be DNA tested.
But when he began experimenting with his blood as paint, he discovered the seriousness of the medium outweighed the issue.
Trying to make people aware of consequences of war that can be as painful as explosions and shattered limbs, Todd focused on images of abandonment - children growing up without fathers and wives longing for husbands.
``I wanted to try and present the child as being aware of the need to support the adult that is left behind," says Todd. ``And that's a horrendous role for the child, to become not only an adult but a partner."
In another triptych arrangement, Todd presents a selfportrait, flanked by a woman tangled in a hand and an armless man disfigured by conflict. The artist is seen in the middle, powerless except through the use of his own blood as a medium for his protest.
Todd could not bring himself to ask his GP to help extract his blood, so to acquire his medium he was instead aided by a sympathetic nursing sister. In clandestine meetings during her work breaks, the sister siphoned off large quantities from Todd's veins in the front seat of her vehicle parked in a Melbourne carpark.
Todd had to learn the intricacies of the living medium. Initially, he worked quickly to avoid coagulation, tipping his extracted blood from test tubes into bowls. When he worked too slowly, lumps of clotted blood appeared, creating a texture that he learnt to utilise. He fixed the blooded areas with acrylic spray but then found a better way.
``I discovered that I could get the blood into a bowl and mix it with clear acrylic medium and really splash it around. It's quite permanent with the surface washable without disturbing the blood," he says.
WHILE the artist likes to joke about his dog's newfound fascination with his paintings, the motivation for the works remains deadly serious. In a political climate where few have raised their voice against the war in Afghanistan, Todd believes his statement is an appeal for careful consideration before Australians join in any overseas conflict.
But he believes he has produced his last blood painting. ``They are important because they are, literally, a part of me," he says. ``I don't want to devalue their uniqueness. They worked more powerfully than I expected."
© 2002 The Age
