iArtist

Vernon Ah Kee
BETHANY REES

Figure 1; Vernon Ah Kee working on his artwork from his ex-

hibition entitled “Born in this skin” 2009
C H AP TE R 1

An Evolving Practice
The Teacher As Artist And
Viewer

Figure 2; Vernon Ah Kee exhibition entitled

“AN IMA” 2010

“I'm expanding the idea of what it means to be

Vernon Ah Kee Aboriginal and what it means to be human.”
- Vernon Ah Kee

Bethany Rees
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S EC T I O N 1

Introduction To Chosen Artist

Who is Vernon Ah Kee?

Vernon Ah Kee was born in 1967 in Innisfail, Queensland. He is a member of the Yid-
indji, Kuku Yalandji, Waanji, Koko Berrin and Gugu Yimithirr people. He currently works
as an artist in Brisbane, who works with both visual and media arts. Vernon Ah Kee’s
work focuses on the investigation of race, ideology and politics. Within his work Vernon
Ah Kee uses play on words and puns to fuse the history and language of colonisation
with contemporary black/white political issues within Australian society.
Vernon Ah Kee works with simple materials to produce portraits or other powerful
pieces of art that have a strong message or story to share.
Vernon Ah Kee has produced exhibition that have been showcased both nationally and
internationally. Some of his exhibitions include;
• I walk the line: new Australian drawing, MCA 2009
• Revolutions: forms that turn, Biennale of Sydney 2008
• Indigenous Triennale, National Gallery of Australia 2012
• My Country: I Still Call Australia Home, Gallery of Modern art, Brisbane 2013
• Sakahàn: 1st International Quinquennial of
New Indigenous Art, National Gallery of Can-
ada 2013
• Barack, National Gallery of Victoria, Mel-
bourne 2011

Figure 3; Vernon Ah Kee creating his piece

from his collection “Ideas about Barak” 2011

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Why did i choose Vernon Ah Kee?
After visiting the National Gallery of Victoria and viewing some amazing work, nothing there
really resinated with me. It wasn’t until i did further research on Australian artists through the
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, that i came across Ah Kee’s work. One piece of Ah
Kee’s work that really stood out to me was his piece entitled “Unwritten”.

His work to me is done in a very meaningful and insightful way where

his artwork just turns out to be so powerful. I also choose Vernon Ah
Kee because he is so versatile when it comes to his artworks. He
works with a variety of different materials and formats that would al-
low for a great insight to develop creative and meaningful art that can
be brought into the classroom.

Throughout this chapter i will be focusing on on the many different

practices of Vernon Ah Kee as an artist. Through the use of the con-
Figure 4- “Unwritten” 2009, Vernon Ah Kee
ceptual framework in order to research the different aspects of Vernon
Ah Kee art, with the overall goal of creating an art piece that is inspired by Ah Kee’s prac-
tices.

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 Figure 5; C.Elwyn DENNIS
Evidence of Origin
Workshop 1- Visit to the National Gallery

Figure 7; Drawing the image
Figure 6; First attempt at
using contour drawing where
drawing this artwork; no
we can not take our pencil off
restrictions
the paper
Figure 8; Drawing the same
artwork but we could not
take our pencil off the paper
and also could not look at
the paper
Figure 9; Revisiting our first
drawing and redrawing the
artwork again with no re-
strictions.

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S EC T I O N 2

Feldman Model

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 Feldman Model
The Feldman Model is used to analyses and interpret Art.
It is made up of 4 steps that are to be used to help viewers
use when criticizing artworks.

Through the use of this framework it will allow students to

really get inside the artwork and begin to think deeper
about them. About how they were created, why they were
made and what is the underlying message the artist is try-
ing to get across within this piece of artwork.

Moreover, if students are able to understand these differ-

ent concepts and all the different thinking components that
go into creating a piece of artwork then when they take on
the role of the art maker themselves they will understand
and think more deeply about how and what they want to
produce in order to get their own message or story across
to the viewer.

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 “Unwritten”

Figure 19; Unwritten #10

Use the Feldman Model to critique and examine the artwork

“What can you see in the artwork? Can you describe the artwork?”
• I can see a face
• The features get darker where the artist wants to show the different features of the
face
“What can you see as the centre of focus in this artwork? How does colour influence
this artwork?
• The centre of this artwork is the nose
• Attention is drawn to this section as its the darkest part of the artwork
“What is the artists message in this piece? What do you think it means?”
• I think the message in this artwork is to show the lack of identity Aboriginal people feel
due to their history
“What is the strengths of this artwork? What do you like/dislike about this artwork?”
• I think this artwork is a powerful piece because it is so simple with its line and marteri-
als however it gets the message across very strongly, about identity

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S EC T I O N 3

Conceptual Framework

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 Conceptual Framework
We use the four different agencies of the conceptual
framework to explore the ways the artist, artworks,
world and audiences see and think about any given art-
work. This structure aims to help students and viewers
to understand artworks in different contexts of a num-
ber of relationshops.
The conceptual framework embraces the many differ-
ent agencies that hold, display or create artworks such
as galleries, art schools, art publications, art education,
commissions and funding bodies. it allows for an over-
all understanding of how these different agencies inter-
act with each other and more importantly how the art-
ist is choosing to interact with them via their artwork.
The framework incorporates primary, secondary and
tertiary contexts for reading works.

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Example of using the conceptual framework
on Vernon Ah Kee’s artwork “unwritten”
The world
Vernon Ah Kee artwork is a modernised way to present different cultural and political
ideas and feelings. In a society where Aboriginal people are seen as outcausts within
their own country this artwork could be representing the lack of human diginity and
identity that has been given to Aboriginal people throughout their history.

Vernon Ah Kee artwork entitled “Unwritten #10”2009

The Audience The Artist

The audience of this piece would be everyone, both Abo-
riginals and non aboriginals. This is because Aboriginal
people could connect and sympathies with it and it also
may be sending out a political and cultural message to
non aboriginal people who could never understand the
hardships and treatment that Aboriginal people have re-
cieved and continue to recieve within our societies
The artist, Vernon Ah Kee, is an Aboriginal artist
from Queensland. He uses his artworks to make cul-
tural, political and social stands within our society
that are based on Aboriginal issues/injustices.
He is very passionate about his artwork and all his
pieces provide insight and important messages to
the viewers.

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S EC T I O N 4

Explore And Practices

Vernon Ah Kee
“Born in this skin”
Finding a place to begin
The artwork that really stood out to me of Vernon Ah
Kee’s was his collection of “Unwritten” pieces in Ver-
non’s Born in this skin exhibition 2011.
This collection of artworks presents faces or portraits in
a very special and unusual way. All the Unwritten draw-
ings do not present faces or features. The artist has
used the principle of line throughout and more impor-
tantly cross hatching.
For each picture he shows facial features by making the
areas darker/making the lines darker. Everywhere else
Vernon Ah Kee uses a much softer hand which implies
the face/skin.
These pieces really stood out to Figure 11; Unwritten #10

me. I think this was because, even without placing a large

emphasis on the facial features such as the eyes, nose
and mouth we are still able to produce artwork that pre-
sents a face with little detail.
I think this was the point of Aboriginal artist Vernon Ah
Kee pieces as he wants to show the unimportance that
Aboriginal people might feel within the Australian commu-
nity because of their histories.
Figure 10; Line types from workshop

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Figure 12; Unwritten #12
Figure 13; Unwritten #10

Figure 14; Unwritten #1

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 Figure 16; Unwritten #5

Figure 15; Unwritten #2

Figure 17; Unwritten #8 Figure 18; Unwritten #4

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 Figure 19; Show a charcoal drawing of
an artifact that was created by taking
the charcoal way with a putty rubber.
This was completed during workshop
2. This explores how we can make art
by sometimes taking away

Figure 20; is a charcoal drawing of an

artefact (bones) that was completed
during workshop 2.
This figure shows my practice with
charcoal within the classroom

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S EC T I O N 5

Preform And Present

Black Metallic crayon

Grey chalk pastels

Blue Chalk pastels

Copper Metallic
crayon

Silver Metallic crayon

Bronze Metallic crayon

Figure 20; Experimenting with different materials

After experimenting with the different materials i founds that the chalk pastels
didn’t give enough precision. They didn’t allow for lighter and darker lines also,
which could be problematic for my artwork.

The metallic crayons allowed for more precision and showed that you were able to
make darker lines/cross hatching whilst still having precision.
I also thought that if i kept it to black, just like Vernon Ah Kee’s pieces that the mes-
sage would be as strong.

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I began by firstly sketching out where the
main feature of a face

Next i decided to go over these features by

using cross hatching. For this i only
emphasized the outline of each of the
features.

I then decided that in the previous step i

placed too much detail on certain features.
Therefore i decided to redo the features,
this time by focusing on the darkness of the
features compared to detail

Next i decided to then lightly go over the

features, cross hatching. For this step i just
very lightly used line to over the whole face.

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Despite already testing out the
different materials i could use, i
decided to go back to this step
and make the whole face to see
if any of the other colours or ma-
terials gave a better impact.

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 FINAL PIECE
ENTITLED “ MASK IDENTITY”

Despite looking back on the different materials i found that the black metallic crayon
allowed for the greatest impact when compared to the others.
The use of cross hatching is used to creature the outline or impact that their are facial
features without going into detail so that it isn’t actually a portrait of a single person
and could be used to represent a group of people.
It could also be used to tell a story about someone who is struggling with their identity
and could also be a universal mask of everyones identity that we all wear as a lot of us
conform to societies wants and needs in order to not stand out or go against anyone.

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C H AP TE R 2

Teacher As Curriculum
Designer

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S EC T I O N 1

Lesson Plans
Visual Arts; Responding Lesson
Elements and principles of art

AusVELS Domain; The Arts

Lesson Focus; Responding to Vernon Ah Kee’s Visual art

Content Description; Explore ideas and practices used by artists, including practices of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander artists, to represent different views, beliefs and opinions (ACAVAM114)

Achievement standard; At Level 6, students discuss traditional and contemporary arts works using
appropriate arts language to describe the content, structure and expressive qualities of their own and
other people’s works from a range of arts disciplines and forms

Level; Year 5/6

Lesson Duration; 60 Minutes

Learning outcome; Students are able to discuss the different practices used within Vernon Ah Kee’s
artwork through the elements and principles of art to gather information about his art making and the
ideas and meanings behind Vernon Ah Kee’s artworks.

Success criteria; Students can verbalise there ideas and response to the artworks of Vernon Ah Kee by
incorporating one art principle and one element of art. Students can identify a key element of Vernon Ah
Kee’s work

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Materials needed;
• Interactive whiteboard/ projector to display images/ short clips to the whole class
• Copy of Art Elements and Principles
• Selection of Vernon Ah Kee’s artworks that have a given focus such as the invasion
paintings

Lesson Outline
• Begin the lesson by firstly discussing art elements and principles. Get students to
have a group discussion where each group becomes an expert with one element and
one principle.
• Elements that can be focused on within Vernon Ah Kee’s artworks include;

- Colour

- Line

- Space and Perspective
• Principles that can be focused on within Vernon Ah Kee’s artworks include;

- Proportion and scale

- Emphasis

- Patterns
• Get students to work within groups to research and become experts within their given
element or principle
• Students are then to form different groups where each person is an expert for a differ-
ent element or principle.
• Students then will share within the group their findings and complete a table so that
they all have information on all elements and principles
• Bring the class back together and go through Vernon Ah Kee’s artwork, for example
his invasion paintings exhibition
• As we are going through the collection as a class students will then need to discuss
what elements and principles have been used within Ah Kee’s artworks
• Student then need to reflect on this by writing a one page summary about their
thoughts about Vernon Ah Kee’s artworks incorporating the different elements and prin-
ciples of art that he utilises to create meaningful artworks

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 Visual Arts; Making Lesson
Show me YOU in a symbol

AusVELS Domain; The Arts

Lesson Focus; Using Vernon Ah Kee artwork to inspire there own piece of artwork

Content Description; Develop and apply techniques and processes when making their artworks
(ACAVAM115) Explain how visual arts conventions communicate meaning by comparing artworks from
different social, cultural and historical contexts, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artworks
(ACAVAR117)

Achievement standard; Students use visual conventions and visual arts practices to express a personal
view in their artworks. They demonstrate different techniques and processes in planning and making
artworks.

Level; Year 5/6

Lesson Duration; 90 Minutes

Learning outcome; Students can utilise their knowledge of the elements and principles of art to create
their own meaningful piece of artwork

Success criteria; Students can recall the art elements and principles, then utilise this information in their
practice of being an art marker. Students understand that art making can communicate meaning that
represent social, cultural and historical contexts

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Materials needed
• Vernon Ah Kee a short documentary
• Charcoal
• White A3 pieces of paper
• Light boxes

Lesson outline
• Revisit the concepts that were discussed in the pervious lesson that went over
the different art elements and principles
• Get the students to watch the short documentary on Vernon Ah Kee
• Have a class discussion about Ah Kee’s work and the different meanings and
ideas that Vernon uses within his work
• Revisit the artworks that were visited in the previous lesson Born in this skin art-
works
• Use these groups of artworks as inspiration for students artworks
• Get students to have 5 minutes quite time to think about a symbol or animal or
place that is important to them. That has significant value to student
• Using only a piece of charcoal and white piece of paper students need to draw
their chosen symbolism taking on the different elements and principles of art.
•For example they might use the line element of circlarism to create a similar im-
age to Ah Kee’s work, however using their own symbolism that is meaningful to
them.
•The symbols students used could be animals, signs, objects or nature with rele-
vant colours used to also show symbolism
• It is also important for students to have a clear understanding how art can be
used to tell a story or present a message/stance to us and therefore they too
need to create a piece of artwork that does the same
• Students should take on the same style of Vernon where they are very light with
the charcoal and only get darker when they are adding more detail

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Media arts- Responding lesson
How does this make you feel?

AusVELS Domain; The Arts

Lesson Focus; Responding to Vernon Ah Kee’s Media artworks

Content Description; Explore representations, characterisations and points of view of people in their
community, including themselves, using settings, ideas, story principles and genre conventions in
images, sounds and text (ACAMAM062)

Achievement standard; By the end of Year 6, students explain how points of view, ideas and stories are
shaped and portrayed in media artworks they make, share and view. They explain the purposes and
audiences for media artworks made in different cultures, times and places.

Level; Year 5/6

Lesson Duration; 60 Minutes

Learning outcome; Students are able to respond to media work by Vernon Ah Kee using the Feldman
model

Success criteria; Students are able to use the Feldman model in order to respond/critique to Vernon Ah
Kee’s media work

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Materials needed
• Projector/ Interactive whiteboard
• Collection of images from Vernon Ah Kee’s “becauseitisbitter” exhibition

Lesson outline
• Lead the class in a group discussion about what they understand about aboriginal
history. Ask probing questions to help students gage a better understanding about
aboriginal history
• Expose students to the different artworks of Vernon Ah Kee “becauseitisbitter” exhi-
bition. Use these to create discussion
• Revise the Feldman model withs students
• Use this model to critique and respond to the artwork
• Students will then need to write a short reflective piece or can use a piece to re-
spond in in a different way such as with a short story or letter. Students should use
this response piece in a way that incorporates the different issues that the piece
deals with as well as different aspects that the student has learnt through the use of
the feldman model as well as the different elements and principles of art

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Media Arts; Making Lesson
Student as the movie maker

AusVELS Domain; The Arts

Lesson Focus; Responding to Vernon Ah Kee’s Visual art

Content Description; Plan, produce and present media artworks for specific audiences and purposes
using responsible media practice (ACAMAM064)

Achievement standard; Students work collaboratively using technologies to make media artworks for
specific audiences and purposes using story principles to shape points of view and genre conventions,
movement and lighting.

Level; Year 5/6

Lesson Duration; 90 Minutes

Learning outcome; Students are able to work within a group to create a 1 minute movie around the
theme of culture

Success criteria; Students are able to work collaboratively to plan and create a short clip that works with
the theme of culture. Students can plan on a story board and then bring their ideas together within a
movie clip. Students understand the theme of culture to create a meaningful piece

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Materials needed
• Class set of ipads with iMovie installed
• Paper storyboards
• Provide students with different areas such as the classroom, outside area, play-
ground, costumes

Lesson outline
• Brainstorm the idea of the theme “Culture”
• Brainstorm the different concepts that are used within a movie. These include cam-
era angles, perspectives, lightening, audio, black/white or colour, speed of footage
• Get students to write down the number one thing that they think has to do with the
overall theme of culture. From here group students who have similar thinking and be-
liefs about culture
• Students are then to create a storyboard that will depict what their short 1 minute
clip will be about, scene by scene
• Allow students to then film their short clip
• Once groups have completed filming work with them to edit the footage in iMovie to
create their final piece
• Once students have put together their footage and edited it carefully students will
then present the video to the class
• Students will also need to write a short paragraph that will justify their choices made
throughout the movie. For example; Why they decided to use a certain camera angle,
why they used that lightening, Why the chose to represent culture the way they did

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S EC T I O N 2

References
AusVELS - The Arts - Curriculum. (2016). Ausvels.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Retrieved from
http://ausvels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/The-Arts/Curriculum?layout=2#level=6

Born In This Skin | Milani Gallery. (2008). Milanigallery.com.au. Retrieved from

http://www.milanigallery.com.au/exhibit/born-skin

Host, J. (2010). The Conceptual Framework. Year 7 Visual Arts Study Guide. Retrieved
from
https://hoststudyguide7.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/week-2-the-conceptual-framework/

Lawels, H. (2011). Vernon Ah Kee: Investigating "Ideas of Barak" - Contemporary Artists

Honour Barak - Culture Victoria. Culture Victoria. Retrieved from
http://www.cv.vic.gov.au/stories/aboriginal-culture/contemporary-artists-honour-barak/vern
on-ah-kee-investigating-ideas-of-barak/

Milani, J. (2009). ABC Online Indigenous - Programs - Message Stick - Born In This Skin.
Abc.net.au. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/tv/messagestick/stories/s2545561.htm

Sorensen, R. (2008). The Face: Vernon Ah Kee. The Australian. Retrieved, from
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/the-face-vernon-ah-kee/story-e6frg8n6-11111168559
96

Vernon Ah Kee. (2009). Nets Victoria National Exhibitions Touring Support Victoria. Re-
trieved from http://netsvictoria.org.au/artist/vernon-ah-kee/

Unus, A. (2010). Conceptual Framework. R . E . W . I . R . E . D. Retrieved from

https://rewired.edublogs.org/submissions/conceptual-framework/

Unwritten. (2009). Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. Retrieved from

http://www.mca.com.au/collection/work/2013-33/
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