Samantha Hobson<br/>
<em>Bust 'im up</em> 2000 <!-- (recto) --><br />

synthetic polymer paint on canvas<br />
170.3 x 280.4 cm<br />
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne<br />
Purchased through the NGV Foundation with the assistance of the Joan Clemenger Endowment, Governor, 2000<br />
DC2-2000<br />
© Reproduced courtesy Samantha Hobson and Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
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Samantha Hobson Bust ‘im up 2000

Samantha Hobson
Bust 'im up 2000

This landmark work from Samantha Hobson’s first solo exhibition rages against the problems of alcohol abuse and domestic violence that beset the lives of young women in the Lockhart River community, Queensland. Disinterested in the minutiae of dots and lines which many consider quintessential to the iconography of Aboriginal art, Hobson has forged her own abstract and conceptual style of luminous colourfields applied in expansive gestures to large canvases. She throws and splatters explosive colour onto the canvas to express distaste for the unravelling of standards in her home community. The artist directly addresses the demons afflicting her people, and states: ‘I want to stop the domestic violence and young girls getting abused by older men. That’s what my paintings are about’.