Jonathan Jones (artist)

Jones' work represents, embodies or engages with a site. Works that are site-specific suit Jones' practice as he is able to alter public space, creating interventions into Western narratives of the land, and challenging cultural discourse at large. Jones reveals the hidden histories of a city through his art.

Barrangal Dyara (Skin and Bones)[8] is a prime example of the way Jones has used public art installation projects to expose an element of Australian history which has been suppressed by cultural amnesia. Skin and Bones is a representation of the 19th Century Garden Palace building in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney that burned down, destroying many Indigenous artefacts collected along the colonial frontier.[9] Masses of white, sculptural shields cover the space where the building would have stood, creating a large scale, decorative memorial. The motif of the shield acts as a visual metaphor for the cultural loss that occurred, and also demonstrates that Jones, through his art, interprets the site's history through an Aboriginal lens. This work was Kaldor Public Art Project's 32nd project.

As well as working on ephemeral, site-specific, public art installations, Jones has also worked extensively with the medium of light. He works with fluorescent light tubes to further explore the connections between individuals, communities and land, as well as "illuminating a bridge between cultures and the space of exchange".[4] Jones often employs light to further accentuate surface textures and strong geometric lines. To the viewer, these works can appear as tasteful Western interpretations of minimalist compositions, however, for Jones the cross-hatching and chevron motifs are also direct references to Aboriginal concerns of country and community.[10] These themes, as well as his repeated use of line, allude to the Aboriginal line designs specific to south-eastern Australia, which have been continuously appropriated in the Western canon. Jones states, "In this region the line is used to create patterns and designs, often carved into wood, skin and the ground."[11]

Jones' work Blue Poles,[12] 2004/2010, addresses the role of appropriation within Western art movements - directly through Jackson Pollock's iconic 'Blue Poles' - and clearly demonstrates his keen adoption of light mediums.[11] Jones' use of light in this work underlines the paradox of the traditional and contemporary in a poignant way. The minimalist, structured light tubes appear contemporary, while the motif of the lines speaks to his Aboriginal heritage: connections with the land that date back thousands of years.

An exhibition of colonial artworks alongside the tools and objects of Aboriginal people, accompanied by carefully researched text and commentary by Jones, writer and researcher Bruce Pascoe and historian Bill Gammage, was the subject of an exhibition entitled Bunha-bunhanga: Aboriginal agriculture in the south-east, mounted in the Art Gallery of South Australia's Elder Wing and the Museum of Economic Botany, as part of Tarnanthi 2019. Jones created a series of outsize grindstones within the Museum building.[13]