“Australian and American Fighters will be forever entwined and woven into the fabric of boxing folklore. An inspirational and historical exchange of enduring friendships and endless legendary bouts.”
Leveraging the dynamic energy of Brooklyn New York, Sydney Artist Miriam Cabello launched her captivating White Rope series of paintings at the Brooklyn (DUMBO) Arts Festival in September 2011. These works depict and perpetuate the oral histories of Aboriginal Australian boxing legends Dave Sands, Ron Richards, Tony Mundine and Lionel Rose. Many of their outstanding accomplishments and exchanges with their American peers have been fading from contemporary conversation, rekindling these oral histories is key to Miriam Cabello’s artistic odyssey.
From the exposure and interest generated at the Brooklyn Arts Festival the paintings in the White Rope series began their journey across America. Her oil painting Ron Richards I was an award winner at the National Art Museum of Sport (NAMOS), Indianapolis, where it was on show till February 2012. The judges praised her unique, masterful oil painting technique ©Spectral Kinetic Realism in which she paints the subjects’ individual colour temperature with layered transparent colours.
On viewing the works at NAMOS the owners of Geary Gallery in Connecticut wanted the White Rope series to continue their cultural exchange. The gallery, only an hour from the boxing heartland of Brooklyn, have selected key works from the series to be on exhibition from March 2012.
“Ron Richards Triptych” palette is drawn from my experience in Ulluru and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags. “I use this inspiration to paint the colour temperature of my subjects and it is in this sensory space where the exchange begins.”
This is a strong body of work drawing on oral histories, images and archives from the Australian Indigenous Boxing Hall of Fame and Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame (ANBHF).
The inspiration is to transpose with oil paint, soundscapes and new media the profound journey of these Aboriginal Australians engaged in an iconic western sport.
