This thought-provoking exhibition closes at the National Gallery of Australia, alas (see also News Item of 26 May 2017). WfaAR was struck by the intensely political nature of a significant number of the works chosen for this third National Indigenous Art Triennial, all extensively researched, all reinterpreting the actions and attitudes of white settlers in our country over 229 short years. For republicans, the standout works were those of Reko Rennie, the “retouched” Rolls Royce burning doughnuts in the red dirt of his country (a whooping and hollering moment of victory and delight if ever there was one; was that filmed from a drone?) and the simply stunning Royal Flag 2013 (click on link) now in the NGA collection. Then the deeply moving works by Judy Watson and Julie Gough on the so-many, far-too-many massacres and exterminations. The latter’s evocative filming of the bush in Tasmania sobbed and screamed out of the screen. Again, WfaAR says: Why are only our First Peoples required to defy empire?
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
