The Black See, 2011

About proppaNOW proppaNOW is a collective of Aboriginal artists set up in Brisbane in 2004 to give urban based Aboriginal artists a voice. The proppaNOW collective is at the forefront of contemporary art in Australia and the eight individuals who make up the group have exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. proppaNOW challenges the notion of what Aboriginal art is. The artists use their art to forcefully push for social change, while paying homage to their cultural roots. They use paintings, sculptures, film and photos to address issues of racism, displacement, land rights, the environment and to challenge ‘white’ ideas of Aboriginal art and Aboriginal life in society today. They don’t do dots, they don’t do art about the dreamtime, they do art about NOW. Tony Albert, Vernon Ah Kee, Bianca Beetson, Richard Bell, Megan Cope, Jennifer Herd, Gordon Hookey and Laurie Nilsen are the proppaNOW collective.

Tony Albert Tony Albert is a Brisbane-based artist who was born in North Queensland. His family comes from Cardwell, situated in the rainforest area of the far north. In 2004 Tony completed a degree in Visual Arts majoring in Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art. Tony Albert’s artworks are complex interrogations into the human condition. Mining imagery and source material from across the globe and drawing upon personal and collective histories, Albert questions how we understand and imagine difference. Weaving together text appropriated from popular music, film, fiction and art history along with clichéd images of extraterrestrials, photographs of his family in Lucha Libre and an immense collection of “Aboriginalia” (a term Albert has coined to describe objects such as ash trays, drink coasters, velvet paintings, tea-towels and playing cards which include naïve images of Australian Aboriginal people and their culture) Albert presents a tapestry of ideas. Albert engages in a sophisticated negotiation with his viewers, enacting both good and bad cop with his confrontational and unapologetic stance coupled with punching humour and hope.

Vernon Ah Kee Vernon Ah Kee was born in North Queensland and is of the Kuku Yalandji, Waanji, Koko Berrin, Yidindji and Gugu Yimithirr peoples. His art practice, comprised of conceptual use of text, video, 3D, photography, drawing and painting, is anchored in the artist’s own life experiences in this country and his family’s history. Vernon’s work is primarily a critique of Australian culture, specifically its inherent black/white dichotomy. In 2007 he was selected for Culture Warriors, the National Gallery of Australia’s inaugural National Indigenous Art Triennial; in 2008 he was selected for Revolutions: Forms That Turn, the 16th Biennale of Sydney; and in 2009 he represented Australia in the 53rd Venice Biennale in Italy with his CantChant Installation (text, surfboards, video) for the ancillary group exhibition Once Removed. Vernon has exhibited throughout Australia and internationally where major institutions have collected his work.

Bianca Beetson Bianca is a Kabi Kabi woman, born in Roma Western Queensland. She studied a Bachelor of Arts, Visual Arts (Honours), at the Queensland University of Technology. Bianca’s work is usually pink, with the occasional variation of hue or medium, which has become the signature for her work. It is not just the colour pink alone that makes her work so unique, but rather her use of humour and satire to critique issues of importance.

Bianca’s work is concerned with her identity as an Aboriginal, the commodification of Aboriginal culture; the demarcation of ‘art’, ‘artifact’ and ‘kitsch’, critique of the social and cultural structures, and the critique of the ‘beauty’ and the ‘feminine’. These themes are blended with references to the work of twentieth century artists such as Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Lin Onus, Rover Thomas, Richard Bell and Andy Warhol.

Richard Bell Born in Charleville in 1953, into the Kamilaroi tribe, Richard was a leader in the first group of urban Indigenous artists whose work provided a means of expression during the lead up to the 1988 bi-centenary of white Australian settlement. During this time, Richard focused on ‘challenging non-Indigenous artists who appropriated Indigenous imagery in their work’ and the perceived notions of traditional and modern Indigenous art.

As well, his work addresses contemporary issues such as religion, art and politics. Richard now lives in Brisbane. Richard’s works are described as ‘totemic animal, dot application, cross hatching and traditional hand stencils’ examining ‘the historical treatment of Aboriginal people after European settlement’. These are seen as Richard’s response to issues of oppression, frustration and discrimination. Richard believes that, “… it is my job as an artist to test people’s resolve, to provoke thought and that’s what I do, I provoke thought and discussion.” With more than 20 years of incendiary production behind him the ‘enfant terrible’ of Australian Art is never lost for words or wit.

Gordon Hookey Gordon Hookey was born in Cloncurry, Queensland, and belongs to the Waanyi people. Hookey’s work combines figurative characters, iconic symbols, bold comic-like text and a spectrum of vibrant colours. Through this idiosyncratic visual language he has developed a unique and immediately recognisable style. Hookey locates his art at the interface where Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cultures converge. He explicitly attacks the establishment and implicates our current political representatives. He is widely travelled, having exhibited and undertaken residencies in several countries and currently lives and works in Brisbane, Queensland. Gordon Hookey is represented by Milani Gallery in Brisbane and Nellie Castan Gallery in Melbourne.

Jennifer Herd Jennifer Herd née Malthouse was born in Brisbane in 1951. She is a descendant of the MBarbaram people whose family, clan and cultural connections lie in the Far North of Queensland where her mother and grandmother’s people are from. Jennifer completed studies in Fashion Design from Queensland College of Art, at Seven Hills in 1984. After working for a number of years in the theatre and fashion field, she went on to complete a Diploma of Teaching (Early Childhood Education) from Queensland University of Technology in 1990. In 2003 she completed a Master of Visual Arts, winning the Queensland College of Art Post Graduate Student prize – the Theiss Art Prize. She is currently undertaking a Doctorate in Visual Arts. A committed practising artist for the last 17 years, Jennifer is also a full time lecturer at Queensland College of Art, Griffith University. In recent years Jennifer made a shift from costume making to installation works, as well as painting, photography and sculpture. Ms Herd is currently the convener and lecturer in the Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art Program at the Queensland College of Art. She is an active and founding member of the proppaNOW Artists Collective.

Laurie Nilsen Laurie Nilsen was born in Roma in 1953. He moved to Brisbane in the late 1960s to become a jockey. After finishing his apprenticeship at the age of 21, Laurie completed a three-year certificate course in commercial illustration at the Queensland College of Art. In 1989-90 he graduated from the Gippsland Institiute (VIC) with a BA in Fine Arts, majoring in sculpture. Laurie’s political works featuring barbed wire as a medium encompass cultural, political and environmental concerns. Although most of his work tackles issues of concern for Aboriginal people he knows some of these concerns overlay and affect non-Aboriginal people also.

KickArts Contemporary Arts | 96 Abbott Street, Cairns 4870 | +61 0(7) 4050 9494 | Tues to Sat 10am to 5pm | www.kickarts.org.au

THE BLACK SEE

LIST OF EXHIBITION WORKS Tony ALBERT Daddy’s little girl 2010 (after Gordon Bennett) 2011 (3) Mixed media, triptych

Introduction Twenty years ago in Cairns, around a dozen artists who welcomed social, political and aesthetic debate founded the then KickArts Collective. Their shared conviction endures through the forward-looking exhibitions presented in the KickArts galleries at the Cairns Centre of Contemporary Art. Most fitting in 2011 is that KickArts hosts an exhibition for the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair by the proppaNOW Collective, Queensland’s doyens of political discourse about Indigenous identity. The Black See confronts racism, name-calling and breaches of human rights in Australian sport. The artists are: Tony Albert, Vernon Ah Kee, Bianca Beetson, Richard Bell, Jennifer Herd, Gordon Hookey and Laurie Nilsen. Individually and as a collective force, proppaNOW’s images pack a powerful punch.

The Black See is arresting in many arenas, with seductive photographs, vibrant painting, blatant text and abundant puns deployed in an arsenal of ironic commentary (see the ‘C’ word). Intriguing for art lovers who don’t necessarily relate to competitive sport as a cultural activity, is the fact that for so many Indigenous people, a passion to excel in a spectrum of games and competitions is innate. As Vernon Ah Kee eloquently expresses, ‘The sense of combat, victory, and defeat are what we taste in our mouths and feel in our muscles and bones’, just like any white-fella... any white-fella who name-calls and taunts, and subjects Indigenous rivals on the field to inexcusable abuse.

The KickArts board of directors and staff are enormously proud to host The Black See for the quality of its content and because we believe that art can affect social change. We also acknowledge the creative collaboration between curator Samantha Creyton and proppaNOW, which has yielded such a strong show.

We know this exhibition will leave an enduring mark; we know that proppaNOW artists are deadly critics and agents of change.

Ingrid Hoffmann | Director | KickArts Contemporary Arts

The Black See Aboriginal people love sport. We love it for all the reasons any individual or group should love it. It’s the passion that sport generates; the way a good contest energises the competitors and enthralls a crowd; the thrill of victory and the pain of defeat.

The Black See, however, is less about Aboriginal enjoyment of sport and more about Aboriginal engagement with sport.

If you talk to any Aboriginal person who plays sport in Australia, they can readily tell you that it’s the excitement and passion that draws you into the game and out onto the field. The sense of combat, victory, and defeat are what we taste in our mouths and feel in our muscles and bones. But equally, any Aboriginal will tell you that the most common experience for Aborigines in sport is not the winning or losing, it is not the camaraderie, and it is not the sense of belonging to a club or team, it is name-calling. And a term most commonly fired at Blackfellas playing sport is, of course, ‘Black Cunt’. It is as if, in terms of sport, all of the wellpractised, wide-ranging forms of racist insult and name-calling have become essential and distilled over the years into this ubiquitous term. And if you happen to be very good, the term is merely directed at you more often and with more venom.

It can be said that the Australian form of racial insult and namecalling formalised and normalised itself during the lead-up to the championship boxing match between Jack Johnson and Tommy Burns for the heavyweight title in Sydney in 1908. While the bout made headlines internationally, the Australian press had a field day labeling Johnson every racial epitaph imaginable, far too many to detail here. Suffice it to say, as a survey of the depth and breadth of insult that can be leveled at one person, it is comprehensive.

At the time of the Johnson-Burns contest, ‘Australia’, a newly federated state, is only seven years old and reveling in its status as a newly formed ‘white’ country. Commensurate with its sense of ‘white’ worth, the Australian public felt not only justified, but euphoric at the prospect of witnessing on ‘home’ soil the heavyweight champion of the world, a white man, defending the title for the first time against a black man. The Burns victory, expectant and resounding, serving to vindicate white entitlement everywhere. It is a matter of history of course that unfolding events did not quite play out that way.

Tony ALBERT There’s no place like home 2011 Mixed media on Adidas sneakers Vernon AH KEE kaffir (after Brydan Klein 2009) 2011 Acrylic on linen Vernon AH KEE kaffirboetie (c’mon aussie, c’mon 2005) 2011 (7) Acrylic on linen

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Sport informs so much of the national psyche in Australia that a lot of the behavioral gestures and vernacular are very much a part of everyday life in this country. There is a normalcy to, and an acceptance of, the ‘C’mon’ or the ‘Oi, Oi, Oi’. The use of the term ‘Black Cunt’, along with other particular favourites of name-calling, is so commonly used on and off the sporting field in Australia, you could be forgiven for believing the delivering/receiving of it to be essential to actual sporting engagement. Whether this is true or not doesn’t change the fact of its prevalence. And while hooliganism hasn’t yet taken hold of the stadiums and big events, the bald-faced racism long embedded in name-calling continues unabated and without shame. It does have a long history as normalised behaviour in this country, perhaps starting with artist Norman Lindsay producing cartoons of Tommy Burns and Jack Johnson to accompany some of the newspapers’ diatribe. And didn’t writer Henry Lawson call Johnson a ‘nigger’?

Vernon AH KEE look at him, mate, look at him, and you tell me what the similarity is (after Lleyton Hewitt 2001) 2011 Acrylic on linen Vernon AH KEE stop that Black Cunt (after Andrew Johns 2010) 2011 Acrylic on linen Vernon AH KEE waru series (1-3) 2010 Type C photograph mounted on aluminium

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Bianca BEETSON It’s all in the name of the game 2011 (6) Type C photograph, triptych

The Black See is also about how Aborigines encounter racism in Australia. It is about deeply embedded attitudes on race in societies like Australia where long-established preserves exist for not only what white people enjoy and like to engage in, but also as ‘places’ where these specially crafted activities can be located. The effect of the ‘preserve’ is especially noticeable in sport where echelons of influence and decision-making in the past determined, for the Aborigine, not only if you were even permitted to participate in a particular sport, but what would be the level of Aboriginal participation/inclusion in sport, and many more subtle forms of exclusion. Subtler forms of racism seem obvious but may not be: rugby league player Andrew Johns apologised ‘unreservedly’ for his comment, and continues to provide commentary for Channel Nine’s Rugby League broadcasts; and despite their prevalence and history, Aboriginal cricketers still struggle for participation or permanence in representative sides.

Two notable sporting figures who suffered greatly under the weight of racism in Australia are boxer Elley Bennett and cricketer Eddie Gilbert. Elley Bennett, renown throughout his career as one of the hardest punchers in the game, was nevertheless subject to the Queensland Aborigine’s Act, his earnings having been withheld from him during the course of his prizefighting career by the Queensland Government. When Bennett, upon retirement, tried to claim his winnings, a fortune estimated to be upwards of £25,000, he was informed there were none for him to claim, the Government subsequently having no knowledge of his withheld earnings having ever existed. Eddie Gilbert is justifiably regarded as one of Australia’s quickest fast bowlers. Playing for Queensland against New South Wales in 1931, Gilbert famously dismissed Donald Bradman for a duck. Subsequently, and after being called for throwing (13 times) later that year in a game against Victoria, Gilbert’s action was continually questioned by the media of the time and he was dropped from the Queensland team two years later ‘due to poor form’. Under the ‘Act’, Gilbert had needed written permission whenever he was required to travel from his Aboriginal settlement of Barambah (now Cherbourg) to play in a first-class match, suffering a torrent of abuse every time he took the field.

Bianca BEETSON Playing on – portrait of Artie Beetson 2011 Texta on Hahneműhle paper Richard BELL A white hero for Black Australia 2011 (1) Acrylic on canvas (3)

Jennifer HERD Warrior woman 1, 2, 3 (1) 2011 Digital photograph, edition of 5 Jennifer HERD Warrior woman 1, 2, 3 (2) 2011 (4) Digital photograph, edition of 5

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Jennifer HERD Warrior woman 1, 2, 3 (3) 2011 Digital photograph, edition of 5 Jennifer HERD Warrior woman 1, 2, 3 (4) 2011 Digital photograph, edition of 5 Jennifer HERD Warrior woman 1, 2, 3 (5) 2011 (front cover) Digital photograph, edition of 5

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Gordon HOOKEY Black C 2011 (2) Mixed media, triptych

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Laurie NILSEN Just another Black C 2011 (5) Powdercoated barbed wire Vernon AH KEE Gordon HOOKEY Laurie NILSEN Does he bowl or does he throw 2011 Acrylic and charcoal on canvas, cricket ball

Vernon Ah Kee | proppaNOW, August 2011 (5)

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Vernon AH KEE Gordon HOOKEY Laurie NILSEN Bennett under the act 2011 Acrylic and charcoal on canvas, boxing gloves