Leading political artists show at Bett Gallery Hobart
Leading Australian political artists and others take a look at what lies ahead for humanity and the environment in a new exhibition at Bett Gallery Hobart.
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THE future still looks beautiful within Hobart’s Bett Gallery.
The expansive inner-city, first-floor gallery space offers a glimpse into the future as envisaged by some of Australia’s leading artists for a powerful new exhibition.
The ambitious and timely group show, titled Tomorrow, was inspired by the 2015 French documentary Demain (Tomorrow, available to watch on YouTube), about the future of humanity and the environment.
Bett Gallery director Emma Bett commissioned the exhibition after seeing the film.
“It was mid-last year [when the idea for the show came to me] and there was a lot of talk about catastrophe and climate change and all of the results of that,” Bett says.
“I have a 10-year-old daughter who is incredibly influenced by it all and it’s really disturbing. Around that time I saw Demain, which is basically a documentary looking at constructive ways of making the planet a better place to be. It’s a really gentle, positive documentary and it was so lovely to see.”
Bett began contacting artists around the country who she felt would be eager to take part.
“I got a huge, positive reaction from the artists I contacted,’’ she says.
“I said to them ‘Watch the film and respond’. We have some pretty big-name artists who haven’t shown here before.”
These include Australian political artists Locust Jones, Joan Ross and Abdul Abdullah, a Sydney-based artist known for his political art practice. Both Ross and Abdullah were recently named by The Guardian among the top 10 Australian political artists.
Abdullah, an Australian Muslim, explores identity politics, and his work was recently criticised by federal MP George Christensen, which led to the temporary removal of his work from a touring exhibition.
“Abdul Abdullah is all over the media at the moment,” Bett says.
There are 39 artworks and prints by 17 artists on display, including Tasmanians David Keeling, Stephanie Tabram, Richard Wastell and Mish Meijers.
Tasmanian Nancy Mauro-Flude has collaborated with Sydney-based artist Linda Dement to create a performance artwork, Cyberfeminist Bed Sheet Transfigured.
“It’s an artistic genealogy mapped on to a bed sheet,” Mauro-Flude says.
Ribbons on the work reveal the words of artists such as Audrey Lord, who says “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”.
“We felt the voices of these artists still needed to be circulated,” Mauro-Flude says. “If you’re just going to mirror what patriarchy and colonisation have done, then there will be no change. It’s about how you can rethink the mechanism by putting other details into the assemblage of this political mechanism that we’re all being affected by, to create small nuances, rather than reactionary literal statements. It’s about affirmative sabotage — working from inside the machine and slowly making change.”
There are many bright, beautiful and subtly optimistic works on display. Two stunning large-format photographs by Melbourne-based artist Jane Burton depict sunken, dead trees near Ballarat in Victoria.
“They’re incredible,’’ Bett says. “They speak so beautifully and so painterly of the Australian landscape, but in a way they’re tragic. They’re drowned dead trees, but they’re quite romantic as well.”
Queensland artist Danie Mellor, winner of the 2009 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, has likewise produced a spectacular large-scale photographic work on four panels, and two smaller prints, which capture the majesty of dense tropical rainforest.
“It’s quite dream-like. It’s a pure celebration of the beauty of the forests because now tropical forests are burning,” Bett says.
Mauro-Flude says the exhibiting artists have offered creative solutions and ideas.
“Rather than mirroring [what’s happening], they creatively shift perspectives, which is an important thing to do, rather than saying, ‘I’m not going to engage’,’’ she says.
Tomorrow is on at Bett Gallery, 1/65 Murray St, Hobart, until February 8. Watch the video at themercury.com.au
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