Summer Artifacts 11_proof.indd - Art Gallery of Western Australia

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INFOCUS WRITTEN BY THERESA PLUNKETT-HILL Artist Profile: Christian Thompson Christian Thompson, Heat (2010) triptych DVD projection. Image courtesy of Chalk Horse, Sydney. Christian Thompson is a Bidjara man, born in 1978, from the Kunja Nation of South-East Queensland. His art practice is predominantly photographic and filmic. He has exhibited extensively throughout Australia and is currently studying for his PhD at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Here, he discusses his work and inspiration with Theresa Plunkett Hill from the Friends. Q: You are one of the first Aboriginal Australians to study at Oxford under the Charlie Perkins scholarship. This is a monumental achievement and few people may know that your connection to Charlie is quite intimate. Do you feel pressure given you are carrying a heavy torch for the next generation of Aboriginal kids? Or do you feel this is something you always felt you were meant to do? CT: I met Charlie Perkins when I was about 13. I remember the day he came and all of us kids were quite hysterical because it was a bit like a celebrity was coming to our school or something. We all looked up to him. I remember asking him quite a mature question for a 13 year old, if I do say so myself, and his response was equally powerful. It was a life changing moment for me and he has continued to open doors for our people. I wouldn’t be at Oxford now if it wasn’t for his legacy. The three girls in the video, Heat are his Granddaughters and this is one of my favorite recent works. After shooting it, I just watched it over and over again because the girls are like beautiful sirens and I just find them mesmerising. They each have such unique qualities and a kind of gorgeous fragility. I imagine them like they are in a music box. Q: While doing your Masters in Amsterdam you created a body of work called ‘Lost Together’ which was incredibly patriotic from afar. Identity is a crucial element to your work. How do you feel that living overseas for so many years is impacting on your identity? CT: You know ‘Lost Together’ is still a really important body of work for me. I was finding myself in the world and as much as people romanticise Europe it is also a very hard place. These figures came to me, I would see them in the landscape and it was like they were leading me through this strange land. I moved overseas for my masters but I felt that if I didn’t leave that I would get stuck in this vacuum and just be that guy who does the retakes of historical misrepresentations which is completely unchallenging and boring for me 9 ARTIFACTS
and I wanted to transcend these forms and not stay in a state of arrested development. Being in Europe now for so long has brought me back to the heart of my work and has reminded me of who I am just like meeting great people like Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Neville Bonner and Charlie Perkins when I was a kid. They woke my spirit. I have accepted that I am an artist and when everything goes shite some days it is always my work that is there for me and reminds me of what is important. Some days I really miss my darling Australia, she is such a wonderful lady! Q:The urban and remote Aboriginal dichotomy is quite prevalent in Australian art discourse. Do you think the romanticisation of old, remote artists as the end of Eden is relevant? Or do you feel younger artists, such as yourself, will recreate their dreaming with as much intimacy as the elders? CT: God it’s like the art versus craft debate, talk about flogging a dead horse! I like in Japan how the little trinkets on people’s phones have religious significance. I think we can find magic and spirituality in everyday life we just need to put it there! In witch craft the word for ‘Dreaming’ is ‘Astral’, it means another dimension, we can all have a dreaming of sorts, I think it is about unlocking that in ourselves. There are springs in the city Bath in the UK and people used to travel miles and miles because it was said that you could see visions in the water. What drove people to do this? It was belief in magic and it was so much a part of people’s lives. I think we are all just balls of energy and the fact that we can even just move something is a marvelous and magical action that we take for granted but can have a profound effect on someone else’s life. Q:When I look at works by younger Aboriginal artists such as yourself, Richard Bell and Tony Albert for example, I get the sense that as a nation we’re on the cusp of an Aboriginal Revolution. What do you think? CT: Well Richard is like 60 or something, so I don’t know if that still is considered young? I would actually disagree, we are not getting enough of our kids through University and when I heard the statistics the other day I almost choked on my grande venti soy chai latte! Seriously,we need Aboriginal kids going through mainstream art courses, none of this special program crap. I want to see a generation of young kids who are making the most experimental crazy stuff out there and in dialogue with their non Indigenous peers. I want to see young Aboriginal kids who know who Tracey Emin is, who like the Chapman brothers, who go and see Marina Abramovic’s performance at MoMA, who bitch about Olaf Breuning, who rave on about speculative realism, who idolise Mona Hatoum!! There is also such a huge absence of critical discourse and no one dares to say that work is bullocks even if that’s what they think! Years ago I had a show in Melbourne and Robert Nelson wrote a critical review in the paper. I emailed him after to clarify some things about the work but also thanked him for being critical and for his honesty without crumbling under a prevailing cloud of political correctness. If he hadn’t made some of the observations he made I would not have known how to change them. It is so important and artists need this to grow, it is not happening and there are no Aboriginal people reviewing and critiquing other Aboriginal people’s work in the context of world art and current critical discourse. We need Aboriginal kids studying art history and or curatorial studies. My fear is that we may see a generation of repackaged Brendas, Traceys, Vernons, Brookes, Destinys, Fionas, Judys, Richards, Reas and Gordons. Those artists did it so well in the eighties and it was relevant to their generation and continue to make great work that is truthful to their generation but what is important to my generation now? What is the next stage in a world of globalisation and capitalism? I did a project at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image called the MHUL workshop and we invited Kresna Cameron and Marita Smith from Warabinda because I heard about them having fashion parades in the desert and when I went up to Garma I saw kids making rockabilly music and I thought this stuff is off the hook, these kids need a platform and they need encouragement and guidance. When that happens I think we may see a real revolution of the most wildest degree! ARTIFACTS 10
Page 1 and 2: MAGAZINE OF THE FRIENDS OF THE ART
Page 3 and 4: From the Editor Artifacts is publis
Page 5 and 6: CONTENTS Summer 2011 ArtNews Local
Page 7: ARTNEWS Perth set to discover Princ
Page 11 and 12: ADFAS2011 MONDAY 18 JULY 2011 RODIN
Page 13 and 14: WRITTEN BY AIMEE JOHNS ARTSFEATURE
Page 15 and 16: FAREWELL TO FRIENDS Vale Jan Viner
Page 17 and 18: YOURLETTERS Dear Editor, Congratula
Page 19 and 20: He describes the collection as “e
Page 21 and 22: WHAT’SON Annual General Meeting A
Page 23 and 24: EVENTDIRECTORY MONDAY 21 FEBRUARY A

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