Exhibitions » Exhibition Archive » Deane Gallery Archive » PAY ATTENTION: Tony Albert
PAY ATTENTION: Tony Albert
20 November 2010 - 16 January 2011 in the Deane Gallery
PAY ATTENTION exists simultaneously as both installation and instruction. A collaborative text-based work created by Brisbane based artist Tony Albert and twenty-five of his close friends, PAY ATTENTION is an arresting and unapologetic wake up call to the politics of twenty-first century Aboriginal Australian identity.
Exhibited here as part of the roundabout° project, PAY ATTENTION features significant contributions from senior and emerging contemporary indigenous Australian artists and collaborators. Manipulating words, objects and images to voice powerful messages, Albert and his colleagues demand due attention be given to indigenous issues in Australia.
The expletive text in this work is a potent reminder of the Stolen Generations who were taken from their parents and ancestral homelands as children. This statement directly references not only the forced social assimilation but also the attempted genetic assimilation of Aboriginal people into white Australian culture.
The text is a direct quote taken from a lithograph by American artist Bruce Nauman held in the National Gallery of Australia. By referencing Nauman, Albert challenges the collection policies of some of the major Australian public art institutions whose collections, while reflecting international art trends, often fail to invest in what Albert and his peers recognise as significant indigenous art movements locally.
The proppaNOW collective of contemporary Aboriginal artists, to which Albert and many of his contemporaries belong, is the embodiment of such a movement. While retaining customary ideologies or distinctly indigenous world views, their works operate to expose outmoded stereotypes of Aboriginal art. Their critique is aimed at those authorities and institutions that have historically mythologised the ‘native’ artist, stifling the contemporary indigenous artist in terms of their perceived cultural ‘authenticity’ and value.
At the heart of this work is the representation of contemporary Aboriginal realities. Each artist, working the surface of an individual letter, contributes their own personal narrative and aesthetic to this diverse and complex installation, adding beauty and grace to an otherwise aggressive statement.
Artist's Biography
Tony Albert (b. 1981) is of the Girramay people from Cardwell, North Queensland, Australia. In 2004 Albert completed a degree in Visual Arts majoring in Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art. In 2007 he was awarded the Sunshine Coast Art Prize in Queensland. His work is held in several major public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Queensland Art Gallery–Gallery of Modern Art and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Public Programmes
Saturday 20 November 2010 11am
Panel discussion—activism and strategies of resistance employed in Aboriginal Australian art.
Saturday 20 November 2010 2pm
Reuben Friend and Tony Albert in conversation.
Friday 3 December 2010 12:30pm
Film screening of proppaNOW documentary.
Media Release
PAY ATTENTION—New Deane Gallery Exhibition Brings Indigenous Australian Artist to New Zealand