Cirrus@Austlit

14 Nations

Series of 14 hand-sewn linen flags of different sizes.

Archie Moore offers a series of original flags, connecting one side of the Great Court to the other and initiating a visual dialogue with the Australian, Queensland, UQ, Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal flags on the Forgan Smith tower.

For more details about Archie Moore’s work 14 Nations listen to the ABC Radio National Program Awaye here.

A brief video statement by Moore about the flags hung in the Great Court can be seen here.

Research Questions: What is a nation? Why, when and how do flags matter? What is the role of art in exploring multiple forms of national identity and belonging?

This work remains the sole property of Archie Moore and is made available for educational and research purposes only. It is not to be downloaded or distributed.

© Archie Moore

Dhagunyilangu (Brother)

Multimedia. Duration: 2.19 minutes.

Christian Thompson’s DVD, Dhagunyilangu (Brother) welcomes visitors to campus while challenging preconceptions about how Indigenous people embody and perform their cultural heritage.

Watch Dhagunyilangu (Brother) here.

Research Questions: What stories does Australian architecture tell about the unfolding relationship between Indigenous and Settler colonial Australians? How do the cultural spaces of institutions produce and regulate different racial identities? How do Indigenous approaches to art and architecture open up new ways of imagining what it means to be Australian in everyday life? How does architecture address deeper questions of sovereignty, setting up terms through which some Australians are seen as ‘owners’ or ‘hosts’ while others are made more or less ‘welcome’.

This work remains the sole property of Christian Thompson and is made available for educational and research purposes only. It is not to be downloaded or distributed.

© Christian Thompson

The Honey and the Bunny (2011)

Multimedia. Duration: 2.01 minutes.

Karla Dickens’ multimedia work, The Honey and the Bunny, offers a humorous meditation on sexuality, sport and urban Indigenous space.

Watch The Honey and the Bunny here.

Research Questions: How does art make it possible to imagine different ways of ‘doing’ gender, sexuality and nationality? How are intersections between gender and national identities marked by the intimate histories of Indigenous and Settler-colonial relationships? How is the play of these identities worked through in figures of our popular culture – from sporting mascots to drag queens?

This work remains the sole property of Karla Dickens and is made available for educational and research purposes only.

It is not to be downloaded or distributed.

© Karla Dickens

The Blaktism. (2014)

Multimedia. Duration: 7 minutes.

Megan Cope's 7 minute video The Blaktism is a satirical new media work about the artist's recent experience obtaining her 'Certificate of Aboriginality' and the overwhelming sense of doubt experienced at the thought of being legitimately certified at 30 years of age. The work presents a baptism like sacred ceremony whereby a young Quandamooka woman receives the rite to her authentic Aboriginality permitted by everyday Australians. This work translates issues of citizenship, power, prejudice and interrogates issues on cultural authority in 21st century Australian political and cultural landscape.

View The Blaktism here.

password: blaktism

Research Questions: Who defines and who is defined? Can regulations designed to protect groups against cultural exploitation also work to confine and limit how individuals live and express their Indigenous identities?

This work remains the sole property of Megan Cope and is made available for educational and research purposes only. It is not to be downloaded or distributed.

© Megan Cope

The link below has been supplied courtesy of the artist and THIS IS NO FANTASY + dianne tanzer gallery. If you would like to purchase this work as part of a package, which includes an essay about the work by Dr Romaine Moreton, please contact Nicola Stein: nicola@thisisnofantasy.com

A low resolution of the work can be viewed with the details provided above.

PolesApart – Tracking (2009)

Duration: 6.55 minutes.

The slide show presents stills from her PolesApart (2009) series and photographs of The Native Institute 371979915.neon installation (2013).

View PolesApart – Tracking here.

Research Questions: How do the events of the past relate to enduring problems in the present? How is the experience of individuals and families imprinted by historical policies and institutional practices? How are these experiences different and similar for women and men?

This work remains the sole property of r e a and is made available for educational and research purposes only.

It is not to be downloaded or distributed.

© r e a

Ode to PolesApart - Tracking (2011)

Duration: 3 minutes. Artists: poem by Natalie Harkin and multimedia by Warraba Weatherall.

This poetic prose is a response to r e a’s work PolesApart –Tracking (2011) – single-channel video [7mins] reworked from the original PolesApart series, 2009. This new work in progress was created for the Stop(the)Gap/Mind(the)gap: International Indigenous art in motion, 2011, exhibition where r e a’s work was projected onto Hart’s Mill in Port Adelaide.

View Ode to PolesApart – Tracking here.

Research Questions: Do we really have a choice to ‘get over’ the past and become ‘postcolonial’ or does it invade us, haunting our imagination of the future and shaping our fears and desires? How is our national culture defined and disrupted by our forebears? What can be learned from them?

This work remains the sole property of Natalie Harkin and is made available for educational and research purposes only.

It is not to be downloaded or distributed.

© Natalie Harkin

Through My Eyes (2010/2014)

Inkjet prints on timber box (2.4M x 8M x 0.8M).

Michael Cook re-executes poster versions of photographs displaying 27 Australian Prime Ministers partially superimposed with Indigenous facial features to be placed along the cloister walls. These raise questions about the University as a space of authority where social concepts of race and gender have at different moments been reinforced and challenged over time.

Research Questions: What is the role of the photographic portrait in defining the cultural contours of political power? How do concepts of and beliefs about race shape the ways in which power is visualised and practiced in Australia? What does political power look and feel like with a different face?

This work remains the sole property of Michael Cook and is made available for educational and research purposes only. It is not to be downloaded or distributed.

© Michael Cook

Debt (2014)

Vinyl sticker on MDF board (180 x 1460 x 100 cm). Artist: Ryan Presley.

Ryan Presley has designed a three-dimensional work using the word DEBT, reflecting on his re-interpretation of $10, $20, $50 and $100 notes (works on paper currently held in the UQ Art Museum collection).

Research Questions: How has our shared history and economic development defined what we value as a nation? Can we imagine relationships of reciprocity which don’t reproduce inequalities between Indigenous and other Australians? How would these relationships be acknowledged in our economic symbols and practices?

This work remains the sole property of Ryan Presley and is made available for educational and research purposes only. It is not to be downloaded or distributed.

© Ryan Presley