In Brisbane, Queensland [ Australia] there is a very famous intersection in West End and a very famous street – Boundary Street. Boundary Street was so named as the boundary over which aboriginal people could not pass in the apartheid state of Queensland. Penal settelement extrordinaire! Now the battle royal is on in the lead up to the local council elections in Queensland this coming weekend. The Lord Mayor of Brisbane – a well known conservative Christian Mayor Adrian Schrinner has led the push back for the removal of the Palestinian flag from this intersection at least twice – and it is back again – and has apparently lit the colours of Israel on the inner city Victoria cross river bridge. A Pro-Palestinian march last Saturday saw that bridge beseiged by and with Palestinian flags.
Flags in this context are public art, murals and some would say, vandalism and defacement. There is a long tradition in West End at this intersetion for the Australian Aboriginal flag to be drawn and redrawn but it seemed as if the Palestinian flag was a step too far for the Brisbane City Council under Liberal National Party Lord Mayor Schrinner.
Artists working in response to any matter of meaning mark making have a little voice in the back of their heads “Art can change the world.” Art does indeed change the world constantly and at times exponentially. From John Lennon’s “Imagine” to graffiti to film to stage plays to poetry to novels to group nude photography sessions – art changes the world. South African artist William Kentridge view is that it is in the in between spaces and the arrival of the less good idea when good ideas seem to wither on the vine that we find the work and some of the meaning we need to pursue and make. There are other times as in the war in Palestine when the art to make and exhibit seems to take the artists and the public captive. The flag calls those who care to make movement, placement and exposure of the issue via its repeated public exposure. This art forms a clear call for justice, mercy, kindness and radical change. An end to war. Imagine!
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