Making marks and music together in the same direction.
Two events in Brisbane have made their mark on me in the past week:
A first ever Australian visual art exhibition with Australian based Mexican ex pats at Vacant Assembly Art Collective and a music gig at Princess Theatre with Brisbane based music group Topology and northern Australia collective Gaba Musik. These artists’ and musicians’ public intersection with the people of Brisbane comes out of their long mark and music making history stories around cultural understanding, colonial abuse and giving voice to hope for justice in a post colonial time bearing the scars of entrenched ignorance and racism.
A range of remarkably beautiful lino-cut prints brought from practicing artists in Mexico was a bold experiment in a space where they found welcome and access for this vision of theirs for the voices of their relatives and friends in Mexico to find a new audience in Australia. It was close to a sell out where Europe’s colonial atrocities and Indian religious mythology -aka Day of the Dead – were presented to a largely Spanish speaking crowd. Purchasing this modest priced edition lino cut relief print meant this local market based self taught [former economist] artist in Mexico will have Australian $ for Christmas – so I was told. I love that the artist’s statement begins with “My battle name is…” It reminds me of graffiti artists’/writers’ tag names.
I have been working with Topology for about 2.5 years now in The Stairwell Project–Musicians in Hospitals and You Can Make Some Noise Workshops for young adult cancer patients. What I have discovered is that apart from their unbelievably amazing indie rock experimental music, this band, under violinist Christa Powell’s Creative Director leadership are working with First Nations/Indigenous people in North and North West Queensland in music workshops, creating pathways of story and music making with aboriginal young people in particular. Out of this long term investment in community and endless conversations over a number of years – funded through Arts Queensland, The Tim Fairfax Foundation and others – came this amazing event. A friend of mine and Jugglers board member Dave Fittell – himself an accomplished base player and friend of Topology founder, Robert Davidson – sent this response to me on Tuesday about the gig: [ Reprinted with permission]
“Yes, I found it incredibly encouraging, in part because a majority white-fella audience would pay money to see such a show!
On reflection here’s what I thought the works demonstrated: We have a long way to go in ‘closing the gap’, but there has been significant change in my lifetime. First Nations kids the same age as me [e.g Archie Roach ] were very likely to be separated from their families and /or grow up in circumstances where their language and culture were actively suppressed.
Last night we experienced the flourishing that can occur when such suppression is being overcome. It’s significant that two of the artists have grandparents [Mabo and Yunipingu] who successfully applied their traditions in the colonist’s legal system and music industry, smoothing the path for for their offspring to build artistic careers highlighting their culture. “
The post-colonial times the world is in, and for me that Australia is in , has deep wounds and complex benefits. We cannot return to a romantic past but we can always advance cultural understanding, stand in solidarity and respect with those with generational impacts and wounds, fight our own and our communty’s racist attitudes – and make music and art that reflect these matters. Vacant Assembly’s Mexican and Topology’s/ Gaba Musik’s events were both Third Space/Sacred Place moments. It felt as if in a world driven by indulgence, ignorance and narcissistic power brokers the desparate hunger for something much better is risking and advancing and well and truly alive!
Peter Breen
Peteskibreen's Blog 