Demanding Difference

The disarming brilliance of artificial colours such as those that pepper childhood memories immediately draws you into Richard Bell’s latest exhibition You would believe me if I was a white man at Brisbane’s Milani Gallery. As you enter the gallery four wall sized canvases call out playfully with their patch work of colourful patterns, bold textual slogans and unifying swirls of dripped black and white paint. To the uninitiated the slogans ‘the first shall be last and the last shall be first’, ‘ask and ye shall receive’, ‘not just greed and fear’ and ‘western art does not exist’ may not seem particularly intimidating. However when coupled with the knowledge that the vibrant patterns in the background are a reference to traditional Aboriginal art they take on new meaning within the context of contemporary Indigenous issues. Accordingly the central element of Bell’s practice is the realities of past and current mistreatment of Aboriginal people since colonisation.¹ The use of moral sayings from the Bible references the hypocrisy of the immoral acts which occurred during the colonisation of Australia. By raising this hypocrisy in his current work, Bell is not only reminding Australia of its illegitimate past but also of its continuing hypocrisy in ignoring that past. Morgan Thomas in discussing similar works of Bell’s states that the reason these works resonate so profoundly now has as much to do with ‘what’s stayed the same in Australia as it does with what’s changed’.²

 

In the slogan ‘western art does not exist’ Bell takes on the hypocrisy of the west on a global scale. In this statement he is referencing the appropriation of western art of non-western cultures in order to come up with a ‘new’ ways of looking at things. For example Pablo Picasso’s Cubist appropriation of African tribal masks and Jackson Pollock’s Abstract Expressionist appropriation of American Indian sand painting techniques were both fundamental influences on the cannon of western art.³ Therefore as western art is not purely based on western or Eurocentric culture it does not exist. 

On the second floor of the gallery Bell’s works continue to highlight black-white relations within contemporary Australia. In this space there are several works with text from the Biblical Ten Commandments overlayed stylised traditional Aboriginal motifs and a striking large scale work referencing the iconography of the Black Power salute from the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games.

Richard Bell A white hero for black Australia 2011

1968 Olympics Gold Medallist Tommie Smith, (center) and Bronze medallist John Carlos (right) showing the raised fist on the podium after the 200m wearing Olympic Project for Human Rights badges. Silver medallist Peter Norman from Australia (left) joins them

To see these works in person is a powerful and confronting experience where the recognition of difference is demanded and celebrated.  In their unrelenting political position they are increadibly effective in their subversion of the cultural hegemony of white Australia. It is imposible not to react to the energy and tension upon the canvas surfaces and remain unmoved by their bold statements and therein lies their power for change.

Eileen Abood
1. See Quaill, A 2006, 'There goes the neighbourhood, The works of Vernon Ah Kee and Richard Bell', Brought to Light II, pp.343-347, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.

2.See Thomas, M 2007, ‘E is for Everything’, Richard Bell Positivity, p.14, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane.
3.See Western Art: Its Effect in Bell, R 2007, ‘Bell’s Theorem Aboriginal Art- It’s A White Thing’, Richard Bell Positivity, p.27, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane.