The view of self is realized in cooperation with Australian art magazine Artlink and the National Museum of Australia

A panel discussion will be organized in collaboration with the Australian art magazine Artlink and the AAMU (Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht) around the special issue Blak on Blak. In this edition of Artlink, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art writers and curators think about their practicing artists.

Regardless the substantial contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists to the Australian art world, racist classifications like skin color and geographical origin still have an influential role in the perception and evaluation of their work.

Issues of colonialism, racism and land right are at the heart of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists like Richard Bell, Vernon Ah Kee, Fional Foley and Gordon Hookey of the art collective proppaNOW. Questions of representation, indigenous identity politics and political activism coincide in their contemporary art work and go beyond traditional oppositions between black and white, urban and rural, modern and traditional.

The issues raised in the spacial issue Blak on Blak give reason to draw with the Surinam-Dutch art-initiative Wakaman, in which Surinam-Dutch artists investigate their ethnic identity and cultural background through their art practice. Gillion Grantsaan and Marcel Pinas will join the panel discussion to talk about their project.

Margo Neale - Senior Research Fellow, Adviser, Adjunct Professor;

Gordon Hookey - artist, PhD student;

Daniel Browning - radio presenter and producer, guest editor of Artlink Blak on Blak;

Gillion Grantsaan - artist;

Marcel Pinas - artist.

Debate leader is Nancy Jouwe.