The View of Self - Blak on Blak

Kunsttijdschrift Artlink Cover - Blak on blak

30 May 2010
14:00 - 16:00

The View of Self - Blak on Blak

A panel discussion organized in collaboration with the Australian art magazine Artlink and the AAMU – Museum for Aboriginal art (Utrecht) around the special issue Blak on Blak. In this edition of Artlink, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art writers and curators think about questions of representation, indigenous identity politics, political activism an contemporary art.

Background

A panel discussion will be organized around the special issue Blak on Blak. In this edition of Artlink, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, 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 rights 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.

Questions raised in the special issue Blak on Blak give reason to draw connections 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.

A video registration of the event is here available.

Speakers

Daniel Browning – radio presenter and producer, guest editor of Artlink Blak on Blak;
Gillion Grantsaan – artist;
Gloria Wekker – Professor;
Gordon Hookey – artist, PhD student;
Marcel Pinas – artist;
Margo Neale – Senior Research Fellow, Adviser, Adjunct Professor;
Marianne Riphagen – PhD student;
Tess Alas – researcher, editor, curator.