OUTLAWED
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18/9/2003 |
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Excerpt from noise magazine |
Every culture needs its myths and heroes; stories that keep legends alive and pass on tales of daring escapes and brave attempts to stand against the tide of evil.
Sometimes they�re based in truth but more often than not the stories that spring up around rebels and revolutionaries have been spiced up and twisted around a little. So how can we separate the reality from the far more interesting and often salacious stories that surround them?
Outlawed! The World�s Rebels, Revolutionaries and Bushrangers, which opens at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra on November 27, suggests that perhaps we don�t need to. The fun could very well be in identifying and appreciating both sides of the tale � the true as well as the tawdry � rather than isolating one from the other.
In conjunction with the exhibition, noise has commissioned young artists to produce artistic representations of iconic visual material that�s being featured in the exhibition.
We caught up with Adam Blackshaw, Public Programs Coordinator at the National Museum of Australia, for a chat about �Outlawed!� and why he believes rebellion is in our Aussie blood!
Why get noise participants to rework established pieces and not create new artwork based around the same theme?
We decided to develop a project that was rebellious in theme and medium. So the Museum supplied some images that will appear in our exhibition for new media artists to rip, shred, collage, animate and reinterpret. In a time where many things are appropriated, borrowed, bootlegged, sampled and so on, this seems to catch the flavour of the moment.
Some of the works that young artists have been given permission to play with are quite iconic. The whole notion of remixing them is something an outlaw would perhaps approve of. Was that intentional?
Absolutely. It was the whole motivation. You know, some of the original outlaws themselves did similar things, they'd create �wanted posters� of politicians they hated etc. When you consider the work of BUGGAUP or culture jammers, it gives power to the powerless. That can be quite subversive. And I think iconoclasm is a central part of the Australian psyche. We�ve always defied authority.
But is rebellion in art something to be encouraged?
Rebellion in art for the sake of it is an empty end game. Rebellion for a cause is motivated by [worthwhile, interesting] values.
There must be at least one rebel who you admire...
Pancho Villa � the guy had class! It's all sombreros and big moustaches and tequila and horses and guns. Love it!
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