IMAGINING VICTORY

Imagining Victory is the latest offering from acclaimed and at times controversial Australian artist Richard Bell. The exhibition features a trilogy of video works: Scratch an Aussie (2008), Broken English (2009) and new work The Dinner Party (2013), as well as a selection of the artist’s paintings.

Self-proclaimed “activist masquerading as an artist”, Bell’s work explores the often contentious racial relations between Aboriginal peoples and colonial migrants to Australia, and the sense of disenchantment arising from this relationship.

The Dinner Party is set in a fictional future where China has taken control of Australia, and handed the governance to its original inhabitants. The action is centred on a dinner party of wealthy Australians pondering their fate under the new regime and trying to gloss over or excuse the atrocities of Australia’s history.

Delivered directly and with wit, it is a narrative that we cannot be reminded of enough as Australians. Quite frankly, Gary Foley as the President of the new Australian Republic speaks a lot more sense than any politician heard in a long time. (AB)

Until Aug 11, Artspace, 43-51 Cowper St, Wolloomooloo, Free (02) 9356 0555, artspace.org.au

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