Void galleries current exhibition in Melbourne was advertised as its last in its ground floor space at 190 Bourke St (Voids upstairs space remains in operation). This is a common story we know all too well in contemporary art. Art gallery spaces open through opportunity and close down due to changes in circumstance. With the capitalist regime at full tilt, I was pleasantly surprised last year to find Void gallery operating in a beautiful mid 20th century building in the middle of the city. Life goes on! Gallery spaces close and new ones open again. I should not declare this as some sort of inevitable occurrence. Of course, the opening of gallery spaces—despite scomo’s commitment to tradies and to a house being a profit venture rather than a home—is actually due to the unwavering commitment and hard work of individuals who believe in the importance of contemporary art.
In attending this last opening at Void I was told that I should visit the basement of the building where the exhibition continued. In thinking about how the opening and closing of an art gallery space in the middle of the city is dependent on the whims of a capitalist regime, I visited the basement and thought ‘this feels like 1980’s New York city. Except the art was better’. I was thinking specifically of Keith Haring. I think there is a video on youtube of an 80’s Keith Haring exhibition opening which felt like an inner-city space being utilised for art. Haring’s art is political. It has a political edge to it that is meaningful rather than literal (what I mean by meaningful is in the opportunity to spend time with an artworks layers of both form and content). The artwork in the basement at Void did not feel political. It felt like a play with form (rather than play, maybe I should say ‘conversation’). The work was an arrangement of a few short lines of electronic lights that crisscrossed through the middle section of the space. A conversation with line, light and space seemed prioritised. It did not feel to me like it had a political edge to it. In a world that has gone so wrong, can art primarily be a conversation with form?
In the main gallery there was an artwork by Nick Devlin that did have a political edge and was meaningful rather than literal. The artwork is an Australian flag hanging from the ceiling. The flag has been contaminated or irreversible changed. The flag now has a deep black tone. Some sort of black pigment has been used to paint the Australian flag black. Despite the black coating, we can still tell that it is the Australian flag. We can clearly make out the design. We can still make out the insignia. We can still see the union jack in the top right corner. We can still see the Southern Cross and Commonwealth Star. The deep red, royal blues and white of the Australian flag are still faintly present despite the black coating.
On one side of this new Australian flag is an outline of a human skeleton. The skeleton fits within the length of the flag. The skeleton is hand stitched with a white thread. The white stitching confidential outlines the shapes of a human skeleton. However, parts of the stitching are slightly off. Some of the stitching is a little messy. Some of the stitching has not quite been finished off or cleaned up. An unprofessional stitching creates vulnerable lines. A vulnerability similar to a Marlene Dumas portrait. This unprofessional stitch creates a line drawn that is not exact. The ‘not quite perfect’ stitch is a line drawing of a human, someone no longer with us.
Whilst a human skeleton is hand stitched on one side of the flag, on the other side of the flag we can only just make out the back of this stitching. This means that there is a trace of the skeleton. A trace as a heavy presence through absence. This trace is the past that is always with us. I think that I get this idea from Richard Flanagan? The idea that the most horrendous parts of our Australian history are always ever-present. Not only is this history present in place names. Or in aboriginal language. Or in the history we are taught. Or in the racism currently suffered. But is also an ‘always ever-present’ in the people that are now absent. In the culture that was diminished. In the river that was reshaped. In the concrete that covered over grass lands. The horrors of our past remain with us now as an ever-present absence.
A black Australian flag with the rough outline stitch of a human skeleton on one side and on the other side the faint trace of this stitching. The line of a skeleton on a now black Australian flag is the history that we should know. Whilst the trace of these lines is the state of living that we do not really comprehend yet. I feel like Gordon Bennett, Destiny Deacon, Fiona Foley and Tracey Moffatt would all say thank you to the artist. Thank you for not leaving this for only us to say.
I like the cop car in the background (outside in Bourke St...) lol