WEBVTT
1
00:00:02.320 --> 00:00:04.903
(upbeat music)
2
00:00:20.100 --> 00:00:22.440
So thank you Annette, for joining me today
3
00:00:22.440 --> 00:00:23.273
to have a look
4
00:00:23.273 --> 00:00:27.120
at these two beautiful works in Who Are You.
5
00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:30.660
The works that I chose are one by Pamela See
6
00:00:30.660 --> 00:00:34.830
and this is of Quong Tart, and she made it in 2017.
7
00:00:36.540 --> 00:00:39.600
And the other work is by Peter Drew.
8
00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:41.940
It's of Monga Khan
9
00:00:41.940 --> 00:00:45.150
and the original photograph is from 1916
10
00:00:45.150 --> 00:00:48.510
but the work was made in 2016.
11
00:00:48.510 --> 00:00:51.150
The reasons that I chose these two portraits
12
00:00:51.150 --> 00:00:53.430
are I was really drawn
13
00:00:53.430 --> 00:00:54.810
to them aesthetically.
14
00:00:54.810 --> 00:00:59.730
They're both really simple and elegant and beautiful
15
00:00:59.730 --> 00:01:01.920
but I think that simplicity
16
00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:03.240
gives them power.
17
00:01:03.240 --> 00:01:06.360
They both kind of make you stop and have a look.
18
00:01:06.360 --> 00:01:07.830
They both have a very kind
19
00:01:07.830 --> 00:01:10.560
of neutral colour palette.
20
00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:11.520
They're both sort of black
21
00:01:11.520 --> 00:01:14.010
and white with this splash of red.
22
00:01:14.010 --> 00:01:15.840
So, yeah, they both kind
23
00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:16.673
of make you stop.
24
00:01:16.673 --> 00:01:19.470
They are both quite powerful works aesthetically.
25
00:01:19.470 --> 00:01:22.200
And more than that though
26
00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:24.870
I think they really relate to this exhibition.
27
00:01:24.870 --> 00:01:26.220
Who are you?
28
00:01:26.220 --> 00:01:27.053
Who are we?
29
00:01:27.053 --> 00:01:28.980
Who are we as Australians?
30
00:01:28.980 --> 00:01:31.740
They both make you stop and think.
31
00:01:31.740 --> 00:01:33.360
Yeah, who are we?
32
00:01:33.360 --> 00:01:36.529
What was our community back,
33
00:01:36.529 --> 00:01:39.272
like, you know, post-colonialism
34
00:01:39.272 --> 00:01:42.330
and now who are we today as well?
35
00:01:42.330 --> 00:01:45.240
So they're both very powerful in that way.
36
00:01:45.240 --> 00:01:47.250
So the first work we'll look at
37
00:01:47.250 --> 00:01:49.860
is the one by Pamela See.
38
00:01:49.860 --> 00:01:53.940
and I believe she made this for the Portrait Gallery.
39
00:01:53.940 --> 00:01:54.780
Is that right?
40
00:01:54.780 --> 00:01:56.760
Yeah for the Sofi Exhibition.
41
00:01:56.760 --> 00:01:57.593
Yeah.
42
00:01:57.593 --> 00:01:58.620
Which was fantastic.
43
00:01:58.620 --> 00:01:59.453
Yeah.
44
00:01:59.453 --> 00:02:00.286
Yes.
45
00:02:00.286 --> 00:02:03.420
And it's 16 works, my understanding.
46
00:02:03.420 --> 00:02:07.320
And the one that I've chosen is of Quong Tart.
47
00:02:07.320 --> 00:02:08.850
And I really love how,
48
00:02:08.850 --> 00:02:12.120
so she's used this ancient Chinese paper
49
00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:13.890
cutting technique
50
00:02:13.890 --> 00:02:17.730
and also the, like the profile
51
00:02:17.730 --> 00:02:19.410
like silhouette portrait
52
00:02:19.410 --> 00:02:21.360
which is more European.
53
00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:23.340
She's brought those techniques together.
54
00:02:23.340 --> 00:02:27.580
And I think that sort of reflects Quong Tart's life
55
00:02:28.947 --> 00:02:30.480
because he was
56
00:02:30.480 --> 00:02:32.070
born in China
57
00:02:32.070 --> 00:02:34.800
and you can actually see that in the portrait.
58
00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:37.320
She's used a flower at the top
59
00:02:37.320 --> 00:02:40.503
which is the Chinese cotton flower, I think.
60
00:02:42.860 --> 00:02:44.760
And that represents his
61
00:02:44.760 --> 00:02:46.050
birth in China
62
00:02:46.050 --> 00:02:48.420
in Guangdong Province.
63
00:02:48.420 --> 00:02:50.520
And then he came out as a boy,
64
00:02:50.520 --> 00:02:52.260
I think he was only nine.
65
00:02:52.260 --> 00:02:53.670
He was very young.
66
00:02:53.670 --> 00:02:57.450
And he came out and he worked as a scribe.
67
00:02:57.450 --> 00:02:59.400
And you can see that in a portrait too.
68
00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:02.100
When you look along the bottom part of the portrait,
69
00:03:02.100 --> 00:03:03.660
you see this feather.
70
00:03:03.660 --> 00:03:06.450
And that's, I suppose
71
00:03:06.450 --> 00:03:07.740
a pen that he would've
72
00:03:07.740 --> 00:03:09.270
scribed with.
73
00:03:09.270 --> 00:03:12.220
So I love how Pamela has brought in these
74
00:03:13.290 --> 00:03:16.323
the symbols as well to talk about Quong Tart.
75
00:03:18.600 --> 00:03:20.910
Should we look at the other one, as well?
76
00:03:20.910 --> 00:03:24.040
So the other one we've chosen is of Monga Khan
77
00:03:25.380 --> 00:03:29.313
and this is by the artist Peter Drew.
78
00:03:30.852 --> 00:03:33.300
And in a similar way to Pamela
79
00:03:33.300 --> 00:03:35.100
I think he was very interested
80
00:03:35.100 --> 00:03:38.110
in revealing those hidden histories
81
00:03:39.502 --> 00:03:41.350
and making you think
82
00:03:42.270 --> 00:03:43.830
about what Australia was
83
00:03:43.830 --> 00:03:47.193
like pre- the white Australia policy as well.
84
00:03:49.094 --> 00:03:51.390
And so he has gone
85
00:03:51.390 --> 00:03:53.640
to the National Archives of Australia.
86
00:03:53.640 --> 00:03:55.530
He's found images
87
00:03:55.530 --> 00:03:58.590
of Australians who were trying
88
00:03:58.590 --> 00:04:00.120
to become exempt
89
00:04:00.120 --> 00:04:01.710
from the White Australia policy.
90
00:04:01.710 --> 00:04:04.830
So these are Australians who come
91
00:04:04.830 --> 00:04:07.950
from overseas and who wanted to visit their families.
92
00:04:07.950 --> 00:04:09.450
And then when they came back
93
00:04:09.450 --> 00:04:12.180
they would have to do this dictation test
94
00:04:12.180 --> 00:04:13.500
and they wanted to be exempt
95
00:04:13.500 --> 00:04:15.510
from that dictation test.
96
00:04:15.510 --> 00:04:16.800
So that's why their photographs
97
00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:18.960
within that National Archives.
98
00:04:18.960 --> 00:04:22.020
And then Peter Drew has taken these photographs
99
00:04:22.020 --> 00:04:25.180
and he's done these beautiful screen prints
100
00:04:26.550 --> 00:04:29.492
and he's pasted them around Australia.
101
00:04:29.492 --> 00:04:33.150
So I remember the first time I saw this poster
102
00:04:33.150 --> 00:04:36.330
which was just outside Flinder Station in Melbourne
103
00:04:36.330 --> 00:04:39.630
and you see all that other information, advertising
104
00:04:39.630 --> 00:04:41.040
billboards and I saw that
105
00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:43.140
and I immediately,
106
00:04:43.140 --> 00:04:45.780
it sort of shook the way I was looking
107
00:04:45.780 --> 00:04:47.280
at it because this beautiful image
108
00:04:47.280 --> 00:04:50.580
of a man next to this big print saying Aussie
109
00:04:50.580 --> 00:04:55.580
and this juxtaposition was immediately arrested me
110
00:04:55.590 --> 00:04:56.670
in my spot.
111
00:04:56.670 --> 00:04:58.350
And I think that that was the case
112
00:04:58.350 --> 00:04:59.760
for many, many people.
113
00:04:59.760 --> 00:05:02.492
Yeah. It makes you question, yeah.
114
00:05:02.492 --> 00:05:06.270
What does it mean to be an Aussie?
115
00:05:06.270 --> 00:05:07.103
Yeah.
116
00:05:07.103 --> 00:05:07.936
Who we are.
117
00:05:07.936 --> 00:05:08.769
Who are we?
118
00:05:08.769 --> 00:05:11.160
And I know for me, like when you see that
119
00:05:11.160 --> 00:05:13.350
you have that personal reaction
120
00:05:13.350 --> 00:05:14.700
and you want to find out
121
00:05:14.700 --> 00:05:17.940
So you want to research who these people are
122
00:05:17.940 --> 00:05:21.690
and how and what, you know, and you find
123
00:05:21.690 --> 00:05:24.233
out what the incredible contribution that they made
124
00:05:24.233 --> 00:05:27.090
to our community has been and
125
00:05:27.090 --> 00:05:29.010
that it's sorry that this history
126
00:05:29.010 --> 00:05:30.150
has been lost over time
127
00:05:30.150 --> 00:05:33.811
but wonderful how these artists are bringing it back to us.
128
00:05:33.811 --> 00:05:35.313
Absolutely. Yeah.