Kent State: Four Decades Later

Overview

"This sounds like a retrospective. But do I admit I don't know who Kent State is? Why don't I know who Kent State is? Oh crap, I am totally festival-addled." Turns out, while I definitely am festival-addled, Kent State is not a person but a university in the US where unarmed student protesters against the Vietnam War were shot and killed by the National Guard 40 years ago, and the title of this artwork by Richard Hamilton. "Richard Hamilton! British Pop artist! Maker of that really famous collage! Represented by that art dealer who got arrested with Mick Jagger that time! Designer of the artwork for The White Album!" I exclaimed. "So I am just ignorant about politics and history, not art!" Phew.

The work in question is a photo Hamilton took of news coverage of the Kent State shootings: one of the first screencaps, and extremely Baudrillard. Five thousand prints of the image were made, and the one held in the University of Sydney's collection is used as a curatorial springboard for this exhibition. It's both thematically and physically central to the show, with artists working in various media responding to the image, the event and the history and culture of student politics and viewers being asked to engage with ideas of engagement itself in terms of activism and politicisation.

A lunchtime artist talk will be held at noon on Wednesday, July 7.