Occupy the Future

Overview

According to comedian John Hodgman, the Occupy movement is "equal parts inspiring, troublesome, invigorating, and embarrassing." This mixture of liberty, disorder and remonstration is far from universally loved, or disliked, but even its local Sydney encampment got a lot of curious peeks from the unwary. Cross Art Gallery is taking its turn to gaze on Occupy Sydney, meditating on art and activism for the purposes of its latest show, Occupy the Future. Four artists — each clearly in the pro-occupy camp — offer work that takes its cue from the spirit of the movement, and in some cases borrow more directly as well.

Outpost alumnus Mini Graff's screen prints paint EGA coloured houses and roadside distractions. Though buzzing with a sunny-day optimism, each curbside edifice is billboarded with a reworked coporate logo that culture-jams slogans into anti-corporate sarcasm. Fiona McDonald's watercolours pick out the shadows of Sydney's encampment, echoing the objects and of the protesters like a smooth-elbowed Michael Fitzjames. Her shadowy paintings  lend a gentleness to the protesters and their accoutrements.

If you visited Occupy Sydney's original incarnation, what probably most grabbed you were the wild variety of handmade carboard signs laid out on the pavement. Deborah Kelly focuses on these, with portraits of protesters and their placards. Her work is at its best when it focuses on individual protesters on a smaller scale inside. Outside, in the gallery's window, a larger collage of protesters project their distinctiveness with less force.

Aritst Sarah Goffman copied out a wall full of the signs, lettering them again onto cardboard to cover the back of the gallery. Smoothing out the rough typographic edges of these sign's earlier incarnations, what could have been merely archival ends up witty and engaging. This simple juxtaposition is a fantastic survey, and Goffman's presence at rallies of any stripe should be made mandatory from here on out.

Cross Art Projects is open 11-6 Thursday-Sunday.

Image of occupy installation by Sarah Goffman.