The Parliament of NSW Aboriginal Art Prize 2012

Overview

Most art shows don’t screen you for metal and weapons before letting you in. The Parliament of NSW Aboriginal Art Prize 2012 does. To enter you have to pass the (intimidating, but painless) Parliamentary security before you can explore the art along the walls of the buildings's ample, light-filled foyer. As you pace around the artworks, political apparatchiks stride across the atrium discussing US politics and the upcoming November result given how “Ohio is trending”.

Paper maker Leonie Binge’s etching Tracks scratches wire-like lines across a tall, narrow page, suggesting an urban cage of wire fence. Nicole Foreshew’s Belong to you all yet to none 2 throws a wrapped figure into the sky. Two words flap behind in silhouette. The figure is falling or floating. It’s not clear which.

Mgangah Pirate’s the Gods Had No Mouths has animal parts over a pair of dummy torsos, one female, one male. Half of each is furred by echidna spikes, the man’s above, the woman’s below. Their sternums and private parts are outlined in small bones. Not threatening, the echidna spikes are appealing like fur or feathers. You don’t want to run from their little spikes — you want to run your hands along them.

Juxtaposition is one of the key sidelines of this show. On the back wall, Dabby Eastwood’s Intervention shows a group of Aborigines receiving blue and white government blankets from two chubby European men. The men are churlish and impatient. Next to them, part of the Parliament’s permanent exhibition, Captain Cook fights in Hawaii.

This culminates at Jason Wing’s Australia was Stolen by Armed Robbery, which sticks a balaclava on a formal, fibreglass bust of Captain Cook. Cook’s threatening eyebrows rise out of the mask. Beside it, a resin cast of a wheelie bin looks like part of the scenery. It’s Really Bin #1 by Douglas Black (Adam Hill). A carved label on the front says “Sorry”.

The exhibition is open 9.30-4 weekdays. Image: Ngiyampaa Sands by Mark Willer.