I AM IMPORTANT an Interview with Tony Albert
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I AM IMPORTANT An Interview with Tony Albert Maura Reilly In the decade since his graduation from the Queensland College of Art, MR: It sounds horrific. Were your parents supportive? Brisbane, in 2004, Indigenous Australian artist Tony Albert has achieved TA: Yeah, very supportive. It was also interesting from my mum’s extraordinary visibility and much critical acclaim for his visual art practice perspective as a white mother with two brown kids. As we travelled a that combines text, drawing, painting, photography, installation, and three– bit – my dad was in the army – she was always asked if we were adopted. dimensional objects. In 2003, along with Vernon Ah Kee, Tony Albert, We hung out with our cousins and each other, but mostly our friends were Richard Bell, Jennifer Herd, Gordon Hookey and Laurie Nilsen, Albert outcasts or multi–racial kids too. I do remember vividly, too, as a kid, that became a member of proppaNOW, Queensland’s cutting–edge Indigenous there was not a lot of Aboriginal imagery on TV, in magazines, or in the arts collective, established to give urban–based Aboriginal artists a voice. movies. It was like we didn’t exist. I came from a poor family and it was Albert is still an active member of the collective, and his solo practice very common for us to buy second–hand. We actually loved thrift shops, continues to pursue optimism and hope in the face of adversity – because, for a couple of dollars we could fill our bags with clothes and toys. It was he says, quoting Martin Luther King, Jr., ‘I have decided to stick with love. our weekend routine and we were excellent shoppers. We would spread out Hate is too great a burden to bear’. through the shop and go through every item to find treasures or discarded goods. It was at this point, in my pre–adolescence, that I started to find Albert was born in Townsville,Queensland, in 1981, and is recognised images of Aborigines on plates, cups, ashtrays, and in cartoons. It really as one of the most exciting young artists to emerge from the Asia–Pacific excited me – a familiar face that I didn’t see anywhere else. These were the region. Awarded two major Australian art prizes in 2014, the Basil Sellers Art faces of my uncles, aunties and grandparents. And, even though the images Prize and the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, were derogatory, exaggerated, and racist, they reminded me of my family. and chosen among many applicants to build a monument in Sydney’s Hyde I just loved collecting when I was a kid. I had a special shelf in my room Park dedicated to Indigenous soldiers, unveiled in 2015, Albert is firmly that was dedicated to my collection of Aboriginal objects, and like all established as a leading contemporary Australian artist and most certainly collections, it slowly started to grow over time. poised for major international recognition. It wasn’t until later in high school that these images began to take on political resonance with me, and that I began to really understand the Maura Reilly: Since so much of your work is related to your identity sinister undertones. as an Aboriginal man, I’d like start by discussing your personal biography – MR: How was high school for you? your formative years, high school, your decision to become an artist, go to TA: Well, I feel really fortunate that in high school an art teacher college, and so on. What can you tell me? recognised that I had a talent for art and she recommended that I spend one Tina and Tony Albert, 1983 Tina and Tony Albert, 1984 Tony Albert: I have an Aboriginal father and a white Australian mother. day per week at art college. This was extremely important to the foundation Tina and Tony Albert at pre–school, 1985 Wedding of Stanley Albert and Diane I am a descendent of the Rainforest people from Far North Queensland. of my technical practice. Art college was more about technical than Becker, 10 March 1979 My parents met in Cardwell, where they were neighbours. It’s a small conceptual development, for example, using a brush, drawing techniques, and coastal town located in northeast Queensland. It’s a beautiful place. It sits so on. I’m very grateful for this opportunity. It was also at this point that I got between the sea and a large lush rainforest. I’m one of two children. I have to see work by my then senior contemporaries, such as Gordon Bennett and a sister, Tina, who is a year younger than me and we are very close. We Tracey Moffatt, who are both Aboriginal. They each had a profound impact relocated to Brisbane, Queensland’s capital, where I was enrolled in primary on me, and helped me understand the importance of building a conceptual school. We were the only brown skinned children in school, so it was very framework. They also expressed stories that were familiar to me – there was evident to us that we were different somehow. I think we were always aware a shared history that I really related to. of our Aboriginality. But as kids, all we wanted was to fit in with everyone MR: Wasn’t it during your final year of high school, in 1999, that you went else. It was really hard though. We were sometimes teased as kids – to your first art exhibition? I remember being told that we should live in the bush and that ‘Abos’ just TA: Yes, at the Brisbane Museum. It was called ‘History and Memory in drink in the park. I was told that I was not ‘a real Aboriginal’, because I had the Art of Gordon Bennett’, and it changed my life forever. It set me on the lighter skin and lived in the city. The area we lived in was very white middle road to becoming an artist, and while I had always been interested in making class so brown complexions were confronting. My sister was probably art, I had not yet understood how to clearly express the way I experienced teased more because her skin is quite a lot darker than mine. My experience the world. Gordon gave me insight into that. Prior to that moment, my was, ‘You look Greek, Italian, tanned, Egyptian. Why would you say experience of art had been making beautiful pictures, whereas Bennett’s Aboriginal if you don’t have to?’ And they’d say to my sister, ‘You’re too pretty work had really strong theory and content, a real power, behind it. It helped to be Aboriginal’. Other kids were not allowed to associate with us. That’s the me understand how best to express how I felt about my life, my family and way it was in Queensland, which I’ve heard referred to, euphemistically, as my community. It completely transformed the way I thought about art. the American ‘deep south’ – full of racism. 16 17 TA: After high school I enrolled in a Visual Arts degree at the Queensland Early on at the proppaNOW studio, I used photography as the main College of the Arts (QCA) in Brisbane (2000–04), specialising in tool for my work. In 2006 I developed a photo series giving life to a brash Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art (CAIA). The degree is the only one Aboriginal hip–hop alter ego superstar called 50perCENT. The series had of its kind in Australia, and during this time I was immersed in theoretical humour, political undertones and looked at the influence of strong black discussions around Aboriginality and surrounded by many of my heroes role models, particularly from the United States, who were infiltrating and role models in the art world. Leading contemporary artists like Vernon Australian community life. Hip–hop and the spoken word were being taken Ah Kee, Richard Bell and Fiona Foley became accessible contributors to this up by many Aboriginal teenagers as a way of identifying with their music growing dialogue that I was experiencing in Brisbane. As a small but strong heroes. The influence was undeniable but it was fantastic that these young collective of students, we spent hours talking about our lives, and sharing kids were using music as a forum to discuss issues affecting them in their personal stories. We hopped all over town to gallery openings, looking at communities – especially things that we were finding hard to talk about. art and drinking all the free wine we could get our hands on. The artists I was blown away by the political content and wanted to make a series of would always talk to us young enthusiastic ‘groupies’. I’m certain that these works that honoured that. I was inventing a hero who was proud, dominant, Tony Albert, 50perCENT feat. conversations, this opportunity to witness behind the scenes after–parties, and respected. NOTORIOUS B.E.L.L., 2006 the drunken moments of creative expression, informed the conceptual proppaNOW has been going for a decade. Whilst I’m still an active Type–C photograph, 100 x 100 cm, framework of my work at that time. It was a really exciting time for me. member, the group is now spread throughout different areas of Australia. We edition of 5 It was the very first time I felt that I belonged somewhere. remain tight but in a way have achieved our original goals in challenging ideas Griffith University Art Collection, Brisbane MR: You met the artist–provocateur Richard Bell at the QCA and soon and offering support to each other.