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GEORGE GITTOES: on Being There

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GEORGE GITTOES: on Being There GEORGE GITTOES: on being there 24 APRIL – 27 JUNE 2021 MORNING MELODIES & CLASSIC FILMS 1 CONTENTS DIRECTOR’S FOREWORD 1 Powerhouse Rd, asula Powerhouse Arts Centre is For this iteration at Casula Powerhouse, Director’s Foreword 1 Casula NSW 2170 proud to present George Gittoes: on audiences are invited to a series of talks, (enter via Shepherd St, George Gittoes: on being there 3 Cbeing there, an insightfully curated workshops and performances aimed at Liverpool) exhibition by Dr Rod Pattenden which opening conversations between the artist Public Programs 9 Tel 02 8711 7123 explores the expansive, and still evolving, and audience, to allow for an exchange of career of one of this country’s most fearless stories. These programs include: a private reception@ Film Program 11 casulapowerhouse.com artists: George Gittoes. tour hosted by Gittoes and Pattenden on Acknowledgements 13 24th of April; an intensive artistic skills casulapowerhouse.com For over four decades Gittoes has development workshop for local school documented some of the world’s most students; a live in-conversation between notorious conflicts. He has been recognised Gittoes and a local school teacher, which for his humanitarian and peacemaking will make you question the practice of art efforts and has been awarded an Order of making and the hope it brings to times of Australia (AM) as well as the prestigious trauma and despair; and, screenings of his Sydney Peace Prize. This exhibition will highly regarded films ‘Love City, Jalalabad’ © Copyright authors, artists, give unique and unprecedented access to contributors, and Casula (2013) and ‘White Light’ (2019). Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. his process through his personal visual Powerhouse will also host an evening of live No material, whether written diaries, field drawings, photography and or photographic can be musics by Gittoes’ long-time collaborator reproduced without the film. This collection of works provides permission of the artists, Hellen Rose, through her band Soul Crime. authors and Casula Powerhoue an extraordinary insight into the life of Arts Centre. Opinions expressed the artist, beginning with founding the Casula Powerhouse is located in the in the publication are those of Cover image: the authors and not necessarily George Gittoes, Yellow House, during the 70’s Vietnam War Liverpool region, one of this country’s most those of Casula Powerhouse ‘Words’, 2019. protests, through to his work in some of culturally diverse areas. Our programming Arts Centre. the world’s most notorious battle zones – is dedicated to these global and local Published by Casula Afghanistan, Cambodia, Palestine, Rwanda, communities by providing access to this Powerhouse Arts Centre, April 2021 South Africa and most recently, South country’s most renowned storytellers, in Chicago USA where gun crime is at an all- the hopes that this will lead audiences to time high. their own trajectories of making art and sharing their own stories, too. I believe the On being there is a touring exhibition, it multidimensional program of exhibition was developed at Newcastle Art Gallery and and activities presented as part of George most recently showed at Wollongong Art Gittoes: on being there provide ample We would like to acknowledge the Cabrogal Clan of the Darug Nation who are the traditional Gallery. The exhibition has evolved in each opportunity for significant and impactful custodians of the land that now resides within Liverpool City Council’s boundaries. We touring location, incorporating new artworks acknowledge that this land was also accessed by peoples of the Dhurawal and Darug Nations. exchange. and programs which respond to the venue. 2 1 DIRECTOR’S FOREWORD GEORGE GITTOES: on being there I would like to thank and congratulate Council for the on-going support of Casula he work of George Gittoes his life at risk. His answer is as simple George and Rod on your dedication Powerhouse. And finally, thank you to the is deeply disruptive to the as it is profound. ‘I feel privileged to to realising this exhibition at Casula Centre’s staff for your commitment and Tcomfortable conventions of our have been able to spend much of Powerhouse and for your deep passion in creativity in realising exhibitions at Casula seeing. His work serves to question our my life creating beauty in the face of sharing with our community, particularly Powerhouse for our wonderfully diverse values and assumptions, and confronts the destruction of war. I have been the young people in our community. and dynamic audiences. viewers with ethical questions about waging a personal war against war Also to Hellen Rose, your commitment to what it means to be human. Gittoes with art.’ These works offer insights this iteration of project has been vital. I Craig Donarski wants you, the viewer, to think about into the manner in which Gittoes sees, would also like to thank our government Director, what it was like to be alive in the what catches his attention, and how partners, Create NSW and Liverpool City Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre anti-Vietnam protest era, to meet the this shapes his responses through victims of fractured war zones, or the his art making. Against the backdrop residents of South Side Chicago, site of of dangerous and emotionally some of the worst gun violence in the charged contexts, Gittoes is drawn to world. These visual investigations push empathise with the human person, the viewer to consider what it would as a site for bravery, resilience, hope be like to be there. Gittoes commands and despair, inviting our involvement considerable talent and ability across as compassionate participators in a many media, and he is using all his world that has moral and spiritual skills to bridge the distance between implications. the subject of the work and the world From across a career of 50 years my and imagination of the viewer. Gittoes own eye has been drawn to a number wants to pull us into these narratives of crucial episodes that best illuminate and for us to consider what matters his practice. Gittoes way of working is most when we talk about what life somewhat unique as it has increasingly means and the nature of survival and become mobile, in the field, embedded human thriving. in environments that would seem Rather than the usual structure of an highly resistant to creativity and art artist survey, this exhibition offers a making. These visually chaotic and unique opportunity to get under the splintered scenarios are shaped with skin of what motivates this artist. It sensitivity and compassion through the seeks to address the questions about artist’s eye. What is also apparent is an why he goes to such inhospitable increasing capacity to collaborate with Image credit: George Gittoes ‘The Beast’, 2016, oil on canvas, 196.5 x 273.5 cm, (private collection) places to make art and why he puts other creative people, such as artists, 2 3 GEORGE GITTOES: on being there musicians, film makers and actors film making, and has continued a etc. There is a profound social aspect practice that spans film, photography, to his art making which pays great drawing, painting, printmaking and respect to the cultures where he works, puppet making. sympathetically immersing himself in The strength of Gittoes graphic the local stories and cultural forms. drawing skills is demonstrated These mobile collaborations have at through a suite of works which record heart the deep concerns that motivated his compassionate observations as Gittoes at the age of 18 to fly to New an artist at the frontline of conflict York and immerse himself in the art zones. Included here are works from and the politics of the time and to South Africa, Palestine, Cambodia and then return to Sydney in late 1969 and Rwanda in the period 1992 - 1995. The produce politically charged expressive works describe the Artist as Witness work in the collaborative environment and highlight Gittoes’ ability to record of the Yellow House. the circumstances of physically drawing The Yellow House was a community of these in the field while narrating the artists in Sydney’s Kings Cross. Through sometimes shocking circumstances of the Puppet Theatre, Gittoes was able the encounter. Reading these stories to play out the human dramas of is to be confronted with the sharp heaven and hell, and life in between. difficulty of the conditions of war, and His deeply imaginative work made a to also hear the voice of the artist as sharp response to the Vietnam War compassionate witness. These are and his work contains some of the beautiful and difficult images. One can strongest responses found in Australian see the record of the agitation of the art to this period. Gittoes speculated artist’s hand and read the observations at the time about how he could take of what it is like to be there. What the Yellow House experience, of emerges is the compassion felt in incubating a creative artists community those moments that arise in the space to Vietnam, in the midst of this terrible between the subject and the artist. war. In many ways his life work has Since 2011 Gittoes has worked regularly been to play out that possibility. in the eastern part of Afghanistan, with Following the Yellow House, Gittoes the Yellow House Jalalabad. Here he explored the medium of documentary George Gittoes, ‘The Scream’, 2019, oil on canvas, 152.5 x 122.5cm, collection of the artist has worked with local film makers and 4 5 GEORGE GITTOES: on being there actors renewing his earlier experiences history by funding new imaginative of artistic collaboration. This process responses. Gittoes draws attention to is documented in the award winning the manner in which art and cultural film ‘Love City Jalalabad’.
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