r e a
Learning Resource
r e a, Gamilaraay/Wailwan/Biripi peoples, Gin, 1992, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 1998 © r e a / Copyright Agency
This work is really a work that has several layers in it, but the work itself is actually a response to the 1992 Black Deaths in Custody Royal Commission, and I was really concerned that there was no conversation about women in that publicity… and the report itself.2
r e a
Look who’s calling the kettle black
r e a, Gamilaraay/Wailwan/Biripi peoples, Woman, 1992, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 1998 © r e a / Copyright Agency
r e a, Gamilaraay/Wailwan/Biripi peoples, Slave, 1992, Kodak continuous tone XL7700 dye-sublimation print, 20.3 h cm, 25.3 w cm, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 1998 © r e a / Copyright Agency
Look who’s calling the kettle black (1992) is a series of 10 computer-generated prints that speaks to the oppressive policies that forced countless Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls into domestic service. r e a’s brightly coloured composite media works, feature archival portraits of Aboriginal domestic workers, encouraging reflection on discrimination, exploitation, and other hard truths. The titles, Slave, Servant, Domestic, Woman, Maid, Coloured, Black, Lubra, Gin, Piccaninny, are featured, alongside their dictionary definitions, as text components in the top left corner of each print.1 Each work imposes a historic black and white photograph of an Aboriginal woman in servant's attire on a household appliance represented in bold, graphic colour.
The issues r e a addresses through their work include the effects of colonisation on Aboriginal society and in particular Aboriginal women. By using new technologies r e a challenges stereotypes prevalent in art institutions about what constitutes Aboriginal art practice. Employing a new imaging technology (for the time) in the production of this series, r e a draws attention to complex ideas and questions with strong visual impact.
… my grandmother is part of the Stolen Generation and so she inspired this work and this work itself is actually about making those kinds of links to the women that she was with in Cootamundra… Some of these women weren’t as lucky as my Grandmother, they never got to really find their way back home to Country... I saw this as a form of Black deaths in custody that nobody was really talking about or acknowledging these women’s lives and these women were taken to these places, trained as servants and raised many of the children in the families where they were placed…2
I particularly chose these icons to represent those domestic duties, and the interesting thing about the icons though is that they’re actually electrical and back in the day when these women were in those places, these Indigenous women, they weren’t actually using anything electrical, it was all about burning a fire to make heat.2
r e a
r e a, Gamilaraay/Wailwan/Biripi peoples is a non-binary, queer artist and truth-teller born in 1962 on Wiradjuri Country in Coonabarabran, New South Wales. Their work and ongoing practice-led research takes its development from new and critical discourses exploring intersectionality and positionality, through the cultural convergence of Aboriginality; within the creative arts and technology, history and colonialism, the body and identity, gender and queer politics.3
r e a’s ‘work is deeply grounded in lived experience but… also interrogates western culture, ideas and knowledge systems.’ r e a ‘holds the stories and histories of their families and communities with all the burden this entails… holding a space for us, the audience, so we too can be of witness.’4
I grew up in the era of kitsch, Elvis, movie stars and red dresses, and my mother painted all her kitchens yellow and purple, so I can’t help but relate to wild colours and pop art!5
Contemporary urban Aboriginal art is the art that I am most passionate about because we have had to fight long and hard to be visible and I am proud that I am part of a movement which continues to interrogate colonial constructs and explore the immense diversity of Aboriginal identities.2
r e a
I was particularly interested in Indigenous women, but I was really conscious that the language that I used in the kettle series was referencing all women.2
Provocations
- A photograph of r e a’s grandmother is included in the series Look who’s calling the kettle black. How does this knowledge engage you in the work?
- r e a stated that Look who’s calling the kettle black was a response to the lack of conversation about women in the 1992 Black Deaths in Custody Royal Commission, and was inspired by their grandmother. Do you think r e a had any specific audience in mind for this series?
- r e a describes being ‘part of a movement which continues to interrogate colonial constructs.’ What might interrogation mean in the context of artistic practice and what influence do you think artists can have on reinforcing or dismantling dominant social constructs?
- In the English language ‘calling the kettle black’ is an idiom referring to a situation in which somebody accuses someone else of a fault which the accuser shares, and therefore is an example of psychological projection, or hypocrisy. Why do you think r e a chose this saying as the title for their series?
Prompts
- Reflect on your personal position as an artist – what identities, cultures, lived experiences, privileges or unconscious biases inform your worldview? Spend some time quietly journalling or discuss with a friend. Explore how your personal position and worldview intersects with your artistic concepts. In what ways could being self-aware influence the direction or perspective from which you approach these concepts?
- Map out the themes and concepts that you’re interested in and how they intersect with current and historical social issues, your own lived experiences and your family histories. How could you use this map to embed layers of meaning in your work?
- In your view, are there important conversations or perspectives that are not being had, or not being heard, either locally, nationally, or internationally? How might your body of work help to spark those conversations or draw attention to those perspectives.
