Tony Albert's form of optimism is a lesson for us all
Key takeaways
- Girramay, Yidinji and Kuku-Yalanji artist Tony Albert hopes to "take every item of 'Aboriginalia' in Australia out of circulation".
- He first started buying from op shops as a child, amazed and pleased to find First Nations faces on objects and figurines that he could own at a time of no black Barbies or black superheroes.
- But now his collecting has a sharper point.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Girramay, Yidinji and Kuku-Yalanji artist Tony Albert hopes to "take every item of 'Aboriginalia' in Australia out of circulation". (Supplied: Aaron Smith)
Link copied Share Share article When the artist Tony Albert told me last year that he hoped to "take every item of 'Aboriginalia' in Australia out of circulation" — and he meant those racist, kitsch items of décor or cheap souvenirs that feature Aboriginal imagery or faces — I clearly didn't realise how serious he was.
The Girramay, Yidinji and Kuku-Yalanji artist has been collecting this stuff for decades and using or reusing it as the basis of an art practice that hopes to repurpose their offensiveness, and their theft of Indigenous imagery, as a kind of atonement for racism and appropriation. He first started buying from op shops as a child, amazed and pleased to find First Nations faces on objects and figurines that he could own at a time of no black Barbies or black superheroes. He thought these warriors painted on velvet, or elders on ashtrays must have been "famous people".