It’s been quite a week, what with Sydney virtually afloat after multiple days of rain. It didn’t make a huge difference chez nous because the soil around the house is so sandy that water disappears almost as soon as it hits the ground but it caused a predictable uproar in Parramatta where the proposed site of the new Powerhouse Museum was flooded. Critics of the project said: “I told you so,” while Gladys’s gang stuck to the script by denying there was any problem whatsoever. Flood? What flood?
There has been a lot of talk that this week’s floods constitute a 1 in a 100 year – or even 1 in a 1,000 year (!) – event. Given the speed of global warming, which includes the rapid thawing of the permafrost and President Bolsonaro’s cheerful destruction of the Amazon jungles, it seems a trifle optimistic to imagine this sort of event won’t be recurring with greater frequency.
The proponents of the project have put out a duplicitous statement assuring us there is nothing to worry about. These claims have subsequently been shredded by the Powerhouse Museum Alliance but I won’t go into detail otherwise this will become a very long newsletter.
And hey, there’s so much more to talk about, including the touching sight of Scummo breaking down in tears at a press conference as he vowed to do something about the terrible treatment of women in Parliament House. It seems he’s only just noticed and was suitably appalled. He must never have been a member of the Young Liberals.
As usual he made a lot of assertive statements that didn’t add up to a single concrete commitment. If he shed a bitter tear it may have been because he could see this was hurting his public image with an electorate he treats like a bunch of dopes. The most enlightening moment came when he responded to a question from a New Corps journalist by saying Rupert’s troops should get their own house in order. Oops! Apparently the News Corps story was only what Craig Kelly calls “scuttlebutt”. It was a moment when Our Leader’s whataboutist reflex got the better of him. This necessitated a grovelling apology to the Murdoch Press, which was duly supplied.
Finally this week there was the Meltdown at MONA as the Dark Mofo festival called for 83 First Nations people to donate blood to Santiago Sierra, so he could dip the Union Jack in a vat of the stuff. To me it sounded like a classic MONA provocation that sought to offend everyone from the monarchists to those who simply hated the idea of using human blood in an artwork. As it turned out the latter category included the vast majority of Indigenous activists who went beserk at this “insensitive, “re-traumatising” idea.
Within a surprisingly short time span MONA backed down and cancelled the event, offering the obligatory apology – although not perhaps as grovelling as Scummo’s apology to Rupert. One didn’t need a crystal ball to see what would happen next. MONA has been served with a petition from First Nations groups, complete with a list of demands.
They are as follows:
(1) Formally apologise for past events that have negatively affected First Peoples eg. Santiago Sierra project, Mike Parrʼs project, The Aboriginal DNA test project and the damages to Aboriginal Heritage Sites during the construction of MONA.
(2) Every staff member of MONA, MONA FOMA and DARK MOFO undertake mandatory cultural awareness training and decolonisation workshops, including the directors and owner.
(3) An appointment of First Peoples Advisory Board of public programs and museum exhibitions with majority Tasmanian Traditional Owners.
(4) Develop a Reconciliation Action Plan for MONA, MONA FOMA and DARK MOFO.
Once Cultural Awareness Training, Decolonisation Workshop and Reconciliation Action Plan has commenced there should also be; (5) An appointment of multiple First Peoples curators at DARK MOFO, MONA FOMA and MONA
(6) Commit to funding more pakana (Tasmanian Aboriginal Peopleʼs) artworks as reparations for the damage you have already done
Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? Why don’t you just turn the whole operation over to us and we’ll consider forgiving you. I wonder if David Walsh and co. are regretting the speed with which they succumbed to demands to give up on the project. Meanwhile, Santiago Sierra has complained that the work, Union Flag, has been misrepresented, subjecting him to a “public lynching”. Mike Parr has chipped in, accused Dark Mofo of “cowardice”. Veteran Indigenous activist, Michael Mansell, also came out in support.
It’s a rare occurrence but I tend to agree with Mike Parr on this one. Why announce the thing in the first place if you hadn’t thought through the consequences and were ready to stand by your convictions?
Sierra also has a point, because none of the furious critiques that I read actually engaged with the thinking behind the work or saw it as anything but an outrage to First Nations people. It was the very definition of a “kneejerk reaction” – an emotional explosion that left no room for argument. There was also a lot of anger that a Spaniard should speak out against imperialism and colonialism on behalf of other people. Sierra would argue that his whole point was to emphasise that in terms of the blood beneath the skin we are all one people. As is so often the case with matters of identity politics one group imagines itself on the side of the angels, empowered to inflict Divine retribution on those with a different viewpoint. Sierra must think it’s the Spanish Inquisition all over again.
The Herald is running two of my stockpiled reviews this week, so I’m able to direct traffic that way for Papunya Tula: 50 Years at the S.H.Ervin Gallery, and the stupendous, Clarice Beckett: The Present Moment, at the Art Gallery of South Australia. The film being reviewed is French Exit, a great night at the pictures for Michelle Pfeiffer fans, but a bit of a quandry for everyone else.
I’m also including a brief opinion piece on the cancelled Sierra work, which goes somewhat against the grain of the tidal wave of anger and outrage. The way the entire episode has evolved only confirms my cynicism when it comes to art that seeks to shock and offend. David Walsh has been in the provocation business since the day MONA opened but has usually found that with most of this work audiences are more ready to be entertained than outraged. He’s hit the wall, however, with Sierra’s Union Flag, which ironically has a more legitimate rationale than many works that MONA has promoted in the past. When the plug was pulled Walsh himself was amazingly quick to dump on the entire project. I wonder if he’ll be so quick when it comes to appeasing the demands of the First Nations petitioners?