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BETWEEN(THE)GAPS

Melinda Rackham
Eyeline 74
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Being offered a souvenir cup of freshly roasted popcorn and a set of 3D glasses as I walk into an Art Museum evokes excitement and expectation. The rules are different here. Already lines have been crossed and boundaries broken as some popcorn slips from my overflowing cup onto the polished wooden floor while I settle to watch Stranded—Warwick Thornton’s newest moving image art work.

Unprepared for the intimacy of Thornton’s bare, flayed and bloody chest seemingly within my touch through the artifice of 3D, I flinch. Thornton—dressed in his trademark embroidered jacket, boots and hat—is before me nailed to a floating, perpetually revolving, fluorescent white cross emblazoned with black skull and crossbones. The buzzing blowflies and chirping birds of Stranded’s soundscape intensify the sense of Thornton as a sacrificial lamb, slowly roasting on a rotisserie as the heat rises over the deeply red sculptural magnificence of his country around Alice Springs.

‘I want to be like Jesus Christ when I grow up’ quotes the gallery wall panel. The yearning of Thornton as a six-year-old boy of the Kaytej language group, to become the Messiah, a leader of the common people who changes the world, and dies for the sins of all is naively touching. Especially in light of the missionary culture of central Australia which attempted to ‘civilize’ Aboriginal children—calling to those to be ‘saved’ across the outback with crucifix’s glowing above churches, children’s homes and missions.

Invasion, attempted extermination, the stolen generation and the recent intervention aside, this self and cultural portrait also speaks of salvation. Aged thirteen, Thornton, a ‘drinking, smoking, thieving and fighting’1 kid roaming the streets of Alice Springs, was sent by his... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

Rebecca Belmore, The Named and the Unnamed, 2002. Video installation. Collection of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, The University of British Columbia. Purchased with the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition, Assistance Program and the Morris and Helen Belkin Foundation, 2005. Photography Howard Ursuliak. © the artist.

Rebecca Belmore, The Named and the Unnamed, 2002. Video installation. Collection of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, The University of British Columbia. Purchased with the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition, Assistance Program and the Morris and Helen Belkin Foundation, 2005. Photography Howard Ursuliak. © the artist.

Lisa Reihana, Te Po O Matariki, 2010. Video stills. © the artist. Courtesy ARTPROJECTS, New Zealand

Lisa Reihana, Te Po O Matariki, 2010. Video stills. © the artist. Courtesy ARTPROJECTS, New Zealand