Brisbane boundaries
One Square Mile was one of the opening exhibitions in the newly re-branded Museum of Brisbane. Curated by Michele Helm rich and Richard Bell, its theme was exclusion, as evidenced by the many forms of curfew and control that have occurred in Brisbane's history. Although the physical boundaries have gone, leaving only street names as traces, many of the fifteen artists involved in the show, all of whom either come from or have been involved in Brisbane, responded with a temporal metaphor, where the past can represent the present, highlighting the not so obvious forms of ostracism still prevalent in Australia.
Several of the works in the show could be said to literally start with the excluded square itself, such as Gordon Hookey's Outside the square, inside the circle, and Fiona Foley's On the blanket 2. Fiona MacDonald's work Across the square takes the square and re-imagines it. Here we see traditional dilly bags that have been printed with family portraits. The intermingling of the strands of the bags is reminiscent of the genealogy that makes us who we are--woven from our ancestors. The original bags upon which the work is based may have actually crossed the city boundaries, but this piece reminds us that it was not only the physical bag that went across, but also the immaterial nurturing family bonds.' This support was a transaction that the guardians of the boundaries could do nothing about.
Family is another boundary-the primal 'us and them'. However it can also be seen as a site for defending and bolstering identity against an unwelcoming outside world. Destiny Deacon's series, Postcards from Mummy, and Lindy Lee's Simple Greatness; T'saoTung;