Just Not Australian
May 8 2021 — August 1 2021
Just Not Australian brings together 20 artists across generations and diverse cultural backgrounds to deal broadly with the origins and implications of contemporary Australian nationhood. With works ranging from the late 1990s right through to newly commissioned pieces, they are united by their desire to take Australia’s ‘official’ history to task, making space for people and events that have, often wilfully, been sidelined or omitted.
The artists explore the politics of images, their construction and circulation, as well as their connection to legacies of racial and cultural misrepresentation. They utilise familiar nationalistic symbols such as flags, maps and currency to interrogate individual and collective relationships with the nation state. Adopting text in various forms from song lyrics to parliamentary records they reveal the use of language in cultural alienation, subjugation and liberation alike. With creative invention and fortitude they address historical and contemporary mistruths and injustices.
PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THIS EXHIBITION CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE
The use of this language is intended to reflect the everyday, lived experiences of Australians represented in the exhibition.
Just Not Australian was curated by Artspace and developed in partnership with Sydney Festival and Museums & Galleries of NSW.
The exhibition is touring nationally with Museums & Galleries of NSW.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.
Education Kit for schools is here JNA_M&G_Education_Kit
