Transcript
I've enjoyed using text over the years in order to play, critique and challenge the relationships around what an artwork is and maybe what an artwork might be saying.
Hi, I'm Steven Rhall and I'm an artist. A Taungurung man. My work Avert forms part of the exhibition How I See It, now on at ACMI. Come on down.
As the audience moves around the gallery, it's maybe not so immediate what my work Avert might be. Viewing the work, there's the sculptural element but the work incorporates the gallery.
The gallery becomes form itself. Making holes in the walls that restrict and guide the gaze.
Live video feeds as part of that exchange that presents spontaneously the public viewing the work.
The line 'I saw a scar tree but did not take a photo of it'. I thought, if I'm not showing that maybe the artwork at its basis is the refusal to do so. It was about the idea of encountering a scar tree and the potential of that encounter as an Aboriginal person and what that means. And that's not necessarily for anyone else, maybe other than that person's family and or community.
This for me is quite an active work where it's like, no, no, no, this requires particular engagement from you.
You know, I want this to be more about an exchange that might have you reconsider preconceptions around art by First Nations people, and art generally.