Image:
CEL OUT
active Australia 2013–
Carbon Aussie Carbon 2020
from the Bushfire brandalism portfolio 2020
poster: inkjet print
180.0 x 120.0 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2020
2020.641
5th Mar – 25th Apr 2021
Bennett Gallery
In early 2020, set against the backdrop of one Australia’s worst bushfire seasons on record, 41 leading street artists took to the streets of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne for the nation’s largest unsanctioned art campaign, #BushfireBrandalism.
The works were presented on walls and in bus shelter advertising spaces as a direct response to the artists’ “feelings of hopelessness and powerlessness” during the unprecedented 2020 bushfires and continuing drought.
The artists explained in a statement;
“As a collective group of Australian artists, we have been driven to reclaim public advertising space with posters speaking to the Australian government’s inaction on climate change and the devastating bushfires.
We do not accept that this situation is ‘ business as usual’. We are making these issues visible in our public spaces and in our media; areas monopolized by entities maintaining conservative climate denial agendas. If the newspapers won’t print the story, we will!”
Designs produced as part of the project focused on issues ranging from climate change and the fossil fuel industry, to Australia’s precious flora and fauna, and also celebrated the bravery of frontline firefighters and resilience of local communities. The full suite of works was acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria in late 2020 through the Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists [VFLAA], underlining the significance of this collective action by prominent Australian street artists.
Through regular Wall to Wall festivals and major exhibitions, both Benalla and Benalla Art Gallery have enjoyed the undoubted talents of many of the nation’s best street artists – including some of those who participated in the #BushfireBrandalism campaign. Bushfire Brandalism invites audiences to consider how graffiti and street artists have historically engaged in social and political activism, and how this continues to be central to the practices of many contemporary street artists.
To learn more about the #BushfireBrandalism project, click here.
This exhibition has been supported by the National Gallery of Victoria through the Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists [VFLAA], a fund established in 2002 to purchase contemporary art from living Australian artists for the State collection. Through the NGV, the VFLAA supports works in all media, by artists from across generations and a broad range of social and cultural backgrounds with the aim of supporting the Australian visual arts sector. These works are displayed at the NGV and made available to regional and outer-suburban public galleries through exhibition tours and loans.
