Thompson has worked with Marina Abramović, been among the first Aboriginal students at Oxford – and is now the first artist on display in Soho’s new Photography Quarter
s prime minister Kevin Rudd was delivering his apology to the Stolen Generations, on 12 February 2008, First Nations artist Christian Thompson was queueing at Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport, headed for his new home in Europe. There, over the next decade, he would be mentored by the, complete a masters degree at the Amsterdam School of the Arts and be among the first Indigenous Australians to attend Oxford University in its 900-year history.
“It will be very interesting to see how this conversation develops,” he says. “Seeing our country move forward in this way, I think it’s incredibly important. It’s one thing to have a strong economy, but if you’re culturally barren, then what’s it all about?” Thompson says the exhibition is not a retrospective , but it certainly contains a wide cross-section of his output from the past decade, including works from his series King Billy , Polari , Equinox and his ongoing Flower Walls project. He is, he says, “really excited to see how this exhibition will operate in that space, that totally urban landscape of the UK but obviously with a lot of really strong Australian references”.
“There was so much emphasis on us, a real spotlight put on us, for at least the first two years of our candidacy there,” he says. “They were challenging years, because I can be my own worst critic. And when you are at Oxford, there’s this kind of aspiration towards excellence that underpins everything. It can be incredibly intimidating at times. There were times when I felt I wasn’t good enough. I had anxiety attacks.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Former tennis player Jelena Dokic says she ‘almost jumped off balcony’ in AprilThe Australian has revealed she nearly took her own life in an emotional Instagram post but has now sought help for her mental health struggles
Read more »
Rate rises could hit renters harder than home ownersIn one of the current housing market’s worst ironies, the people likely to be slugged hardest by the latest interest rate increase are those who don’t actually own property.
Read more »
Rate rises could hit renters harder than homeownersRenters already face a dire shortage of accommodation, with vacancies at rock-bottom levels. Now it’s predicted many investors will try to pass onto them all the extra cost of having a mortgage. Sue Williams reports
Read more »
Rate rises could hit renters harder than homeownersIn one of the current housing market’s worst ironies, the people likely to be slugged hardest by the latest interest rate increase are those who don’t actually own property.
Read more »
'We are being murdered': Thousands rally across the US for action on gun violenceThousands of demonstrators descended on Washington and across the United States on Saturday, calling on lawmakers to pass legislation aimed at curbing gun violence following last month's massacre at a Texas elementary school.
Read more »
Jan 6 panel to focus on ‘lies’ that led Trump supporters to attack US CapitolBennie Thompson says second hearing will tell story of how ‘Trump decided to wage an attack on our democracy’
Read more »