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(above) What the hell happened here? See an article in Star Weekly.
(Above pic by ABC News, 2017) What's in the background?? What is this about??? Read an article here.
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(below) An article in Buzzfeed and Fairfax press about my contribution to the Vessels to a Story Art Exhibition organised by RISE (Refugees, Survivors and Ex-Detainees) in 2016 at Docklands Library Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.
(above) Read the Buzzfeed article here
(below) A screen shot of Channel Ten's The Project, where #RichForks was featured in May 2016. Please see the #RichForks tab on the menu bar for more information about this ground breaking exhibition!
(below) The Senior Newspaper, September 2015.
'The Other Rudd' by Maxine Beneba Clarke in The Saturday Paper, July 4th, 2015
Jul 4, 2015, Former Prime Minister if Australia Kevin Rudd's nephew, artist Van T. Rudd. By Maxine Beneba Clarke.
Controversial Australian artist and activist Van T. Rudd talks politics and ‘non-gallery’ art.
The motionless body appears to commando-crawl across the Melbourne CBD pavement, one leg desperately trying to gain traction. The crawler, head down, wears dark jeans, an orange hoodie, worn sneakers. The body’s been sliced clean in two, precariously close to the tram tracks. Its insides are made of flat, box-cut cardboard, the words NO MORE CUTS TO EDUCATION scrawled on with black marker.
The second time I stumble upon a body like this, I’m passing a Footscray building site. Arms reach out of the construction fence: blue gloves over pleading fingers. A tracksuit-panted knee protrudes, a sneakered foot. Pedestrians and drivers-by triple-take at the suspended-in-struggle, trying-to-climb-through-from-nowhere body. Bold block letters on a white sign read: REFUGEE.
There’s an anonymity about artist Van T. Rudd, even in person. Sitting in a cafe in Melbourne’s west, for what will become the first of our many meetings, he’s cloaked in faded comfy-casuals, much like those that adorn his artworks.
“It’s not ‘gallery art’,” he says, running a hand over his thin grey-black ponytail. “People don’t see it as having intrinsic value.” Rudd’s gestures are understated. He speaks softly, as if being extra careful not to damage his escaping thoughts. “And it’s probably also my politics.”
In 2008, in a controversy that made headlines around Australia, Rudd’s Banksy homage depicting Ronald McDonald setting fire to a monk with the Olympic torch was rejected by the City of Melbourne for a scheduled exhibition in Ho Chi Minh City. On Australia Day 2010, Rudd and a fellow member of the Revolutionary Socialist Party dressed in Ku Klux Klan outfits holding “Racism: Made in Australia” signs outside the Australian Open tennis, protesting against the Victorian government’s refusal to treat recent attacks on Indian people in Melbourne as racially motivated. The two were charged with attempting to incite a riot. Later that year Rudd followed his uncle, former prime minister Kevin Rudd, into federal politics, spiritedly but unsuccessfully contesting then prime minister Julia Gillard’s seat of Lalor. “When people can’t see past your politics, you sometimes don’t get offered opportunities other artists do.”
The sketchbook in front of Rudd contains preliminary lead sketches for Pensioner Handstand, a comment on government cuts to healthcare and the pension. A childlike, handstanding figure is outlined on the open page.
“I just got an idea,” I say hesitantly. “Speaking of unlikely opportunities … I actually just wrote a kids’ picture book. I haven’t found an illustrator.”
Rudd raises an eyebrow, asks me to send him the text.
The grassy backyard of Rudd’s modest housing co-op rental backs on to an oval. While I chat with Rudd and his partner, Tania, neighbourhood kids wander through to use the secret entrance cut into the fence, Rudd’s loping dog, Django, sniffing around them. Our combined primary-aged brood have moved past the initial staring-shyly-at-each-other stage and are enthusiastically padding a wire basket with grass to make a “bird’s nest”.
Inside the house, Rudd moves aside a dragon and fully functioning foot-long car he has designed for his two kids to show me his casting technique. He wraps his lower leg with cling wrap, grabs a wide roll of sticky tape and tightly wraps the tape around and around the cling wrap, until a thick, hard layer has formed. Carefully, he slices the clear cast off with scissors, tapes it together at the join, and shoves newspaper inside to retain the shape. “I do most of the bodies like this, but I adjust them where I need to.”
Sketching back A couple of months after our first cafe meeting, I’m emailed a suite of photographs of exquisite oil-painted illustrations. The scenes are painted on old cardboard packing boxes. The works are raw, eerie, enchanting. The kind of reach-into-the-author’s-subconscious imaginings that make me realise, somewhat uneasily, that during the weeks I’ve been visiting Rudd to collect material for this piece, the artist has been quietly sketching back. I forward the illustrations to my publisher. “Holy fuck,” he replies.
On exhibition day, Rudd and I meet on the steps of Flinders Street Station. Pensioner Handstand is hoisted over his shoulder. Her body’s withered: flesh sunken, with a slightly twisted hip. She wears black parachute-material trousers, an old green zip-jacket and a tatty grey wig. Her collapsed walking frame leans against Rudd’s leg. Passers-by gasp at the slim Vietnamese-Australian with an elderly woman casually thrown over his shoulder. We make our way past McDonald’s, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Commonwealth Bank, Rudd’s down-and-out pensioner floating among startled shoppers.
Rudd settles on a spot outside a department store, near windows advertising end-of-financial-year sales. He sets up the elderly woman, handstanding on her walker, balances her cardboard protest sign: No more delusions. I want revolution. Rudd quickly moves back into the crowd. Three businessmen stop in their tracks, discuss the installation. A woman shoves a $5 note into the pensioner’s shopping bag. The local Big Issue seller comes over for a better look. A group of schoolchildren discuss the work with their teacher, gently prod the pensioner, as if testing whether or not she’s alive.
Van fidgets. “It’s time to go.” The artist seems genuinely uncomfortable – not because of potential police questioning, to which he’s well accustomed by now, but because there’s a very real emotional investment in the work. The not knowing what’s going to happen to her is difficult.
We walk on for a moment, in silence. “Did you get the illustration contracts?” I finally ask. “You know how we don’t use the front door of our place?” he says, “Well, the postman dropped the contracts there. In a priority express envelope and everything. The parcel sat at the front door for days. A local kid found it, and brought it round the back and said. ‘Hey, Van, I think this might be for you.’ And I said ‘Oh! Thank you for bringing that in. I’ve been expecting that. It’s a very important document.”
Controversial Australian artist and activist Van T. Rudd talks politics and ‘non-gallery’ art.
The motionless body appears to commando-crawl across the Melbourne CBD pavement, one leg desperately trying to gain traction. The crawler, head down, wears dark jeans, an orange hoodie, worn sneakers. The body’s been sliced clean in two, precariously close to the tram tracks. Its insides are made of flat, box-cut cardboard, the words NO MORE CUTS TO EDUCATION scrawled on with black marker.
The second time I stumble upon a body like this, I’m passing a Footscray building site. Arms reach out of the construction fence: blue gloves over pleading fingers. A tracksuit-panted knee protrudes, a sneakered foot. Pedestrians and drivers-by triple-take at the suspended-in-struggle, trying-to-climb-through-from-nowhere body. Bold block letters on a white sign read: REFUGEE.
There’s an anonymity about artist Van T. Rudd, even in person. Sitting in a cafe in Melbourne’s west, for what will become the first of our many meetings, he’s cloaked in faded comfy-casuals, much like those that adorn his artworks.
“It’s not ‘gallery art’,” he says, running a hand over his thin grey-black ponytail. “People don’t see it as having intrinsic value.” Rudd’s gestures are understated. He speaks softly, as if being extra careful not to damage his escaping thoughts. “And it’s probably also my politics.”
In 2008, in a controversy that made headlines around Australia, Rudd’s Banksy homage depicting Ronald McDonald setting fire to a monk with the Olympic torch was rejected by the City of Melbourne for a scheduled exhibition in Ho Chi Minh City. On Australia Day 2010, Rudd and a fellow member of the Revolutionary Socialist Party dressed in Ku Klux Klan outfits holding “Racism: Made in Australia” signs outside the Australian Open tennis, protesting against the Victorian government’s refusal to treat recent attacks on Indian people in Melbourne as racially motivated. The two were charged with attempting to incite a riot. Later that year Rudd followed his uncle, former prime minister Kevin Rudd, into federal politics, spiritedly but unsuccessfully contesting then prime minister Julia Gillard’s seat of Lalor. “When people can’t see past your politics, you sometimes don’t get offered opportunities other artists do.”
The sketchbook in front of Rudd contains preliminary lead sketches for Pensioner Handstand, a comment on government cuts to healthcare and the pension. A childlike, handstanding figure is outlined on the open page.
“I just got an idea,” I say hesitantly. “Speaking of unlikely opportunities … I actually just wrote a kids’ picture book. I haven’t found an illustrator.”
Rudd raises an eyebrow, asks me to send him the text.
The grassy backyard of Rudd’s modest housing co-op rental backs on to an oval. While I chat with Rudd and his partner, Tania, neighbourhood kids wander through to use the secret entrance cut into the fence, Rudd’s loping dog, Django, sniffing around them. Our combined primary-aged brood have moved past the initial staring-shyly-at-each-other stage and are enthusiastically padding a wire basket with grass to make a “bird’s nest”.
Inside the house, Rudd moves aside a dragon and fully functioning foot-long car he has designed for his two kids to show me his casting technique. He wraps his lower leg with cling wrap, grabs a wide roll of sticky tape and tightly wraps the tape around and around the cling wrap, until a thick, hard layer has formed. Carefully, he slices the clear cast off with scissors, tapes it together at the join, and shoves newspaper inside to retain the shape. “I do most of the bodies like this, but I adjust them where I need to.”
Sketching back A couple of months after our first cafe meeting, I’m emailed a suite of photographs of exquisite oil-painted illustrations. The scenes are painted on old cardboard packing boxes. The works are raw, eerie, enchanting. The kind of reach-into-the-author’s-subconscious imaginings that make me realise, somewhat uneasily, that during the weeks I’ve been visiting Rudd to collect material for this piece, the artist has been quietly sketching back. I forward the illustrations to my publisher. “Holy fuck,” he replies.
On exhibition day, Rudd and I meet on the steps of Flinders Street Station. Pensioner Handstand is hoisted over his shoulder. Her body’s withered: flesh sunken, with a slightly twisted hip. She wears black parachute-material trousers, an old green zip-jacket and a tatty grey wig. Her collapsed walking frame leans against Rudd’s leg. Passers-by gasp at the slim Vietnamese-Australian with an elderly woman casually thrown over his shoulder. We make our way past McDonald’s, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Commonwealth Bank, Rudd’s down-and-out pensioner floating among startled shoppers.
Rudd settles on a spot outside a department store, near windows advertising end-of-financial-year sales. He sets up the elderly woman, handstanding on her walker, balances her cardboard protest sign: No more delusions. I want revolution. Rudd quickly moves back into the crowd. Three businessmen stop in their tracks, discuss the installation. A woman shoves a $5 note into the pensioner’s shopping bag. The local Big Issue seller comes over for a better look. A group of schoolchildren discuss the work with their teacher, gently prod the pensioner, as if testing whether or not she’s alive.
Van fidgets. “It’s time to go.” The artist seems genuinely uncomfortable – not because of potential police questioning, to which he’s well accustomed by now, but because there’s a very real emotional investment in the work. The not knowing what’s going to happen to her is difficult.
We walk on for a moment, in silence. “Did you get the illustration contracts?” I finally ask. “You know how we don’t use the front door of our place?” he says, “Well, the postman dropped the contracts there. In a priority express envelope and everything. The parcel sat at the front door for days. A local kid found it, and brought it round the back and said. ‘Hey, Van, I think this might be for you.’ And I said ‘Oh! Thank you for bringing that in. I’ve been expecting that. It’s a very important document.”
special forces (after banksy)
Artist:Van Thanh Rudd
Year:2008
Location:Melbourne, Australia
This work is a homage to Banksy's "Can't Beat The Feeling" (above). It was created during the beginning of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Rudd, an Australian activist, told HuffPost that his piece critiques McDonald's sponsorship of the Olympics:
"McDonalds is known for its low wage level for its employees, its unhealthy food, and its global expansionism, all for the sake of profits and competition in the market place. It sponsors the Olympic games even though sport and junk food don't make a healthy mix. In my painting, the burning torch and the burning monk are linked by this flame of instability and chaos. I wanted Ronald McDonald to appear as though he had ignited the monk with the flames of the Olympic torch. McDonalds, as a symbol of these market forces, had to somehow be complicit in the destructive market forces that brought about the Vietnam War."
Liquidated Logo - McDonald's
Artist:Van Thanh Rudd
Year:2008
Location:Melbourne, Australia
This work is a homage to Banksy's "Can't Beat The Feeling" (above). It was created during the beginning of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Rudd, an Australian activist, told HuffPost that his piece critiques McDonald's sponsorship of the Olympics:
"McDonalds is known for its low wage level for its employees, its unhealthy food, and its global expansionism, all for the sake of profits and competition in the market place. It sponsors the Olympic games even though sport and junk food don't make a healthy mix. In my painting, the burning torch and the burning monk are linked by this flame of instability and chaos. I wanted Ronald McDonald to appear as though he had ignited the monk with the flames of the Olympic torch. McDonalds, as a symbol of these market forces, had to somehow be complicit in the destructive market forces that brought about the Vietnam War."
Liquidated Logo - McDonald's
On Helping Boycott the Art Biennale of Sydney, 2014. (click on media images below for links to articles)
ABC Radio National, 'Art Freedom of Speech and the Law', 2013 (click on image below)
ABC News Radio, 'Van Rudd Claims Censorship on MidEast Art', 2011 (click on image below for full story)
ABC TV - Australia Story - Documentary Series, 'Our New Selection', 2010 (click on image below to watch the documentary)
(below) Anti-Racism creative action with Sam King (2010).
As street artists and activists we wanted to respond to the ingrained racism in Australia by making a creative action. In particular we responded to the recent attacks on Indian students, firstly by looking at the cartoon below, which was issued by an Indian media outlet mocking the Australian police response. From there we saw the opportunity to highlight the racism perpetrated against Aborigines and refugees. We targeted a popular sporting event in Australia called the Australian Open on January 26, 2010. This day (Jan 26th) is also a state-sanctioned celebration called Australia Day - a day many left-wing activists call Invasion Day, representing the occupation of Aboriginal land by the British Empire from January, 1788.
We didn't expect the media response to be world-wide, spanning TV and print media from Australia, India, the USA, the UK, China, Philipines, New Zealand, and many other countries. We hope that we have somehow helped open up the insidious strains of racism that continues to be manufactured by the capitalist system.
As street artists and activists we wanted to respond to the ingrained racism in Australia by making a creative action. In particular we responded to the recent attacks on Indian students, firstly by looking at the cartoon below, which was issued by an Indian media outlet mocking the Australian police response. From there we saw the opportunity to highlight the racism perpetrated against Aborigines and refugees. We targeted a popular sporting event in Australia called the Australian Open on January 26, 2010. This day (Jan 26th) is also a state-sanctioned celebration called Australia Day - a day many left-wing activists call Invasion Day, representing the occupation of Aboriginal land by the British Empire from January, 1788.
We didn't expect the media response to be world-wide, spanning TV and print media from Australia, India, the USA, the UK, China, Philipines, New Zealand, and many other countries. We hope that we have somehow helped open up the insidious strains of racism that continues to be manufactured by the capitalist system.
(above) The Cartoon that inspired our creative action on January 26, 2010.
The cartoon above was printed in an Indian newspaper after there were continued beatings and killings of Indian students in Australia. The cartoon openly claims the racism inherent in the Victorian Police Force in Australia by using a Ku Klux Klan symbol. Below is an excerpt from an Australian news paper (Sydney Morning Herald, Jan, 2010)
"THE Indian newspaper that published a cartoon likening Victorian police to the Ku Klux Klan defended its decision yesterday, saying the cartoon reflected the mood in the country.
''We perceive the Melbourne police to be a racist organisation simply because it seems it is not acting fast enough, or seriously enough, on the attacks on Indian students,'' said Bharat Bhushan, editor of the Mail Today newspaper.
The cartoon was created in response to police statements that they were not sure whether the stabbing death of 21-year-old Indian graduate Nitin Garg in a Yarraville park last weekend was racially motivated.
Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard described the cartoon yesterday as ''deeply offensive''."
"THE Indian newspaper that published a cartoon likening Victorian police to the Ku Klux Klan defended its decision yesterday, saying the cartoon reflected the mood in the country.
''We perceive the Melbourne police to be a racist organisation simply because it seems it is not acting fast enough, or seriously enough, on the attacks on Indian students,'' said Bharat Bhushan, editor of the Mail Today newspaper.
The cartoon was created in response to police statements that they were not sure whether the stabbing death of 21-year-old Indian graduate Nitin Garg in a Yarraville park last weekend was racially motivated.
Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard described the cartoon yesterday as ''deeply offensive''."
(below) So we conducted our creative action at the Australian Open Tennis Tournament 2010, dressed up in KKK outfits (inspired by the Indian Cartoon above). We wore signs around our necks saying "Racism - Product of Australia" and held placards calling for freedom for refugees.
It was a great result in terms of media attention. The screenshot below shows a section of an article in The Times of India, which has a circulation of around 3 million and is one of the most widely read English language newspapers in India.
It was a great result in terms of media attention. The screenshot below shows a section of an article in The Times of India, which has a circulation of around 3 million and is one of the most widely read English language newspapers in India.
(below) And the Australian media....The Age (Fairfax) mentions the creative action about halfway through the article. I don't have any excerpts here, but Australian TV news (SBS, ABC, Channel 7, 9 and 10) ran the story as leading reports.
(above) The Age newspaper (Fairfax) (2010)
(below) In the Herald Sun newspaper (News Ltd) (2010)
(below) In the Herald Sun newspaper (News Ltd) (2010)
(below) The China Post (2010)
(below) The Anti-Racism stunt went all over the Indian news media in print and online. This one was in Outlook Magazine based in New Dehli (circulation of about 500 000)
Van Thanh Rudd is a leader of the Revolutionary Socialist Party, and also a nephew of
Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd. The 35-year-old created a stir this January 26, the Australian National Day, when he and his colleague, Sam King, walked into the Melbourne Park wearing the infamous Ku Klux Klan outfit. The reason: to mark his protest against “the tide of racism in Australia and attacks on Indian students”. They were promptly picked up by the Victoria police and fined Australian $234 each for their novel mode of protest. The younger Rudd, however, remains feisty in his views on racism in Australia. Excerpts from an interview:
How do you see the attacks on Indians? These attacks on Indians are racially motivated, I have no doubt in my mind about that. Australians are racist.
If they are racist, why does the government allow so many people and students, including a sizeable section from India, to come here?
It’s a marriage of convenience. You need the students because you earn the revenue, and you need a lot of your work to be done by them. But you also want to treat them as refugees. You discriminate against them. You tell them, you can come here but you cannot speak in your language or pursue your culture or stay the way you want. You are almost using a different banner under which you want to keep them.
Why did you choose the Ku Klux Klan mask to lodge your protest?
(left) Aussie Klu Klux? VanThanh Rudd and party colleague Sam King in the dreaded outfit at Melbourne Park
I was inspired to do that from a cartoon that appeared in an Indian newspaper. It was already in the public domain and I wanted to use it to drive the point home. I share the cartoonist’s view that this was the most effective way of highlighting the fact that Indian students here are subject to racially motivated attacks. If it has shocked people, then I suppose it’s good in a way. This means it has forced them to look at the issue of racism in Australia.
But do you think racism in Australia can be compared with the kkk of the United States and what they did?
In many ways the problem of racism is as serious in Australia as it is elsewhere. Look at what we have done to our indigenous people. Even now no real benefits are coming to them.
That may have been a thing of the past, the Kevin Rudd government began its term with an apology to what had happened to the Aborigines.
I think the Australian government and the people are in self-denial. If anything, that apology was only superficial. Nothing has changed after that apology. The policies are as bad as the previous government’s, perhaps even more extreme. There has been no concrete policy to change things.
Is this racism limited to certain sections?
It’s more widespread than we want to accept. There is a culture of racism that comes from our schools, our education system. The dominant culture in Australia is a racist culture. As a son of a Vietnamese mother, I too experienced racial abuse in school.
Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd. The 35-year-old created a stir this January 26, the Australian National Day, when he and his colleague, Sam King, walked into the Melbourne Park wearing the infamous Ku Klux Klan outfit. The reason: to mark his protest against “the tide of racism in Australia and attacks on Indian students”. They were promptly picked up by the Victoria police and fined Australian $234 each for their novel mode of protest. The younger Rudd, however, remains feisty in his views on racism in Australia. Excerpts from an interview:
How do you see the attacks on Indians? These attacks on Indians are racially motivated, I have no doubt in my mind about that. Australians are racist.
If they are racist, why does the government allow so many people and students, including a sizeable section from India, to come here?
It’s a marriage of convenience. You need the students because you earn the revenue, and you need a lot of your work to be done by them. But you also want to treat them as refugees. You discriminate against them. You tell them, you can come here but you cannot speak in your language or pursue your culture or stay the way you want. You are almost using a different banner under which you want to keep them.
Why did you choose the Ku Klux Klan mask to lodge your protest?
(left) Aussie Klu Klux? VanThanh Rudd and party colleague Sam King in the dreaded outfit at Melbourne Park
I was inspired to do that from a cartoon that appeared in an Indian newspaper. It was already in the public domain and I wanted to use it to drive the point home. I share the cartoonist’s view that this was the most effective way of highlighting the fact that Indian students here are subject to racially motivated attacks. If it has shocked people, then I suppose it’s good in a way. This means it has forced them to look at the issue of racism in Australia.
But do you think racism in Australia can be compared with the kkk of the United States and what they did?
In many ways the problem of racism is as serious in Australia as it is elsewhere. Look at what we have done to our indigenous people. Even now no real benefits are coming to them.
That may have been a thing of the past, the Kevin Rudd government began its term with an apology to what had happened to the Aborigines.
I think the Australian government and the people are in self-denial. If anything, that apology was only superficial. Nothing has changed after that apology. The policies are as bad as the previous government’s, perhaps even more extreme. There has been no concrete policy to change things.
Is this racism limited to certain sections?
It’s more widespread than we want to accept. There is a culture of racism that comes from our schools, our education system. The dominant culture in Australia is a racist culture. As a son of a Vietnamese mother, I too experienced racial abuse in school.
(below) Tara TV, West Bengal, India (2010)
(below) I took part in several anti-racism actions and events in the years leading up to the above-mentioned creative action. This one was part of the RacismNO campaign in 2007.
(below) in 2009 I got hold of a burnt car and took it around by tow truck in Melbourne's CBD. I called it Good Morning Afghanistan, a stab at the 8th anniversary of the US War in Afghanistan. A small article was written about it in The Age (Fairfax) press.
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(below) A major exhibition I was very proud to be part of called Nam Bang! (curated by the late Boitran Huynh-Beattie) at the Casula Powerhouse, Sydney. The image on the left was created by Australian artist Kelly Manning, and the image on the right is an installation photo of one of my paintings and a video based on the Carriers Project (2004 to 2007)
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(below) In 2009, I exhibited an artwork called "Economy of Movement - A Piece of Palestine" in a group show called "Resisting Subversion of Subversive Resistance" with artists Paul Kalemba, Tom Civil, and Marc de Jong. There was immediate controversy. Please read the information below for further details.
Visual artist Van Thanh Rudd recently created a stir in Melbourne, Australia with his installation “Economy of Movement - A Piece of Palestine.” Rudd was invited to exhibit at an art space called the Platform in the group show Resisting Subversion of Subversive Resistance. The Platform is situated directly beneath Melbourne’s major Flinders Street train station. Rudd, 35 years old, has won several awards and his work has been shown in Australia since 1993. In 2004, he established an arts movement called The Carriers Project, which involves carrying artwork on foot through public and private spaces of major cities to expose challenging artwork to mass audiences. Although Rudd has declined to talk to the media about his latest artwork, he commented on his installation to The Electronic Intifada. When asked what inspired him to create “Economy of Movement - A Piece of Palestine,” Rudd replied that “As Melbourne’s city rail network is operated by Connex [a subsidiary of the French company Veolia], I thought it would be a great opportunity to make artwork that would clearly outline Veolia’s illegal operations on occupied Palestinian territory.”
He added, “I am a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and have taken part in many street protests against Israel’s occupation of Palestine over the last few years. It is not very often that a public space is available to political art, so I really embraced this opportunity. I was very careful and strategic about how I would make this piece of art.
Rudd decided to make a museum-style piece that displayed upon a glass plinth, a rock from occupied East Jerusalem. A panel hanging behind it reads: “The stone exhibited is from East Jerusalem (Occupied Palestinian Territory). It was thrown at an Israeli Defense Force (IDF) tank by a Palestinian youth.” Another panel to the right reads: “IDF tanks are protecting French companies Veolia (Connex) and Alstom as they conduct illegal [under international law] operations on Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
Regarding the symbolism and imagery of his work, Rudd explained, “I wanted to show through this symbolism of the stone that there is resistance to oppression felt by many Palestinians and the means they have to do this is very limited. I also wanted to show generally, how poor Palestinian people are due to economic blockades imposed by the state of Israel. It was also very important to me to use the colors blue and white. The information panels … are dominated by the color blue and the text is written in white. I wanted the blue to appear like sky and freedom to humanity, but when white is added it symbolizes the Israeli state flag and oppression. The colors also happen to resemble Connex Melbourne’s advertising material.”
Immediately after Rudd’s artwork was displayed at the Platform, there were complaints by Veolia-owned Connex, the public, and a Jewish group. The artwork was covered up the following day. Connex threatened to sue the Platform, not for the actual content of the artwork, but because the artist supposedly used “their” blue and white colors, and the typeface used in the company’s promotional material. However, after receiving legal advice, the Platform decided to unveil the art again at the official launch of the exhibition on 6 March. The City of Melbourne’s Protocol on Artworks panel saw no problem to reinstall the art, because the work was consistent with the principle of freedom of speech.
Rudd’s next major group exhibition is called NAM BANG! and will be shown in Sydney. He will exhibit along with artists from other countries, including the US, France and Vietnam. Rudd explained that “The exhibition is meant to be about the perspectives of the Vietnam/US war from the second generation — I am half Vietnamese. In this, I will be exhibiting another piece on the Israel occupation, questioning who the terrorists really are and the role the US and the West have in supporting suppression of real democracy.”
The controversy surrounding Rudd’s exhibited art has been a boost to the Australian Veolia campaign. It has garnered additional attention because Rudd is a nephew of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. In the coming months Palestine solidarity organizations will demand that state governments in Australia “dump their contracts” with Connex and Veolia, because of the company’s involvement in the illegal light rail project in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem. As for Veolia, the Australian daily newspaper The Age reported that “Connex maintains the East Jerusalem project is legal.” However, a growing international compaign is challenging this assertion through lawsuits, divestment and now art.
Adri Nieuwhof is a consultant and human rights advocate based in Switzerland.
He added, “I am a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and have taken part in many street protests against Israel’s occupation of Palestine over the last few years. It is not very often that a public space is available to political art, so I really embraced this opportunity. I was very careful and strategic about how I would make this piece of art.
Rudd decided to make a museum-style piece that displayed upon a glass plinth, a rock from occupied East Jerusalem. A panel hanging behind it reads: “The stone exhibited is from East Jerusalem (Occupied Palestinian Territory). It was thrown at an Israeli Defense Force (IDF) tank by a Palestinian youth.” Another panel to the right reads: “IDF tanks are protecting French companies Veolia (Connex) and Alstom as they conduct illegal [under international law] operations on Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
Regarding the symbolism and imagery of his work, Rudd explained, “I wanted to show through this symbolism of the stone that there is resistance to oppression felt by many Palestinians and the means they have to do this is very limited. I also wanted to show generally, how poor Palestinian people are due to economic blockades imposed by the state of Israel. It was also very important to me to use the colors blue and white. The information panels … are dominated by the color blue and the text is written in white. I wanted the blue to appear like sky and freedom to humanity, but when white is added it symbolizes the Israeli state flag and oppression. The colors also happen to resemble Connex Melbourne’s advertising material.”
Immediately after Rudd’s artwork was displayed at the Platform, there were complaints by Veolia-owned Connex, the public, and a Jewish group. The artwork was covered up the following day. Connex threatened to sue the Platform, not for the actual content of the artwork, but because the artist supposedly used “their” blue and white colors, and the typeface used in the company’s promotional material. However, after receiving legal advice, the Platform decided to unveil the art again at the official launch of the exhibition on 6 March. The City of Melbourne’s Protocol on Artworks panel saw no problem to reinstall the art, because the work was consistent with the principle of freedom of speech.
Rudd’s next major group exhibition is called NAM BANG! and will be shown in Sydney. He will exhibit along with artists from other countries, including the US, France and Vietnam. Rudd explained that “The exhibition is meant to be about the perspectives of the Vietnam/US war from the second generation — I am half Vietnamese. In this, I will be exhibiting another piece on the Israel occupation, questioning who the terrorists really are and the role the US and the West have in supporting suppression of real democracy.”
The controversy surrounding Rudd’s exhibited art has been a boost to the Australian Veolia campaign. It has garnered additional attention because Rudd is a nephew of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. In the coming months Palestine solidarity organizations will demand that state governments in Australia “dump their contracts” with Connex and Veolia, because of the company’s involvement in the illegal light rail project in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem. As for Veolia, the Australian daily newspaper The Age reported that “Connex maintains the East Jerusalem project is legal.” However, a growing international compaign is challenging this assertion through lawsuits, divestment and now art.
Adri Nieuwhof is a consultant and human rights advocate based in Switzerland.
More General Media to Come....
There is more general media to come. I will be tracing it back to around 2004 when I started the Carriers Project - taking my large paintings on foot throughout major cities to expose my work to a larger audience. From there I will delve into my first censorship controversy in 2006 when an artwork of mine called "Portrait of an Exploding Terrorist" was removed from Trocadero Artspace in Footscray. It was a public artwork that criticized the State of Israel and its illegal military occupation of Palestine.
From there, I will look at the further controversies of 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. For example, during the carriers project in 2007 (a National Tour of Australia) here were numerous confrontations with authorities. In 2008, my artwork called "Special Forces - After Banksy" was censored from an exhibition in Melbourne's City Library due to the use of a McDonald's symbol........more to come soon...
There is more general media to come. I will be tracing it back to around 2004 when I started the Carriers Project - taking my large paintings on foot throughout major cities to expose my work to a larger audience. From there I will delve into my first censorship controversy in 2006 when an artwork of mine called "Portrait of an Exploding Terrorist" was removed from Trocadero Artspace in Footscray. It was a public artwork that criticized the State of Israel and its illegal military occupation of Palestine.
From there, I will look at the further controversies of 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. For example, during the carriers project in 2007 (a National Tour of Australia) here were numerous confrontations with authorities. In 2008, my artwork called "Special Forces - After Banksy" was censored from an exhibition in Melbourne's City Library due to the use of a McDonald's symbol........more to come soon...