here is an article my friend wrote about my Milikapiti works. the show is on at Dark Horse Experiment at 110 franklin st in Melbourne from 1st august until september 2.

this is the article here – ARTICLE

this is a painting from the show.

14 Kurdish refugees land in Milikapiti and ask, “is this Australia?” – 4th November 2003, 2012, oil on linen, 61 x 81 cm

on the 4th. of november 2003 14 kurdish refugees landed on the beach at milikapiti. one of the kurds yelled out from the boat ‘IS THIS AUSTRALIA ‘. the tiwis on the shore were not sure because the australian government was disowning the bits of itself that could be used to help people like the refugees.

this is an article from SMH about this story

Quote from marielle’s article about this work:

“The latter work referencing the sinister use of marketing in politics and the media. Based on a true story, a group of refugees were spotted on a vessel in the bay at Milikapiti. The conservative Howard Government of the time did a fantastic job of instilling a fear and hatred campaign of refugees through the media, basically branding them as potential terrorists and possible carriers of unknown diseases. It worked. So pervasive was this strategic political message that it even reached across the nation from capital cities to remote small communities. So here we have asylum seekers in the guise of The Raft of the Medusa, instead of ragged cloth they are waving brand name t-shirts representing our new dominant culture – the well marketed Brand. Would they have more success by appealing, not to empathetic fellow people, not to other displaced victims, but to those who like the same brands – who do you identify with? Are you Nike or more of a Burberry? Are you Apple or PC? Are you Right or Left?”