In 2007 Stewart and Kate Daw made a work together, ostensibly looking at 1968 from an Australian perspective. The work was shown in the inaugrual Basil Sellers Art Prize at Melbourne Uni, and later acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria. The work was on displayed at Federation Square for a couple of years and is now on loan from the NGV for an exhibition at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery. The show, Controversy – The Power of Art, was opened last weekend by Bob Brown, and runs until August 12th.
The image above is one component of this complex work looking at an act of political solidarity which linked Peter Norman to the a wider civil rights protest at the Mexico 1968 Olympic Games. Peter won silver splitting Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos. During the awards ceremony he participated in a protest that became an iconic image of the times. Stewart & Kate interviewed Peter at his home in Williamstown and continue to make work drawing on this interview, interviews with Australian affected by the act and stills of the moment.
Controversy is an amazingly ambitious exhibition for a regional gallery, great quality artefacts and documentation alongside historical and contemporary artwork, including our very loved Brook Andrew showing Sexy and dangerous, 1996.
Stewart and Kate have produced a pair of posters as part of their work that the NGV has reproduced for the show, presented as stacks and free to take away. Get down there !
