As you can see our PM (about four years ago when he was treasurer) on the premise of making a point, thought it would be a bit of fun to bring a piece of coal into The Chamber….. to add a bit of misplaced interest to his argument.
This week he has been representing Australia at a Climate Change Conference.
Whatever your views on this issue are I’m sure you’ll agree – this photograph (which has now appeared in worldwide publications)and the reason behind it will haunt him and our government for evermore.
During that week we spent in Mackay early last September we visited Artspace Mackay – a gallery that exhibits not just paintings but other forms of art.
I’ll share some of the other exhibits in the next few weeks but I must tell you that when I walked into one of the rooms and saw what I thought were lumps of coal on the floor I laughed and jokingly asked The Golfer if he knew if Mr Morrison had been in town.
Anyway after walking round and studying them for a while, still convinced it was coal I was looking at, I came to the conclusion they hadn’t just been scattered but had been ’placed’.
But why?
If you open/enlarge the information panel you’ll discover it wasn’t coal but small pieces of rock from the artist’s ’country’ – cleaned, painted black then varnished ‘to conceal their identity and protect their stories within colonial spaces.
Yes looks can certainly be deceiving
Still Waters 
Artspace Mackay sounds like somewhere I would love to visit.
The exhibitions of our politicians (who I strongly suspect feel no shame) is a different thing entirely.
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Being an art pleb there somethings I simply don’t ‘get’ – usually it’s the blurb that goes with the ‘art’. I often wonder if the art is in making them deliberatrly obtuse.
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Of regretful politicians, we have a few including one who had a dram too much and crashed his car. Morrison will forever be haunted by his coal stunt. Politicians and aspirants should take great note.
Smaller galleries can be good, as you get to see everything displayed. A bit off topic, but I was amazed how much there was to see in the Canberra War Memorial Museum. It really needed two visits.
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This is a humorous post. I agree that looks can be deceiving. We are doing away with coal in Hawaii. The goal here is clean energy, which is why I am switching to PV for our house.
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I love looking at “art” that makes you “think” – and yes sometimes the artist statement is a bit off the edge…
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