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BANNERS HELD HIGH: The 150th Anniversary of May Day/Labour Day in AustraliaWhere: The Cross Art Projects, 33 Roslyn Street, Kings Cross (opposite St Luke's HospitWhen: 06 May 2006 Start time: 10.00am Finish time: 5.00pm 27th May 2006
Artists: Simon Blau, Barbara Campbell, Tom Carment, Tom Nicholson, Raquel Ormella, Bernie Slater and Emma Rees (Artists and Writersı Alliance, ACT), Toni Warburton, Jelle van den Berg, WWF Film Unit.
The exhibition Banners Held High looks at contemporary industrial relations from a cultural perspective, by drawing parallels between the art making process, artists working collaboratively, and the historic moment. It honours the 150th anniversary of the Eight Hour Day in Australia, a world first set by stonemasons in Melbourne. It observes parallels in political censorship, surveillance, terrorist show trials and government manipulation of unions between Menzies era Australia and today. It is set against growing public disquiet about government manipulation of unions and people who choose to work with workersı unions. This show marks a watershed in radically differing principles and values, between the individualism of contract capitalism and the common interest of collective bargaining. This exhibition identifies a strong critical and aesthetic strain within contemporary Australian art practice that is best described as a kind of neo-conceptualism, interacting with and responding to a wide array of global concerns and local political topics on certain levels, however these are many not be a primary topics and may be symbolically, abstractly or ritualistically expressed. Several artists are staging reconstructions. Barbara Campbellıs May Day Studio, a directed watercolour banner workshop (at the Cross Art Projects on Saturday 6 May preliminary to the May Day March the following day. While the exhibition is not an historical survey, it acknowledges the way the 1950s have become a metaphor for todayıs conservative politics with parallels to political censorship, surveillance, terrorist show trials and government manipulation. Many writers have observed parallels between todayıs cultural activism and the modernist aesthetics and activism in the Menzies era in Australia (1949-1966) and the House of Un-American Activities show trials in the United States. It includes footage by the celebrated Waterside Workers Film Unit of Sydney May Day in the 1950s and some historical pamphlets and dodgers, courtesy The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and Unions NSW.
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