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POST SCRIPT: after the USA EXHIBITION
RETURN OF ART TO AUSTRALIA
When
the exhibition at Echo finished my works had to return from the USA.
Fortunately for Australians they are protected by a vigilant customs
and quarantine department whose actions are governed by Australia's
self-belief in Australia's innate and central importance in world
affairs which they, the frontline troops, are to keep intact. Armed
with the knowledge that events of global significance are more likely
to happen on Australian soil than anywhere else on this planet their
job is to protect Australians. In protecting this country from a world
full of villains their vigilance is not tempered by their stupidity or
lack of imagination. So it was, that when my purpose-built art crate
reached its destination, Australia, the authorities of this country
acting with the impunity possessed by a body which can act with
complete immunity from the consequence of their actions decided that my
crate posed a risk. Somehow, in the nation central to world
civilisation, my crate with its paintings was, it seems, no more than a
Trojan Horse intended to get in underneath their radar. So in looking
for the means by which I was going to corrupt the Australian mind these
authorities decided that there must be something of value concealed in
the crate and this of course excluded the paintings. The interior of
this crate was slashed (below is one of the photos I have taken). Parts
of the polystyrene were gouged out ... looking for heroin? What? The
joins of this crate are glued and stapled together. These were pried
apart by customs looking for the pestilence I may have intended to
bring into the country. Alas, these vigilant defenders of the chastity
of a nation already f#=ç@*ked found nothing. So now, as a
monument to Australia's vigilance, I have a crate which I can not use
again. It is no longer dust/bug proof as anything can now get into it.
Its interior is in a condition that if I repaired it by taping up their
slashings to use it again to transport paintings it will appear that
the crate has been tampered with which will thus elicit investigation
again. It's not even good as fire-wood as its exterior is painted
yellow and the polystyrene lining will give off toxic vapours. Thanks
Australia!
above: circled, the superb craftmanship of Australian customs. This is only part of the damage by Australian customs.
(refer to notes)
exhibition in 2004
Two photomontages were exhibited in a group show at CCP before it closed down.
exhibition in 2009
HUMANIST TRANSHUMANIST:
the fiasco of Guildford Lane Gallery of Melbourne
Guildford Lane Gallery is run by the toxic Robert Cripps. AVOID THIS GALLERY ASSIDUOUSLY!
Much money was spent by myself and my co-exhibitor Lee-Anne Raymond to make this show a success. This has turned out to be a waste of money. The owner, Robert Cripps, had, at the time of writing this, still not paid us for work that sold during the show [payment was eventually made over 6 weeks later - after we sought legal advice].
During
the course of the exhibition he, by his actions, circumvented our
capacity to promote our work. His idea of a contract, we were to soon
discover, is that he believes he can unilaterally insert conditions
subsequent to any original agreement. The result of his actions was the sabotage of the exhibition. Cripps turned the exhibition into an expensive debacle for us, but he made a profit on it.
Below: a photograph of some of the works exhibited at the June-July exhibition in 2009. The exhibition was of never-before exhibited works by myself and Lee-Anne Raymond. A fully illustrated catalogue was published to accompany the exhibition. [the catalogue can be purchased here]. Essays which are featured in the catalogue were pinned alongside our artwork in the exhibition.
Cripps is a self-confessed racist [this page is expanded here]
He is a manifestation of the new-left who have adopted the sentiments Hitler expressed in his Mein Kampf, but who believe that, though theirs and Hitler's sentiments are the same, their racism is a 'justifiable' one [expanded here].
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Cripps took exception to my explanatory essays.
Some of my essays juxtapose quotes from both the Old and New Testaments alongside Hitler's Mein Kampf, to show that Hitler's racial exterminations were Biblical (religious). [An assessment of Hitler's Christianity]
Hitler wrote:
"...I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." Mein Kampf p.60, Manheim translation.
Hitler's enmity of Jews is based on 1 Thessalonians 2.13-16 from the New Testament. [quoted here]
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above: one of Cripps' many disclaimers (circled) |
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Yet it was not the exposure of the Biblical basis of Hitler's racism that Cripps took exception to. His actual objection was to my quoting from the Koran, particularly 9.38-52, in which the god of Islam, "Allah", guarantees automatic "martyrdom" to those who are killed while in the act of killing non-Muslims.
According to Cripps, quoting the Koran is insensitive to "Palestine", because he is opposed to, as he said, "the Jew's state in Palestine." He then accused me of "racism"! (Neither "Israel" or "Palestine", or the conflict there are mentioned in the exhibition)
Cripps, who does not know the difference between opinion and fact, placed disclaimers everywhere in the exhibition.
The "Disclaimer" reads:
"The management would like to state clearly that the views and opinions expressed in this exhibition are those of the artists, and not in any way representative of the views or opinions of the management, staff or volunteers of Guildford Lane Gallery."
The quotes from the Koran though are NOT an opinion. What quoting from the Koran achieved was the exposure of Cripps for what he is: a racist.
Unfortunately, some of the photographs are not in focus (limited depth of field). When Lee-Anne and I visited to photograph our exhibition, he followed us, harried us, ranting, ordering us out of our exhibition, even though we had a legal right to be there, and he had no legal means of executing his demand. He is a bellicose bully limited in erudition and of limited intellect.
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below: detail of Cripps' disclaimer |
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The above brief summary of this exhibition is expanded in greater detail here.
Australian arts journalists (which included those who write for the Age and the Australian newspapers) were contacted by email. Some journalists did respond with sympathetic emails, but did NOTHING. No response of any sort was forthcoming from any journalist from Murdoch's the Australian and Herald Sun.
Australia's arts intelligentsia, a parody of the British arts intelligentsia, ignored the show.
The premise behind many of my works in this exhibition was the condemnation of religion-incited violence, and religion-incited racism. My works specifically condemn the 4 'montheisms': Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, whose religious doctrines demand that their followers commit murder as an act of piety on behalf of their respective faiths. The exhibition also featured two works from my current series of "Mytheic Works" [preview here].
The exhibition was arranged as a counter-point to an exhibition of the powder-puff surrealism of Salvador Dalí whose works were being exhibited at the time at Melbourne's state art museum (the NGV).
It became evident that Cripps was utterly ignorant of surrealism, ignorant of its counter-cultural, counter-religious, and therefore its original revolutionary intent.
(For example, refer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Révolution_surréaliste :
"the initial issue announced the revolutionary agenda of the La Révolution surréaliste with, "It is necessary to start work on a new declaration of the rights of man."…the third issue announced, "End of the Christian Era."…Writer and actor Antonin Artaud wrote an open letter to the Pope, "Address to the Pope," and expresses the revolt against what Surrealists saw as oppressive religious values…anticlerical remarks are found throughout La Révolution surréaliste and reflect the group's relentless campaign against oppression and bourgeois morality.") ]
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[the old version of this page is archived]
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