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Installation view, 'Cruel Summer' exhibition curated by Billy Bain, Artbank Window, Sydney, 2023
Curated by Billy Bain
Opening event
When: Thursday 30 November 2023, 5 – 7 pm
Where: Artbank Window, Artbank Sydney, 222 Young Street
RSVP: via Link or rsvps@artbank.gov.au
Billy Bain In Conversation with Anne Zahalka and Khadim Ali
Australian Summer is in full swing, the sun is hot and the surf is up. Artbank has invited Darug artist Billy Bain to curate our Summer Window. Bain’s arts practice challenges ideas around social, political and cultural representations of Australian identity. His work often references Australian surf culture, using humour to question the stereotypes that much of this nationalistic iconography is built on. Please join Billy Bain alongside acclaimed artist Anne Zahalka and Khadim Ali to discuss the contemporary narrative of Australian beach culture and identity.
When: Thursday 15 February 2024, 5.30 – 7 pm (Talk to begin at 6 pm)
Where: Artbank Sydney, 222 Young Street Waterloo
RSVP: via EVENTBRITE or rsvps@artbank.gov.au
Artbank Window is viewable from Young Street 24 hours every day. Gallery open Tuesday – Friday 10am – 4pm or by appointment.
Artbank Open encourages everyone to get curious, get involved and get up close to incredible artworks by some of the most exciting Australian contemporary artists. Challenge, excite, inspire and surprise yourself as you create your own journey through this uniquely Australian art collection.
Featured Artists:
Khadim Ali, Billy Bain, Linda Dry-Parker, Shaun Gladwell, Peter Kingston, Joel Ngallametta, Nick Santoro, Anne Zahalkav and Geoff Harvey.
To celebrate the acquisition of Billy Bain’s artwork Blak men can’t surf, Artbank has invited Darug artist Billy Bain to curate our Sydney Window. Bain’s arts practice challenges ideas around social, political and cultural representations of Australian identity. His work often references Australian surf culture, using humour to question the stereotypes that much of this nationalistic iconography is built on. With a practice that spans ceramic sculpture, oil painting, etchings and installations, Bain creates new narratives that discuss a contemporary idea of what it means to be a young Indigenous person in Australia today.
"Since the British arrived on our coastline and planted their flag in the sand, effectively claiming ownership for the colony, our coastline has become a site of colonial violence. Informed by Aileen Moreton-Robinson’s “The White Possessive”, I understand the urban and suburban beach space to be an implied white possession enforced through performative masculinities embodied by surfers, lifesavers, and soldiers. In 2023, domestically and globally, invisible boundaries and borders that seek to divide and define who belongs and who doesn’t have never been more entrenched in the public consciousness. I see the invisible boundaries of the beach space as being policed and acted upon by these Australian beach icons.
Through juxtaposing colonial representations of beach culture with contemporary perspectives by artists from diverse backgrounds I aim to curate a space that encourages dialogue surrounding belonging, spatial ownership, the imported and the native. As an Indigenous surfer and artist my practice aims to reclaim space for myself and other marginalised voices within a culture and place where we have been systematically denied."
- Billy Bain
