The World is Watching

The Kalush Orchestra - Ukraine’s entry in Eurovision 2022

Is all great art political? It’s an interesting question that was put to the test in this year’s Eurovision 2022 song contest. Australia had a great entry, Sheldon Riley whose amazing voice and spectacular staging and costume helped him into the finals. And Australia was always mentioned as an addition to Europe - “Welcome Europe and Australia….” So technically we weren’t Europe but were welcome and included in this music fest.

But it was always Ukraine that all eyes of the world were were watching. Ukraine’s entry, the Kalush Orchestra came on stage in a mix of traditional folkloric costumes teamed with rap outfits which set the scene for their song, Stefania. And at the end of the song, a heartfelt plea to the world to keep helping them in their fight to defend themselves against Russian ‘s invasion.

From the stage on Turin, Italy for Eurovision, to the Art Gallery of New South Wales and this year’s Archibald prize winner Dhungatti artist Blak Douglas, for his portrait of Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens, titled Moby Dickens. Karla lives in Lismore and is pictured knee deep in flood waters holding two leaking buckets of dirty flood water. She is painted with a very determined but somewhat angry face, reflecting the current pre-occupation of everyone in the Northern Rivers area with flooding, little government help and escalating social despair as towns and people in the area struggle to repair and recover from these continual climatic events.

The painting is powerful both in subject matter, context and execution. It is also the only the second time an Aboriginal Australian artist has won the Archibald in the history of the prize, after Vincent Namatjira’s win in 2020. With all eyes on the coveted art prize, what better way to make a statement than through the subject.

So returning to the question is all great art political? The art that is remembered through the ages is often controversial for its time, either in technique, style or subject matter.

For this I always think of Picasso’s Guernica , his huge painting is an indictment of man’s inhumanity to man and was painted in a three week frenzy in protest against the bombing of the small Basque town of Guernica in the lead up to World War Two. Picasso would not allow his painting to be hung in Spain until after democracy was reestablished. The painting was finally received by Spain on September 10, 1981, 50 years after it was exhibited in the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris International Exposition and nearly ten years after Picasso had died in France.

Visual art, like all of the other art forms, is a platform to express our deepest emotions to share with others how we feel and what we believe in. Great literature is controversial, as is music and performance art. Wherever there is protest, there is art, whether it is in the form of graffiti on the street or rap songs born of inequality and injustice.

It takes courage to stand up for what you believe in and sing and paint and perform. Congratulations to this week’s winners - Ukraine and Blak Douglas - two sides of the world united by their art from their hearts.

Blak Douglas Moby Dickens, this years Archibald Prize winning portrait of artist Karla Dickens.