Interview | Tony Albert 'Not a Souvenir' | ArtsHub

[00:00:00]These objects for me can really be weaponized through the opportunity of conceptual artwork. It's kind of like, you know, this this protest within gallery spaces or this really great opportunity for us to be heard through these objects finally having a voice under our own autonomy. Hi, my name is Tony Albert. I'm an artist living and working between Brisbane and Sydney. My people are Gidabul, Githabul, and Kuku Yalanji, and I am here at the MCA Australia in Sydney for my exhibition Not a Souvenir. So, Aboriginalia for me is kind of kitsch souvenir objects with representations of Aboriginal people in blazed upon them. It's a collection I started as a child around 5-6 years old.

[00:00:43]What I love that this show kind of opens up this 20-year practice of of making art, but unveiling a 40-year practice of actually collecting.

[00:00:53]Um so, this is my one of my largest works to date and was specially made here for the Not a Souvenir exhibition.

[00:00:59]What I found um the kind of most recently in the last few years is my own confidence in exploring my own writing and my own hand and my own thoughts. And this is my own interpretation of what Aboriginalia is to me, and I've written that out using the Aboriginalia itself.

[00:01:17]So, there's over 450 letters and it definitely is one of the most expansive works I've done to date. One of the undercurrents over the past 20 years has been the inclusion of ashtrays in my work, and it's really built I guess a sub-narrative within what I do. I go back to the ashtray time and time again cuz I particularly find it quite a sinister metaphor, and I play a lot with language and and words. Particularly for us as people um when we're denied the opportunity to speak our own language over English, I feel it's a very subversive way of inserting these messages into my work. So, I use words that have ash embedded in them like ashamed and utilize the ashtrays within that framework. I really hope that people look quite sensitively at the kind of work that is going on within this exhibition. It is, you know, filtered with very political undertones.

[00:02:10]However, I feel through the Aboriginality there is an entry point for everyone to know and understand kind of what it is I'm talking about and why these are important issues. It is a hidden part of vernacular within Australia and presenting these kind of opportunities really do open up for us as people these these kind of ways of navigating and talking about this but for allies and the non-indigenous community it is just a great about you know this kind of step closer into understanding the importance of our stories and our culture and the way in which through a very tumultuous and problematic history we can overcome and work towards greater goals and achievements.