Bell's art of hate |
| By Suellen Hinde |
| August 8, 2004 |
CONTROVERSIAL artist Richard Bell says Territory men will hate his entry in this year's Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA). |
| The Brisbane-based urban artist created an uproar by wearing a T-shirt that read "White Girls Can't Hump" when accepting first prize at the NT Museum and Art Gallery's award ceremony last year. And he says he's not shying away from controversy again this year. |
| "What I have done is to create this magnificent black male hero named Ritchie," Bell said. "He's surrounded by beautiful Roy Lichtenstein-style animated white girls who are all pining for him. "Ritchie's not interested. One of them is on the phone saying 'white girls can't hump?' in sort of disbelief. "The women in Darwin are going to love this but the men are going to hate it because there is this tall, dark, handsome, black hero with these white princesses." |
| Bell said the response to the T-shirt he wore at last year's awards ceremony was "par for the course". "I had worn the shirt in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and didn't get much of a reaction but I knew in a frontier town like Darwin, in the deep north, it would," he said. "A lot of people took it personally (but) it was a statement about making generalised statements that are generally wrong and for anyone who took it seriously, it was a reflection on themselves. |
| "My art or the T-shirt is an in joke for smart people, the smart people will get it and the rest of the morons won't. |
| "This country is in denial and it needs to move on to the next stage -- anger -- and I am helping them to do that and when they get angry maybe they will get a little bit creative in their thinking. "And it (the T-shirt) certainly got them angry." |
| Mr Bell said he was supposed to do publicity for the art awards and paint the banners for this year's show but "it didn't eventuate". "I don't think they trusted me to do the right thing," he said. "It was part of the punishment for Ritchie being a naughty boy." |
| Northern Territory News |