A profile of Artist, Richard BellPublished Date:
28/04/2004 AEST Last year, Charleville born
man Richard Bell won the premier award for an Indigenous artist, the
Telstra Art Award 2003. When he collected the award, the t-shirt he wore
caused a furore; he's an artist who says he's not an artist... meet
Richard Bell, this week on Message Stick TV. Tune in on Friday night the
30th of April at 6 pm and repeated on Sunday the 2nd of May at 1.30
pm. I'm from Charleville, Queensland I am an ...basically art is a means for me to get my message across, probably more an activist than an artist, I used to be an inactivist but I got out of the habit To chillout I like to paint I'm reading ...looking at starting a book called Dreamers by Tom Chetwynd – it’s sort of sub Freudian. I’ve been reading about the Black Panther Party, Blood on the Wattle by Bruce Elder and Chomsky I'm drinking just water I'm eating well. I’ve been eating healthy lately, like getting a bit older, gotta stay away from chicken skin and the fat from pork and meat. Turkish bread with avocado, basically pretty simple sort of stuff The thing I do best is showoff! When I'm in a bad mood I listen to soul; Al Green, Marvin Gaye When I'm in a gallery I'm most likely drawn to ...probably conversation. I like to listen to people who love art. I honestly don’t know what’s seen to be a good painting The piece of technology that has most shaped my life is the airplane, motor car, trains. Travelling has most shaped my life – those sort of things, because when I was young I never imagined I’d be able to leave Australia - thought maybe I’d get to Melbourne I find inspiration in the ordinary things, probably conversations, you know like, well nearly always in conversations The last website I visited was ... I met this guy from Canada late last year and he alerted me to this website called psycholinguistics which I’d never heard of and which I’ve heard little about. It was really interesting, they talk about, in language, Westerners know almost all there is to know about Western languages and a little about Oriental, but diddly squat about Native Aboriginal languages and what that does, it questions every negotiation that has been made between native people and colonisation. What they’re saying is it was impossible for either side to know what the other was saying, and so the contracts made are unfair, and the legality of it comes into question. My favourite film is Field of Dreams. Comedy is probably my favourite genre My favourite play is I haven’t got a favourite play but I remember driving past a theatre once and they had Onegin playing, and a friend said, "Gee those cheeky white fellas’, they’ve got a play called one gin." My favourite place is probably home You can find me in the Mystery Thriller Fiction section of a bookshop. The first thing I read in the paper is the Sports section The first thing I look at when I meet a person is their eyes I wish I was healthier Paradise is where white people live |