PORT, POLES AND WIRES
An exhibition at Red Point Artists Association, Port Kembla, 10-19 August 2018
Port Kembla has been privatised. So have the poles and wires that distribute electricity, and many other iconic local sites are under threat. We look at them through artists' eyes.
Events associated with the exhibition include an opening night, a film showing and panel on public housing, and a panel on campaigns around the problems of privatisation and alternatives. More info on events here.
Sharon Callaghan introduces this innovative exhibition, film showings and discussions.
PARTICIPANTS:
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Sheds at Outer Harbour (acrylic on board) |
Poster Sue Bessell & Valerie Law |
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Port Kembla North (ink on paper) |
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Power Tower 3 (acrylic on canvas) |
Read Rachel Bolton's essay accompanying Nikki Main's |
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Facebook (Poles and wired) (mixed media) |
Phillip Crawford, Gemma Parsons
The film Protection was made by kids in the Illawarra, with Beyond Empathy. Two of their stories on the funny (and serious) side of living in public housing will be screened at Red Point 4pm Saturday 11 August 2018. See Events
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Breakwater Battery 1 (detail) (gouache on card) |
Agostino Marcello
From the short film This is Sirius, which will be screened at |
The black and white image at the top of each of the 'Port, Poles and Wires' pages, of Port Kembla with poles and wires, is a detail of Kathryn Orton's lithograph, 'Greetings from Coniston'.
Port, Poles and Wires creatively explores in words, images, sculpture and other ways, how privatisation is more than business, industry, or services transferring from public to private ownership and control. Privatisation means selling government land, agencies and operations to for-profit companies. Although it sounds like it could be a good idea, in practice it can have disastrous consequences.
Our creative efforts consider various forms of ownership and custodianship, public and private space, and what official arrangements determine citizen’s rights under public and private entitles. We question who profits from privatisation and what social, cultural and political costs can accompany privatisation. Our discussion of privatisation looks at and around government services or government control over say public parks or beaches or the sale of public or government operations such as our water or energy supply, the Commonwealth bank our national airline. Perhaps it is worth sometimes considering options other than public and private!
SHORT ARTICLES ON PRIVATISATION, THE PUBLIC INTEREST AND COMMON OWNERSHIP
READ THEM HERE:
Sharon Callaghan discusses the privatisation of of Port Kembla port and of protest (May Day in Wollongong), outlawing lingering (the Port Kembla anti-loitering laws).
Rachel Bolton tells the story of Port Kembla's Hill 60: how it was appropriated for settlers, for the military, and the forgotten promise to return it to the First Nations people who'd made their homes their.
Richard Mohr shows how private property was invented and then applied to more and more things, from land to knowledge and services. How can we reconnect with things and with each other in ways that bring us together?
