Recently I said: Discard your notions of the Western Sydney Artist as the new Noble Savage.
TimT said: BTW, what's all this about the Western Sydney Artist being the 'New Noble Savage?' There's only one word in that description that rings true, and it's not the first two.
So I replied:
Lately I've been hearing some arts commentary lauding the unique bravery and spirital, cultural overcoming of odds to create - when the artist comes from Western Sydney. Like they had to climb over razor wires, like they don't have thought and education and backyards in which to construct things like it was some kind of miracle that someone from 'out there' had a thought or an idea not involving their family bbq or the size of their television screen. Like Western Sydney is a millstone weight of disadvantage, like geography pushes people into a new kind of species, like they are crawling in gutters and someone blocked out the stars. This broadcast imagined vast tract of suburbia as concentration camp has gone far enough. I will fight them on the beaches.
TimT said: BTW, what's all this about the Western Sydney Artist being the 'New Noble Savage?' There's only one word in that description that rings true, and it's not the first two.
So I replied:
Lately I've been hearing some arts commentary lauding the unique bravery and spirital, cultural overcoming of odds to create - when the artist comes from Western Sydney. Like they had to climb over razor wires, like they don't have thought and education and backyards in which to construct things like it was some kind of miracle that someone from 'out there' had a thought or an idea not involving their family bbq or the size of their television screen. Like Western Sydney is a millstone weight of disadvantage, like geography pushes people into a new kind of species, like they are crawling in gutters and someone blocked out the stars. This broadcast imagined vast tract of suburbia as concentration camp has gone far enough. I will fight them on the beaches.
Comments
Though in fact most of our best artists have been from the outer suburbs. The imagination doesn't need a festival, all it needs is a book, a bit of space to spread, family and friends.