[TimorLesteStudies] Art Exhibition of interest to East Timorese and friends at ACCA

[Jen Hughes]

Hi everyone,

I hope those interested in art and the history of the East Timorese struggle
for independence might have time to see the work of Narelle Jubelin that is
currently in the exhibition the 'Biography of Things' at the Australian
Centre for Contemporary Art. Closing Feb 21.  The 'Biography of Things' is
curated around the idea of research based art and Narelle Jubelin is a
leading figure in this field.

Narelle has been following East Timor's story and contributing to the
conversations about injustice for twenty years.  The installation in this
exhibition was first shown at the Tate Gallery London.

Her work critiques the silence around arms dealing at the diplomatic level
by presenting a reflective table set with places for the diplomats with a
number of symbolic elements. The cutlery that she has chosen is the coveted
George Jensen designer cutlery which at times is almost disfunctional in
form. In an article in the art journal 'Artlink' in 1998 Sean Cubitt says:

 "The function of the embassy in this is to underwrite, guarantee,
facilitate and perhaps most of all to ensure that trade communication is
restricted entirely to the fiscal domain, with as little seepage as possible
into areas of the asethetic and the ethical. It is not that diplomacy
manufactures secrecy, but that it operates to restrict communication between
cultures to the level of deals. And no deal as carefully shuns the limelight
as an arms deal."

 Also on the table is a petit point work (tiny tapestry commonly used for
adorning Hair grooming brushes and combs for middle class women with Anglo
ancestry or as weavings for piano stools and chairs), that depicts the
battle lines of the Oil and Gas Fields of the Timor Sea. (Image attached)

Narelle also cleverly keeps the narrative alive of a historical event in
East Timor's history by laying out the story of the four women peace
activists known as the 'Ploughshares Four' who broke into Hawker Siddley's
Lancashire plant in the UK to destroy key equipment on a jet destined for
sale to Indonesia in 1996. (Joanna Wilson, Lotta Kronlid, Angela Zelter and
Andrea Needham). The women hid nothing, admitted everything, and explained
that the moral obligation to destroy the plane was their last resort when
all other remedies failed. They were gleefully acquitted  in July the same
year amid storms of media coverage.

I highly recommend a visit. Unfortunately many in the Timorese community and
their friends have been unaware of the exhibition which closes on 21st of
this month. I hope this email will redress this and some of you can take up
the opportunity to see this truly elegant and evocative work that reminds us
all of the breadth of people who took up the cause for Timor Leste's
freedom.

Attached also is the original press release from ACCA.

Please forward to further lists asap.

Kind regards,
Jen Hughes
Suaimediaspace puts culture and creativity at the centre of friendship.
Check it out at www.suaimediaspace.org

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