KOCHI: ‘Embassy’, the installation set up by noted Australian artist Richard Bell as a symbol of the resistance of the Aboriginals, is making waves at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale.
The ‘Embassy’ has been created by putting up a tent outdoors at Aspinwall House. The installation reflects a theme that brings to light the discrimination and exploitation faced by Australia’s aboriginal population even after the colonial period. It calls for the defence of the aboriginal population on a global scale.
A descendant of an aboriginal tribe, 70-year-old Bell decries the owner-slave mentality still existing in certain human minds, as something that should be most despised. “Can it be blamed if, to express their strong displeasure, the aboriginals open an embassy in their own land? The Embassy has been taken up as a symbol reflecting the pitiful condition of aboriginals at an international level,” Bell says.
The tent ‘Aboriginal Embassy’ has been envisioned as a place for holding exhibitions, video presentations, and discussions to ensure the survival and welfare of aboriginals and to support institutions fighting on their behalf. The exterior of the tent exhibits posters depicting a sharp outcry against exploitation. One of them says — ‘Why is democracy being celebrated when life as an aboriginal is forbidden?’
Bell, reputed as the topmost contemporary artist in Australia, is also a well-known activist. And his work has been exhibited at prominent contemporary art expos worldwide. Big canvas paintings made by Bell in response to racism and land conflicts involving aboriginals can also be seen at the venue.