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2010 | A Bush Knot: Karaoke’ed photographs by Gary Carsley

QCA Gallery | 10 April – 30 May 2010

‘A Bush Knot’ (an anagram derived from South Bank) presents Carsley's parallel vision of Brisbane's iconic cultural precinct, inclusive of newly ‘re-discovered' sites which play in the shadow of landmarks such as The Peace Pagoda, Memorial Park, Arbour Cafes and The Goodwill Bridge.

The artist has painstakingly over written photographic images with new layers, palettes and formal associations broadening the significance of A Bush Knot beyond the park and surrounding suburbs, to shape discussion with regard to how we create and perform our own image for international visitors.

The conceptual and virtual terrain he creates implies new metaphorical sightlines, through time, into the site. By example, rare and extinct Queensland timber grains jam with imported foliage, and speak to and of massive environmental and cultural shifts on the site which are now largely forgotten, or at least invisible to visitors interested in the cultural significance of the site prior to settlement or its current manifestation as KODAK Beach.

A related intervention by the artist is his re-imagining of a significant political moment in Brisbane's history, when (now Professor) Marcia Langton staked a claim for Aboriginal Land Rights in a Brisbane City park in 1969. On a monumental scale, Marcia is now a ‘Colossus’ standing in front of her own Memorial Park, near the “Good Intentions Bridge”, signifying the absence of a platform for indigenous voices on South Bank, despite its rich history for Jagera and Turrbal people as a meeting place, corridor and intersection, herding zone, fresh water spring and ceremonial site.

In a seamless mirroring of the physical site’s layout and the Gallery installation, visitors to the exhibition will be encouraged to take a 'Souvenir Guide' to A Bush Knot outside, and use it to orient themselves around the "real" parkland. The map will double as a guide to what Carsley has opted to present as 'the same place, another time line'. Local author Matthew Condon is collaborating with Carsley to write the “true history” for the site of A Bush Knot, should visitors to either site be interested in the ways by which we may each be witness to the same thing, and yet, have resolutely varying experiences.

His Draguerreotypes are huge digital images or ‘karaoke’ed  photographs’ which perform new roles, signifying an alternative reality to the one with which we are all familiar. Similar confabulations, for which Brisbane-born Carsley is now highly regarded internationally, have been recently included in Biennales, Museum exhibitions and major public art projects in China, Singapore, USA and É«ÇéÍøÕ¾.

Carsley's ongoing project looks into the meticulously crafted world of 'parks and gardens', revealing them to be not only locations of both culture and nature but also civic spaces for remembering, forgetting and fabrication, dependent on the management authority and the myriad political, public, private and consumerist objectives they hold.

The site, which South Bank currently occupies, has multiple histories to tell. This one is in drag.

Curated by Simon Wright

This project received financial assistance from the Queensland Government with an Arts Queensland Development & Presentation Grant and financial assistance from The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (FBKVB).

^{Image: A Bush Knot: Karaoke’ed photographs by Gary Carsley, installation view, Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane, 2010. Photo: Mick Richards}