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A gold Rolls-Royce. Pink neon sculptures of a spear-throwing warrior. A crown depicted in spray paint. Rapper Briggs as a sensei, leading a protest chant.
These disparate images have all sprung from the mind of Kamilaroi artist Reko Rennie, whose distinctive, powerful work will be showcased by the National Gallery of Victoria in REKOSPECTIVE: The Art of Reko Rennie.
The work of artist Reko Rennie will be the focus of a retrospective at the NGV later this year. Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
“It’s a real celebration of the work that I’ve made to date and the power of art and having a voice,” Rennie says.
The Footscray-born artist started out with graffiti, but over the course of his career has moved to film, sculpture and painting. Rennie’s grandmother was part of the Stolen Generations, taken from her parents aged eight. Tough issues lie at the core of his work, which makes statements about identity, colonisation and the latter’s devastating impact on Indigenous people.
Reko Rennie’s OA WARRIOR I (pink), 2020. Credit: Reko Rennie
The NGV show at Fed Square’s Ian Potter Centre in October will feature 100 works, including new figurative works. It’s going to be a bit heavy, Rennie says. “As we’ve seen, there are changing attitudes in society: it’s far more acceptable to be a racist these days in contemporary Australia.”
He points to the recent referendum on the Voice to parliament and the bigoted tone of so many of the No arguments.
Appropriating symbols of royalty and using street art motifs and language – instead of OG for Original Gangster, he uses OA for Original Aboriginal, for example – Rennie’s work manages to be at once playful and powerful.
“I’ve never forgotten where I come from. You work and strive for a lot more when you come from very little,” he says. “That was instilled in me from my mother and my grandmother.”