MORE than 60 new and emerging Aboriginal artists were enjoying a barbecue on the lawns of the Fremantle Arts Centre last week, having arrived from some of WA’s most remote communities to kick off the Revealed exhibition.
It’s a feather in the cap of the FAC, invited by the WA government to take on the significant indigenous arts event.
“It brings all the remote Aboriginal art centres [more than 20] to Perth and has previously been run in the Cultural Centre,” director Jim Cathcart says.
Revealed offers a chance for punters to get in before the artists are famous, and the chance for the artists to present their work to a broader audience. “The key thing about Revealed and its art is, it’s often the only possible economic opportunity for these communities,” Cathcart says.
The exhibition is a mix of painting, print, wood carving, photography, textiles, video and weaving.
Teddy Byrne hails from Hedland, but grew up in Morley after the family moved from Bruce Rock.
“It was the most amazing magical wonderland…there were teals, mountain ducks, frogs…turtles, dugite, tiger snakes and bobtail goannas. We used to make little canoes out of corrugated iron and we could paddle for half the day and still be nowhere near the end of the swamp. By the time I was 12 it was all gone — the whole lot. They drained it,” he laments.
His art doesn’t dwell on loss, he tells the Voice: “I’m more into portraying beautiful nature.”
Revealed is on now at the Fremantle Arts Centre, Finnerty Street, Fremantle.
by JENNY D’ANGER
Perth Voice Interactive 
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