MELBOURNE, Australia — Recospective, Reko Rennie’s cunningly titled retrospective at the Ian Potter Centre, the section of the National Gallery of Victoria that houses the Australian collection, boldly challenges the binaristic distinction between ‘traditional’ Aboriginal and contemporary art through works from the extensive The artist’s career spans over twenty years.
Visual, Recospective draws on the artist’s street art roots. In works such as “Regalia” (2013), Rennie does not only use a crown symbol tribute to Jean-Michel Basquiatbut also to contend with questions about Indigenous sovereignty and legitimate governance in Australia. The artist’s first tag, “OA” (short for “Original Aboriginal”), is also ever-present, alongside other indicators of graffiti culture such as stenciling and spray paint as subject matter and material. For ‘Message Stick (Totem Pole)’ (2011), for example, Rennie stacked a series of aerosol cans in his version of a message stick, an object carried by indigenous Australians to communicate over great distances.
Rennie is known for his reinterpretation of the Kamilaroi diamond pattern, commonly carved into trees as a male initiation symbol, to affirm the continuity of indigenous cultures to the present day. This diamond pattern is visible in many of Rennie’s installations, including ‘OA_RR’ (2016–17), a bright, hand-painted 1973 Rolls Royce Corniche that greets you from the foyer of the NGV. In the accompanying video work ‘OA_RR’ (2017), Rennie sees donut driving in Kamilaroi Country as a contemporary, car culture-infused tribute to sand carvings traditionally made for ceremonial purposes, erasing the distinction between past and present.
In a similar act of subverting linear time, Recospective abandons the chronological narrative often used in institutional solo exhibitions, instead bringing works into dialogue through shared themes and symbols. In addition to the aforementioned crowns and diamond pattern, recurring visual motifs include camouflage print, kangaroos, the Aboriginal flag, warriors, bicycles and totems. Rennie continually references his back catalog in works such as “Initiation_OA_RR” (2021), a thematic and visual sequel to the aforementioned film work in which the artist drives a custom-painted pink 1973 Holden Monaro through the streets of Melbourne’s western suburbs. , where he grew up. In the film’s climax, Rennie drags the car through a series of burnouts that visibly mark the sidewalk, against the backdrop of a grand operatic score. Importantly, his process of self-reference does not feel indulgent because of the urgency of the issues he speaks about, including police brutality, Indigenous deaths in custody, and land rights.
Recospective is one of the few shows I’ve seen at the NGV where the gallery’s often heavy-handed exhibition design (I hear they have a wallpaper printer in-house) supports the visual and thematic ambitions of the exhibition. For example, Rennie’s use of camouflage print in “ALWAYS” (2021), a series of four canvases, continues in the custom wallpaper behind the work, metaphorically freeing his painterly expression from the constraints of the museum object. The vibrant palette of pink, yellow and blue tones on canvas and purple, navy and green on the walls also challenges stereotypes about ‘authentic’ Aboriginal art, such as its associations with ‘natural’ colors and earth tones.
The NGV has missed an opportunity to match such an important exhibition of a living Australian artist with an accompanying catalogue, while an animal-themed collection exhibition across the hall is accompanied by a slick tome. Still, Recospective feels like an important art historical moment. In wall texts, the artist recalls feeling the disconnect between the Aboriginal objects on display during childhood visits to the NGV and his own experiences growing up in Melbourne. Decades later, Rennie created an exhibition that I think he would have admired as a child.
REKOSPECTIVE: The art of Reko Rennie continues at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia (Federation Square, Flinders Street & Russell Street, Melbourne, Australia) until January 27. The exhibition was organized by the museum.
