Diplomatic Relations
Artworks by Azlan McLennan
The Anti Mascot Project, part of the New Wave Festival
Platform Two art space, Flinders Street, Melbourne, until April 2

REVIEW BY ELSIE SNASHALL-WOODHAMS

A display of artworks by controversial Melbourne artist Azlan McLennan is being shown at the Platform Two gallery in Melbourne this week.

McLennan’s works, collectively titled “Diplomatic Relations”, are similar in format to a high-profile international bank’s current advertising campaign. A campaign that depicts images of cricketers and ballerinas with the interchanging captions, “rivetting” and “tedious”, aimed at showing how different people can have polarised points of view on the same topic.

McLennan uses this idea of perception and juxtaposition to confront popular prejudices and encourage people to question commonly held views of some of Australia’s most public figures. “While a general parody of the mighty HSBC’s advertising campaign, it’s specifically about how much 'public opinion’ is influenced by the state,” McLennan told Green Left Weekly. McLennan is also a member of the socialist youth organisation Resistance.

One of the poster-style artworks depicts PM John Howard and al Qaeda’s Abu Musab al Zarqawi with the titles of “freedom fighter” and “terrorist” attached respectively. The photographs are reprinted, but underneath the titles are changed, with John Howard labelled the terrorist and al Zarqawi the freedom fighter.

Another poster depicts images of famous Australian swimmers celebrating a victory and unruly Cronulla rioters with the interchanged captions of “Aussie Pride” and “White Pride”. Another portrays convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby and accused ''terrorist’‘ David Hicks as either victims or criminals.

All three of these works intend not only to provoke thought about our own preconceptions of what is right and wrong, but also redress the imbalance in the media where dominant views remain unquestioned. A statement at the bottom of one of McLennan’s works reads, “The media is making a killing”. It is making a killing by promoting nationalism and the tunnel vision that comes with it.

McLennan's works can be expected to cause controversy with their potentially “seditious” innuendos. But controversy is no stranger to this artist with many of his works, such as the piece depicting a burnt Australian flag with the slogan “Proudly Un-Australian”, being painted over or removed by police.

Like many artists McLennan believes in freedom of expression and the right to protest. He maintains that he isn’t out to ruffle any feathers; he is simply exercising his democratic right to express his political sentiments through his artwork.

From Green Left Weekly, March 29, 2006.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

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