View from the Docks
An exhibition by Sam Wallman
Australian National Maritime Museum
Darling Harbour, Gadigal/Sydney
Free
View from the Docks is a free exhibition of works by Naarm/Melbourne-based graphic artist Sam Wallman at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Gadigal/Sydney.
Facing the museum’s historic Wharfies’ Mural, Wallman’s wall of works opens up a conversation between past and present on the waterfront.
The mural was created by worker-artists through the 1950s and ‘60s, and documents the struggles, victories and aspirations of waterside workers. Wallman’s contribution asks what that history looks like now, in an era of automation, casualisation and renewed questions about how workers build collective strength.
Wallman is well placed to take up that task. As an artist and wharfie, and someone whose work has long focused on workers, unions and solidarity, he brings clarity and feeling to the subject.
Some pieces are portraits of contemporary dock workers; others reflect on union power, internationalism, strike action and the hard lessons learned through organising together.
Like much of Wallman’s work, the exhibition is politically sharp but with a warm humanity.
It also invites reflection on actions that workers could take today to oppose Israel’s and the United States’ wars on Gaza, Iran and Lebanon.
While modest in scale, View from the Docks carries a big message, reminding us that the history of waterfront and wider workers’ struggles are not over, but still being drawn, argued and lived. It is worth dropping in for a look.