Summary: Collaborations in Modern and Postmodern Visual Arts | Kate Daw and Stewart Russell A Simple Act occupied Daw and Russell for the past two and a half years. It explored the involvement of Australian champion sprinter Peter Norman in the 1968 Olympic Games. Peter Norman famously stood alongside US athletes Tommy Smith and John Carlos on the podium after the 200 m sprint final and supported their political protest (about the civil rights of black people) by wearing the ‘Olympic Project for Human Rights’ badge. Peter Norman stood up for something he believed in to the cost of his athletic career. Daw and Russell were inspired by Norman's ‘simple act’ (the subsequent title of their project) and consider the artwork developed out of this subject to embody many things they care deeply about; social justice, politics, memory and the question of courage. The project clearly has its roots in sport, and incredibly, while Peter lived in Melbourne until he died late in 2006, he is not a ‘household’ name in Australia, although his act (with Smith and Carlos) deeply affected many around the world. This work was exhibited in 2008 to great acclaim in the Basil Sellers Award at the Potter Museum at the University of Melbourne and purchased by the National Gallery of Victoria. A large-scale installation in format, the work included collected texts from an interview with Peter Norman (completed shortly before he died). One of the many positive outcomes of this exhibition was a connection forged with the National Sports Museum (NSM) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Daw and Russell have been working at the MCG during 2009/2010 as recipients of the inaugural Basil Sellers Fellowship and through this experience have developed a major new project, Two Homes. Daw and Russell will discuss how their collaborative processes allow us to operate and interact with subjects, institutions and other contexts. We would be interested in discussing our new work, in particular how a small central Australia desert community and the MCG have become collaborative partners in an exciting new art work; Two Homes, and how our collaborative work as artists has enabled this to happen. Kate Daw and Stewart Russell have been collaborating for the past six years on visual art projects. They share a strong interest in bringing other people’s memories, opinions and experiences into their artwork and also have continually used concepts of narrative and the documentation and chronicling of aspects of contemporary culture as the basis for their ideas, inspiration and project outcomes. Daw and Russell are particularly interested in locating and resurrecting forgotten histories.
