Self Portrait (Under the Southern Cross)
Tony Albert
- Sitter: Self-portrait
- Medium: Acrylic on Linen
- Dimensions: 100cm x 100cm
- Representation: Sullivan and Strumpf
About the artist and artwork
Tony Albert is one of Australia’s foremost contemporary artists with a longstanding interest in the cultural misrepresentation of Aboriginal people. His multidisciplinary practice considers the ways in which optimism might be used to overcome adversity.
He’s been working with images about identity based on race. ‘I am interested in the portrayal of the self from ‘other’ perspectives. What these images do to make up our Identity and the preconceived notions individuals place on others through these depictions. ‘
The banana smile is in reference to racism in sport which Albert has used before, after a banana was thrown onto a football field to denigrate an Aboriginal player.
‘I often feel sad about these images and portraits but use many of these objects in my work as a way of reframing and given a voice to these objects and images.
‘The tension between the seen and unseen is interesting for me and I hope that through these images I can create an autonomous strength and voice lacking from the original images.’
