The Fabric of Resistance
Dane Beesley
- Sitter: Bob Weatherall
- Medium: Archival Pigment Print (from altered Cyanotype on Cotton)
- Dimensions: 75cm x 100cm
- Representation: This artist represents themselves
- Categories: Digital or Photographic artwork, Performing arts and music industry
2026 Performing Arts and Music Prize
Proudly supported by
Lister Family Foundation
About the artwork
Uncle Bob Weatherall is a Kamilaroi and Ngemba Elder who has spent over forty years fighting for First Nations sovereignty and the repatriation of ancestral remains. As founding CEO of FAIRA, he was a lead organiser of the 1982 Commonwealth Games protests, establishing Tent City in Musgrave Park and rallying international support at a time when Queensland’s Aboriginal communities were still living under restrictive conditions.
To honour Uncle Bob, photographer Dane Beesley transferred his portrait onto cotton using the cyanotype process, developed with water drawn from the Brisbane River (Maiwar). The river’s chemistry and sediment became an active part of the making, permanently binding Uncle Bob’s likeness to the city’s literal lifeblood.
Produced at large scale, the final work captures the grand stature of a legendary activist, and the tactile threads speak to the decades of grassroots struggle. Uncle Bob is not merely pictured; he is structurally bound to the history and fabric of Brisbane.
About the artist
Dane Beesley is a photographer whose career began with Rolling Stone Magazine before evolving into portraiture centred on deep human connection and untold stories. His bond with Brisbane runs deeper than geography, an ongoing dialogue with the city’s landscape, light and community. His work is recognised in the 2026 publication Exposure: Contemporary Photographers in Australia and New Zealand.
Judges Notes
Dane Beasley’s The Fabric of Resistance is a powerful portrait of Bob Wetherill which combines photography and printmaking in unexpected and pleasing ways. Photography and printmaking of course have had a long relationship as media but in recent years this has perhaps being overlooked or ignored in favor of sleek surfaces and high gloss finish.
This portrait goes against that particular grain, incorporating a bespoke process that includes drawing river water from the Brisbane (Maiwar) River to be used in the making process taking advantage of its unique chemical constituents, simultaneously complex and singular. Can this mean we are at the end of the tiresome era of painters trying to be photographers and photographers trying to be painters? This artist answers strongly in the affirmative.
Jonathan McBurnie
Director, Queen Victoria Museum and Gallery (Launceston)
Chief Judge 2026
