NAS Retake: Karla Dickens

NAS Retake: Karla Dickens

Karla Dickens is an artist of Wiradjuri, Irish and German heritage, whose work challenges notions associated with gender, inequality, race and violence against Aboriginal women. Her work courageously tackles confronting issues and enables conversations about Aboriginal disadvantage that continues to exist in contemporary Australian society. She incorporates her own text and poetry to emphasise the message and support her artwork. In 2018 Dickens made a body of work that referenced ‘the lucky country”, a phrase coined by Donald Horne in 1964. Dickens stated ‘I was grateful and relieved to find that Donald Horne was ironically condemning Australia for its complacency and failure to acknowledge its history. My playful and straight-forward observation is that you are lucky in Australia if you are white and a bastard if you are Aboriginal.’ (Dickens, 2018)

Unlucky II and Unlucky IV are assemblages on board made from rusty oil and petrol cans that Dickens found whilst rummaging in a dump near a closed Aboriginal mission-camp. Renowned for her practice of repurposing everyday items, she has placed these objects together with text; the oil cans remind us of the conflicts between white colonisers who seized Aboriginal land and exploited it, impervious to the systematic abuse and oppression of traditional owners. Dickens uses the words ‘Unlucky’ and ‘OUT’ (of luck) in relation to the people who never enjoyed the benefits of the so-called ‘lucky country’. However ironic Horne was being with his terminology, he probably was not thinking about Australia’s first people; but if he had been, he would have agreed that they were indeed out of luck.

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Images: Karla Dickens, Unlucky II and Unlucky IV, 2017, mixed media, 110 cm x 110 cm, National Art School Collection, gift of Karla Dickens, 2018

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Thank you to everyone who attended the opening night of ‘Queer Contemporary: Chaosophy’ 
‘Chaosophy’ is now open until Saturday 8 March
11am – 5pm Monday to Saturday
Building 25 Project Space
Free admission, all welcome 
Learn more about the exhibition at the link in bio.
NAS Library is proud to launch their 2025 Library Stairwell Gallery programming with this years LSG show for Queer Contemporary, ‘Subtexts’, opening this Thursday 13 February.  ‘Subtexts’ unites four artists whose work demonstrates the complexities of queer identity, each considering their own personal relationship with queerness. The show offers alternative narratives and styles that challenge notions of queer uniformity, opting to explore the undertones and implications of queerness as a dislocated front.  ‘Subtexts’ asks of the ambiguous term; Are we united by virtue of our difference, or rather the unique positions it presents us?  Featuring works by
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We’re looking for an Exhibitions Project Officer!  The role has a focus on major Indigenous exhibition projects currently in development for the National Art School as well as touring programs. The role assists with the delivery and coordination of Gallery programs, talks, and other events in the gallery spaces.  You have a background in visual art, art history, curatorship and gallery experience. You have excellent interpersonal and communication skills, along with strong organisational and project management experience.  Note this is an Identified Role and is open to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander applicants only, in accordance with Section 14(D) of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act, 1977 NSW.  Application deadline extended to Sunday 9 February.  Apply at the link in bio.
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Ronan Pirozzi, 'Serpentine', 2023; 'Trajectory', 2023; 'Desolate', 2023; installation view, undo the day, NAS Gallery, Sydney, 2024, oil on welded steel, image courtesy and © the artist, photograph: Zan Wimberley
The National Art School has today announced respected Australian academic, writer and curator Dr Kristen Sharp as the next Director and Chief Executive Officer.  Kristen joins the National Art School with extensive experience in the fields of contemporary art and tertiary education having spent six years as Associate Dean Discipline, Art in the School of Art at RMIT University, and previously 9 years as Academic Lead Art History and Theory at RMIT. She will commence her new role at the National Art School on 24th February 2025.  Read the full media release at the link in bio.
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