Date: Thursday 7 March, 2013
Time: 7.00pm
Venue: Elisabeth Murdoch Building, Victorian College of the Arts (Southbank campus), 234 St Kilda Road
In the book Travels With Herodotus, Polish journalist and writer Ryszard Kapusinski asserts that “The worst aspect of the wall is to turn so many people into its defenders and produce a mental attitude that sees a wall running through everything, imagines the world as being divided into an evil and inferior part, on the outside, and a good and superior part, on the inside”. In his presentation, Chris will rethink this metaphor, suggesting that the wall, in the context of conflict, civil unrest or social revolution is actually the message board that begins to build the bridge between the outside, the inside, the past the present, the inferior and the superior.
Chris Parkinson is a photographer and visual artist interested in spatial theory and the marks we make and leave behind. His 2010 book, Peace of Wall: Street Art from East Timor, published by Affirm Press, has been described as a ”book of evocative photojournalism capturing an important moment in East Timor’s history through its walls.” Chris also works regularly with the Timorese artists collective Arte Moris (art is life), supporting the development of cultural and political expression through the arts in post-conflict Timor. He teaches Community Media at the University of Melbourne’s Victorian College of Arts where he is also undertaking his Masters of Fine Arts (CCD), looking at the spaces and contexts of street and public art (including graffiti, public slogans and murals and other informal installations in public space) in response to large-scale conflict.
This talk is the first in the continuation of the Words series, presented this year by Architects for Peace in association with the Centre for the Cultural Partnerships at the Victorian College of the Arts. We’re stoked to have a new home at the VCA in 2013! Find out more about this collaboration here. And please take note of our brand new venue, map below..
Refreshments provided/gold coin donations welcome!
