Exhibition view: Brook Andrew, Spin, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne (6 April–20 May 2017). Courtesy Tolarno Galleries.
In recent years, Brook Andrew has respectfully placed his personal archive centre stage, creating installations that challenge conventional ideas about history, identity and race.
The Right to Offend is Sacred, his current solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, is, he says ‘an entire installation’ incorporating books, magazines, objects, photographs and postcards from his archive.
Embracing what he sees is an ongoing repetition of dominant narratives, Brook Andrew’s SPIN has an urgent and forceful rhythm. It asserts itself across nine new works in sweeping metallic brush strokes, theatrical draping, neon, fluorescent colours and bleeding, weeping paint. Images and fragments from his archive are circled, underlined and woven into very physical works signalling a new ‘hands on’ direction in his art.