RICHARD BELL | PIGEON HOLED

Fire-Works Gallery, Brisbane, PROSPECTUS .22, 1993

Private collection, Brisbane

The boundary rider: 9th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, 1992. This work is part of the 'Campfire group’

Hetti Perkins et al, 'Richard Bell', Tradition Today: Indigenous art in Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2004, p.26 (illus.)

Richard Bell: Positivity, IMA, Brisbane, 2006. (illus.)

Hannah Fink, ‘Self-evident: Indigenous artists and the photographic image’, One sun one moon: Aboriginal art in Australia, Sydney, 2007, pp. 310-321, 311, 312-313 (illus.)

'Bitter + Sweet', Art + soul: a journey into the world of Aboriginal art, Carlton, 2010, pp. 174-239, 281, 210-211 (illus.)

'Richard Bell' Half light: Portraits from black Australia, Sydney, 2008, pp.40-47, 44-47 (illus.)

Maura Reilly with Richard Bell and Djon Mundine, Uz vs. Them, American Federation of Arts, 2011, pp.28 - 29 (illus.)

Richard Bell (b. 1953) lives and works in Brisbane, Australia. He works across a variety of media including painting, installation, performance and video. One of Australia’s most significant artists, Bell’s work explores the complex artistic and political problems of Western, colonial and Indigenous art production. He grew out of a generation of Aboriginal activists and has remained committed to the politics of Aboriginal emancipation and self-determination. In 2003 he was the recipient of the Telstra National Aboriginal Art Award, establishing him as an important Australian artistic figure. Bell is represented in most major Australian National and State collections and has exhibited in a number of solo exhibitions at important institutions in Australia and America.

In 2013 he was included in the National Gallery of Canada’s largest show of International Indigenous art, Sakàhan, and at the Fifth Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art. In 2014, Bell’s solo exhibition Embassy opened at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth. In 2015, Bell was a finalist in the Archibald Prize, Sydney, presented a collaborative exhibition of new work with Emory Douglas at Milani Gallery, and exhibited his major work Embassy 2013-ongoing as part of Performa 15, New York City and the 16th Jakarta Biennale, curated by Charles Esche. Bell also premiered a body of new work as part of the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art’s 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane. In early 2016, BELL invites... an exhibition of Bell and work by friends and collaborators opened at the Stedelijk Museum SMBA, Amsterdam, and premiered a new sculptural commission as part of Sonsbeek 2016 at the Dutch Art Institute in Arnhem, Netherlands. Bell presented his Embassy as part of the 20th Biennale of Sydney, curated by Stephanie Rosenthal, at Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, and most recently as part of the Jerusalem Show VIII. In 2017, Bell exhibited in The National: New Australian Art, a comprehensive survey of contemporary Australian art presented by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, and Carriageworks, Sydney. In 2018, he presented his solo exhibition Dredging up the Past at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne. In 2019, Bell took his Embassy project to the Venice Biennale as a collateral event, in December 2019 he will present work at Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea Milan. In 2021 Bell will be presenting a major solo exhibition and Embassy at the Tate Modern.

In the following work, Pigeon Holed, “Bell portrays himself in six repeated images as an “angry black man” in an effort to challenge the negative stereotype associated with Aboriginal men. With missing teeth, an afro, and a belligerent expression, he aligns current clichés for Aboriginal men with each self-portrait: Drinker, Tailor, Sold Yer (phonetic for soldier), Failure, Butcher, and Baker. On the far right, a mirror bears the label “Trouble Maker”, allowing the viewer to experience what it feels like to be categorized derogatorily.”

Maura Reilly with Richard Bell and Djon Mundine, Uz vs. Them, American Federation of Arts, 2011, pp.28

“Pigeon Holed is about Stereotyping and categorization of people and things… A very strong idea in this country is that of the angry black man. And I presented this ironically, this shot of a seemingly angry black man. I wasn’t angry though.”

Richard Bell, 2008, Half light: Portraits from black Australia, artist discussion, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 22 November, 2008