Michael Riley’s voice was understated and he favoured the poetic as a form of expression.
They call me niigarr was made in 1995. It was Riley’s last exhibition at Hogarth Galleries and was his most overtly political.
It is difficult for indigenous artists to stay away from politics. Michael said about this work, “This exhibition is about racism. Racism comes in many forms. It can be blatant, it can be hidden, patronising, and plain demoralising. For many Aboriginal people the result of racism has been all these things. Names such as these are not intentionally meant to be offensive. Non-Aboriginal people joke as they use these words. The words and images of this exhibition come from my childhood experiences with racism – experiences shared by my people”.
Marbuck...
Michael Riley - flyblown
Stills Gallery is exhibiting one of Michael Riley's outstanding series, flyblown to coincide with a retrospective of Riley's work Michael Riley: Sights Unseen showing at the Art Gallery of NSW (22 Feb to 27 April) curated last year by Brenda L. Croft for the National Gallery of Australia. flyblown was produced in 1998 immediately before cloud (2000), Riley's best known series.
Riley was born in central NSW in (his father's) Wiradjuri country. He grew up on the Talbragar Aboriginal Reserve outside Dubbo. He developed an early interest in photography and in the late 70's moved to Sydney where, with his contemporary urban Aboriginal artists, he was a founding member of Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative (1987). He was also making films and became a founding member of Blackfella Films in 19...