Born Romantic - Aretha Brown
I’ve been a fan of Aretha Brown’s work for years, but was going to give this exhibition a miss due to the $19 ticket price at entry. The aversion to the ticket price comes from two directions; feeling guilty spending my money on anything at the moment, and not wanting to write about a ticketed show. You may have noticed that we’ve consistently avoided writing on Lowbrow about exhibitions which are ticketed (the only exception being art fairs, but they’re their own thing). We want the art we write about to have as few barriers to entry as possible and be as widely accessible as possible. We want to bring art to people not in the arts, and platform the people who don’t have other places to be seen. I’ve made the exception for Aretha Brown though, and I’m glad I did.
Brown, with the Kiss My Art collective she heads, have been painting murals worldwide over the last few years. Her distinct style is easily recognisable - bold, deceptively simple shapes, often communicating political messages, largely using just black and white. I’ve had the pleasure of spotting some murals around Melbourne, but to be in a room full of the artist’s work is a new kind of treat. The Born Romantic show feels made up of three distinct parts: the paintings, in the style I mentioned before; the video room, framed by a large vinyl banner with an archway that invites you in; and a wall of bedazzled artifacts, that were fun and kitsch and my favourite things in the room.
Amongst bedazzled shapes, echoing from the canvas that fill the rest of the room, is a Bulldogs hat reworked with leopard print; a pic of Dolly Parton, joint in hand, framed by glittering gems; a toy lightsaber covered in rhinestones!! From Brown’s own artist bio this bedazzled series positions “joy and lightness as radical, political acts in a society that often demands seriousness and heaviness from First Nations artists.” The work is playful and fun, a simultaneous rejection and reclamation of Indigenous dot paintings into contemporary, sparkly Gen-Z works that challenge cultural expectations while embracing the kitsch. This wall of sparkles somewhat centers and grounds the whole show, pulling it all together and centralising the theme of being a die hard lover girl.
The pink painting that reads “LUB YOU” paired with a silhouette of a girl’s head reminds me of doodling hearts in the margin of a school book and not knowing how to flirt. Being painfully awkward and hopelessly cringe, not knowing how to talk to someone on the school bus home, and first dates at bars when you still don’t quite know how to order what you want to drink. Awkward conversations with people over apps that you’ll never end up meeting in person. An unexpected bunch of flowers left on your doorstep when you get home. Being born a romantic is a truly hard lot in life in a world where romance is hard to come by and, boy Aretha, do I relate.
The hang of the work was both industrial and intimate. The paintings are attached to wire racks hanging from the ceiling, I assume in order to protect Abbotsford Convent’s heritage Magdalen Laundry. The feeling of these wire racks is remescient of an commercial art gallery stock room - like we’ve got the inside scoop on seeing these works, we’ve been invited behind the curtain into the belly of the beast.
Brown isn’t the typical calibre of artist we write about on Lowbrow, considering she recently exhibited at the NGA in the 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial (which will tour Australia until 2028!!), has shown in the NGV, has spoken at the Tate Modern, made art for international musicians - but this is somehow, surprisingly, the Gumbaynggirr artist’s first solo show - which makes it Lowbrow enough for me. Sadly the show closed on October 4th, so you’ll have to wait and see what Aretha Brown does next.