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Peter Kennedy

Pioneer of Political Art

Christopher Reid
Eyeline 86
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“Nothing is more precious than the struggle for national independence and freedom.”1

 

This statement prefaces Peter Kennedy’s collaborative video November Eleven (1979) which portrays media coverage of the dismissal of the Whitlam Government in 1975 and the political and social upheavals that ensued. The November Eleven video was included in the exhibition Resistance: Peter Kennedy at the Australian Experimental Art Foundation (AEAF), a survey of key examples of Kennedy’s video work from 1971 to 2016. The video’s introductory statement quoted above suggests the genesis of Kennedy’s approach—he addresses significant social and political issues and, in the process, pushes art beyond previously constraining boundaries.

The AEAF exhibition centrepiece was Kennedy’s most recent video work The Photographs Story (2004-16), which portrays Kennedy and his wife and son’s response to the media coverage of the death of a small boy caught in crossfire in Palestine in 2000. The Photographs Story is an immersive installation, comprising large-scale video projections on three walls and, mounted on the fourth wall, a newspaper clipping from 2000 that reported the story, and on which his young son had scrawled a few words. Told in chapters, The Photographs Story opens with Kennedy retrieving the clipping and other photographs from his files, and it includes text by Kennedy recording his memory of the event and readings by his wife. The newspaper article included stills sourced from the TV news video that showed the boy and his father trying to avoid gunfire. Kennedy incorporated that news imagery into The Photographs Story by showing it on a mobile phone, demonstrating the way images travel across time and technology. He also transcribed his son’s words from the newspaper and included footage... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

The Photographs’ Story, 2004-ongoing. Video still, 3-channel digital video and sound installation, each part 6.20mins, total 38mins. Image courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane.

The Photographs’ Story, 2004-ongoing. Video still, 3-channel digital video and sound installation, each part 6.20mins, total 38mins. Image courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane.

Fugue, 1971–2015. Video still, 8-channel digital video and sound installation. Image courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane

Fugue, 1971–2015. Video still, 8-channel digital video and sound installation. Image courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane