Gordon Bennett: Be Polite
Gordon Bennett, "Notes to Basquiat: To Dance on a Tightrope," 1998
private collection, Brisbane
Australian artist Gordon Bennett’s exhibition, a powerful attack on systemic racism, is called Be Polite. It is anything but. The late artist, of Indigenous and Anglo-Celtic ancestry, expressed his disgust through wit and anger in a variety of styles and media. His largely unseen works on paper, at Vancouver’s Contemporary Art Gallery until Sept. 24, are a foundation of his practice, precursors to the larger conceptual paintings for which he has attracted the most attention.
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Gordon Bennett, "Notepad Drawings: Optical: Seeing is Believing," 1995
© The Estate of Gordon Bennett
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Gordon Bennett, "Notepad Drawings: Wall of Death," 1995
© The Estate of Gordon Bennett
His 30 notepad drawings are the most compelling in the show. Early in his career, Bennett travelled the continent documenting his observations in text and pictures while working as a telephone lineman. These gouache, ink and ballpoint pen drawings criticize white paternalism and sanctimonious condescension. Drops of blood that morph into racist slang are a common element. In Seeing is Believing, a TV newscast reports on drunks and bums while a giant eye sheds tears of blood. The tears turn into letters of the alphabet – “a” for abo, “b” for boong, “c” for coon; all derogatory terms for Australia’s Indigenous people. Other works are not so subtle. Wall of Death depicts two people who have been lynched. Their spurting blood again turns into letters of the alphabet.
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Gordon Bennett, "Untitled (He is Remembered)," circa 1992
© The Estate of Gordon Bennett
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Gordon Bennett, "Untitled (The Truth was Less Glamorous)," circa 1992
© The Estate of Gordon Bennett
Nearby, larger pen and ink drawings called No Moral Sense, slam Australia’s official colonial history. Bennett printed “the truth was less glamorous” on one piece, which shows soldiers clearing an Aboriginal encampment with rifle fire.
Bennett continues the story in an adjacent gallery. Here, the drawings are hard and violent. In one particularly unsettling image an Aboriginal woman is sodomized by her white captors. To make his point that genocide has taken place, Bennett once covered himself in paint and rolled around on a large sheet of paper. He photographed the imprint, reduced it and cut the imprint into small pieces, which he photographed and reduced again. The final work, also on view, represents the dismembered black body, dislocated and fragmented.
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Gordon Bennett, "Notes to Basquiat: Be Polite," 1998
Private collection: Brisbane
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Gordon Bennett, "No 5 (This is How Land Ownership was Determined)," 1992
© The Estate of Gordon Bennett
“Every painting is a self-portrait,” Bennett’s widow, Leanne, said at the exhibition’s opening. “It’s pulled from the heart.” Despite his intense political views, Bennett refused to become an Indigenous poster boy for the art world. He disliked labels, she said, preferring to simply call himself an artist and letting the work speak for itself. When Bennett died in 2014 at age 58, he had paved the way for others. “He opened it up for other artists with Indigenous heritage,” she said. “He wanted to push that boundary.”
Contemporary Art Gallery
555 Nelson Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6B 6R5
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