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Title

I'm worried this will become a slogan (Anthony)

1999-2009

Artist

Raquel Ormella

Australia

1969 –

Alternate image of I'm worried this will become a slogan (Anthony) by Raquel Ormella

  • Details

    Date
    1999-2009
    Media categories
    Textile , Sculpture
    Materials used
    double-sided banner, sewn wool and felt
    Dimensions
    128.0 x 202.0 cm
    Signature & date

    Not signed. Not dated.

    Credit
    Purchased with funds provided by the Contemporary Collection Benefactors 2015
    Location
    Not on display
    Accession number
    353.2015.a-c
    Copyright
    © Raquel Ormella

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    Artist information
    Raquel Ormella

    Works in the collection

    4

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  • About

    'I'm worried this will become a slogan (Anthony)' and 'I'm worried I am not political enough (Julie)' are from a series of banners Raquel Ormella made between 1999 and 2009. Clearly handmade out of modest materials, they have both the urgency and the pathos of personal political commitment leavened by anxiety about political efficacy.

    Each banner is two sided, on the other side of 'I'm worried this will become a slogan' (Anthony) is the text: 'Anthony', an Australian, has lived with Falintil Guerillas for 2 years. While he has not seen combat he is prepared to because "the world has turned it's back on East Timor." While on the other side of 'I'm worried I am not political enough' (Julie) is the text "JULIA 'BUTTERLY HILL LIVE FOR 2 YEARS IN A 300 YEAR OLD REDWOOD TREE TO STOP IT FROM BEING CHOPPED DOWN".

    Ormella contrasts accounts of individual political commitment, action and resistance with the comfortable anxieties of left wing middle class politics. In emulating the forms of protest banners there is pathos in seeing these displayed in an art gallery where politics are inevitably muted by the institutional and aesthetic parameters of their display. The 'I' in the text also addresses their audience, asking us to identify with being worried while suggesting we may never have the commitment of Anthony and Julie. Inevitably they also ask how can art be political at this juncture in time and how may it find a voice that will be heard?

  • Exhibition history

    Shown in 3 exhibitions

  • Bibliography

    Referenced in 5 publications

    • Charles Green, Art and Australia (Vol. 37, No. 4), 'Art and politics: living here now: Australian Perspecta 1999', pg. 358-360, Sydney, Jun 2000-Aug 2000, 359 (colour illus.). general reference to Raquel Ormella's 'I'm worried this will become a political slogan' 1999-2009 series

    • Rachel Kent, Making it new: focus on contemporary art, 'Raquel Ormella: Double act', pg. 70-77, Sydney, 2009, 105 (colour illus.). general reference to Raquel Ormella's 'I'm worried this will become a political slogan' 1999-2009 series

    • Stephen O'Connell, Frieze no.50, 'Australian Perspecta 99', pg. 109-110, London, Winter 2000, 109 (colour illus.). general reference to Raquel Ormella's 'I'm worried this will become a political slogan' 1999-2009 series

    • Macushla Robinson, See you at the barricades, Sydney, 2015, 26-27 (colour illus.), 47.

    • Wayne Tunnicliffe and Hetti Perkins, Australian Perspecta 1999: living here now - art and politics, 'Talkback', pg. 32-33, Sydney, 1999, 32. general reference to Raquel Ormella's 'I'm worried this will become a political slogan' 1999-2009 series

Other works by Raquel Ormella