In Visible Ink - Episode 2: Reconstructing Culture Through the Arts (2021)

MFTWA

In Visible Ink is a Museum of Freedom and Tolerance endeavour that makes visible the invisible. Through sharing and amplifying stories, histories, art, conversations and projects that inspire people to see differently, it aims to make changes towards a more just world.

The Black Lives Matter movement transformed global consciousness in 2020, bringing questions relating to the stories we make visible in our civic and popular culture to the fore as statues and monuments around the world tumbled.

In solidarity with the protests, the names of some of the hundreds of Indigenous people who have died in custody were projected on a landmark sculpture in Walyalup (Fremantle) during 2020, bringing into focus place, visibility, history and the resonance of the BLM movement in Western Australia, the state with the largest number of Indigenous deaths in custody.

To launch our 2021 In Visible Ink Symposium, we convened conversations around the themes of deconstruction and reconstruction of visual and civic culture.

This dynamic panel discussion on the reconstruction and reclamation of sidelined cultural identities through subverting music, fashion, design and pop culture and features speakers (biographies below):

• Chaired by Sisonke Msimang
• Chris Luu
• Isaac Garang
• Luel de Kuek
• Rhys Paddick

Join the Museum of Freedom and Tolerance and special guests on a multi-sensory journey as we provoke our audience to question the visibility of dominant civic and cultural landscapes and landmarks, learn how to see differently, and actively seek a fairer and more just approach to systemic racism, discrimination, incarceration and inequality.

Speaker biographies:

Sisonke Msimang (Chair) is the author of Always Another Country: A memoir of exile and home and The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela. She is a South African writer whose work is focussed on race, gender and democracy. She has written for a range of international publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Guardian, Newsweek, Bloomberg, and Al Jazeera. Sisonke has held fellowships at Yale University, the Aspen Institute and the Bellagio Centre. She is currently a fellow at the WISER Institute, at the University of the Witwatersrand.Chris Luu grew up in Perth, Australia where he landed his first post-University job as an Architect. He then went onto studying Creative Advertising and Graphic Design. He currently works as an Art Director at Johannes Leonardo (New York City) where he has been awarded numerous global accolades including the prestigious D&AD Pencil. Outside of work Chris skates for Vans Australia. He is also a skateboard historian, photographer, artist, tinkerer and won’t-stop maker. She is the Curator of the Literature and Ideas Festival.

Isaac Garang is a designer of South Sudanese background currently based in Perth. His primary platform for self expression is the clothing brand, IXIII (pronounced I X Three). See the ixiii store here.

Luel de Kuek is a freelance graphic and product designer. He strives to use his art to tell as many stories to as many people as possible, as art has an intrinsic and boundless nature to cross artificial boundaries of skin, colour or creed.

Rhys Paddick is an Aboriginal educator, presenter and artist. As a content creator, Rhys has created a niche market of Australian Aboriginal wholesome memes on Instagram page @the_wholesome_yamatji. Rhys has consulted with various organisations to help spread their messages using effective and Aboriginal relevant captions, memes, graphics and humour.