by Melissa Bell loves to paint pictures of water. In their work, blues and greens swim side by side in a colorful river. “I grew up in the back yard on the river,” says the artist. “I was pretty happy to live on Yorta Yorta in the country in Cummeragunja where I was. The water was always part of me.”
Bell always loved art – and studied her at RMIT – but then her life became “a bit chaotic”. “I met a partner. [which led to] Domestic violence, and I lost in the way, ”she says. Bell was detained for the first time in 2015 when she was four more times in the late 20s and in the next five years.
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In prison, she began to paint again in a program carried out by the flashlight: an organization that includes indigenous indigenous Australians in art. The program helps the participants to connect with their language and culture with their language and culture with their language and culture, and presents their work in an annual exhibition. The program also offers ongoing support after publication, including the connection of participants with artist networks and institutions. Some of the programs of the program have worked on large galleries, including the National Gallery of Victoria.
“There were a few times when I went in and out [of prison] But last time I was really connected to my painting, “says Bell.
Bell’s work is part of the most ambitious show of Torch: Blak In-Justice, presents in cooperation with the Heide Museum of Modern Art and marks the first indigenous exhibition of the gallery.
Blak in-Justice presentations by some participants in the flashlight program alongside the leading artists of the First Nations such as Judy Watson, Vernon Ah Kee and Destiny Deacon as well as leader like the late Albert Namatjira.
Indigenous Australians account for less than 4% of the total population, but make up 36% of the prison population. Of all those aged 14 and 17, 64% of the First Nations are. Indigenous men are detained 17 times more often than their non-indigenous colleagues and for women who rise 25 times higher. Since the Royal Commission of the Royal Commission for Aborigines in custody in 1991, almost 600 indigenous Australians have died within the system.
In her installation blood and tears, the Waanyi artist Judy Watson describes some of the names of these people in red sweat curtains with Braille. A striking triptych by the celebrated Girramay, Yidinji and Kuku-Yalanji artist Tony Albert shows three men with destinations on the chest. The painting by Kamilaroi artist Reko Rennies three small pigs, who made their debut in his NGV survey in 2024, is also exhibited. A courageous statement about the brutality of the police.
In addition to pieces by artists who have undergone the program, these works stand from Bell’s representation of the Murray River to the wood artist Daniel Church of forest carved Pelicans and the Yorta Yorta artist C Harrison’s painter deaths in custody, which with 440 identical figures, the number of deaths, at the time he 2021, illustrated.
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Taken together, the works form a polyphonic, multidisciplinary exhibition – a choir of different artists who sing together.
“I wanted to bring together the extraordinary voices of those who had not been detained … and the trips [of those who have been imprisoned] In order to free itself from this system through connection to art, culture and country, ”says Barkindji artist and curator Kent Morris, the creative director of the torch.
There is also a “crossover group” on the show: The revered Walmatjari artist Jimmy Pike began his career when he was imprisoned in the Fremantle prison, the Wiradjuri artist Kevin Gilbert began his unmistakable Linokut printing in the New South Wales prison system, and Namatjira -one of the most closer to that Nahkandicococococococococococoous lounger in the Nahkandios.
The government’s closure was launched in 2007 to tackle the inequality of indigenous detention. Morris is uncomplicated: “It clearly doesn’t work.”
The flashlight cannot change the deeply rooted institutional prejudices, but has had a positive impact on the participants more than 800 of them since its foundation in 2011. A study with 75 participants has shown that the relapse rate 11% for those who were associated with the program for two years reduced 11% for those who were connected for two years to 9%. This is compared to the average relapse rate of 55% for indigenous people in Victorian prisons and 76% nationally.
The program also led to the Victorian government in 2016, which enables the participants to sell their works of art in custody and to receive 100% of the proceeds. Morris explains that this “authorization[s] Some economic independence and the possibility of making different decisions through self -determination. “
“It changed my whole life,” says Bell about the program. After being released from prison for the last time in 2020, she began working in a support role for the flashlight and is now working in the construction industry while continuing her art practice. “I can’t believe where I am,” she says. “If it hadn’t been for the torch, I wouldn’t be here … open doors for me and connect me to my culture and family.”
The influence of the torch is also based on the participation of non-indigenous Australians. “The municipalities of the First Nations have already developed solutions and opportunities to remedy this and have significant positive effects, but we simply do not receive the support that is necessary to really turn them around,” says Morris. “This exhibition says: We can lift the heavy lifting and the hard farms, but we need your support.”
