Write Stuff

• The Age

GRAPHICALLY gifted graffiti artist Fred Fowler (aka Nuroc) might well pride himself on not writing the same way twice, but this makes for a somewhat dishevelled gallery experience.

What does work here is a suite of fastidiously elegant blackand-white ink drawings borrowing heavily on traditional Oceania and Papua New Guinea iconography.

Composed as selfconscious storyboards, they narrowly escape charges of neo-colonialism. In one a majestically seated uniformed white settler reaches to greet a baby held by its traditional village mother while another Whitey takes advantage of this moving scene by aiming his gun.

A set of faux-tribal shields, working as reverse transitional art, are also promising. 

Fred Fowler, Highland Chamber, Until Never, Level 2, 3-5 Hosier Lane, Melbourne, until July 26

Writer: Ross Moore