Asylum,
Vessels for a Journey, 2001.
my apologies to Nick Dorrer for pinching
the Vessels for a Journey bit of the title,
I am sure he will forgive me though Ross
Barber.
Turning Point Caloundra Regional Gallery.
Asylum is a work that consists of forty small boats made
of a mix of english and non english newspapers
installed in the gallery to encourage a meaningful debate
on the issues of migration and asylum.
The way to create the ideal state, according to Saint
Thomas Aquinas, is to keep the population strong of arm,
educated enough to pay their taxes and in perpetual mistrust
of each other.
We might be forgiven for mistaking Saint Thomas' formula
for social control as being very contemporary, given the
current level of distrust being generated today in our
culture. Aquinas understood that throughout cultures there
were differences. The tragedy is that he counselled the
exploitation of those differences, rather than value the
potential of a multicultural and diverse society.