Gary Foley, Aboriginal activist and Senior Curator, Indigenous Cultures Department, Melbourne Museum, will open CON-SENT-TRICK SIR-KILLS at 6pm on Friday 4 July at Linden - St Kilda Centre for Contemporary Arts.

Part of the NAIDOC week celebrations, CON-SENT-TRICK SIR-KILLS features the work of Linden's current artist in residence, Gordon Hookey, and five Victorian Indigenous artists, Shirley Angus, Gary Donnelly, Dennis Fisher, Daniel King and Jenny Murray-Jones, all of whom who are also taking part in an exchange program with Hookey.

The confronting text-based paintings by Shirley Angus refer to racism, ignorance and the targeting of Aboriginal people by the police. Emerging artist Gary Donnelly uses paint, canvas and traditional objects like boomerangs and didgeridoos to dispel myths and misconceptions surrounding the traditions and current realities of Victorian Aboriginal people.

Port Melbourne based poet Dennis Fisher refers to his own experiences, history and everyday observations to promote reconciliation and a better understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Young Melbourne artist and film-maker Daniel King explores the history of colonisation and the lack of awareness of social issues facing Indigenous people today.

Warragul based Jenny Murray-Jones paints portraits and landscapes which refer to the history of her people, her own experiences of racism, her relationship with the land and her identity.

Photo: Darren James

Of the Waanyi People in north Queensland, Hookey gained a fine arts degree at the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW and has exhibited widely throughout Australia and also overseas. He is represented in a number of significant collections including the Art Gallery of Queensland, the National Gallery of Australia and Djabai Cultural Centre in Noumea, New Caledonia.

Hookey says that his art-making is located at the interface where Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cultures converge. His work "Ruddock's Wheel", which will form part of the exhibition, is a direct response to a statement, reported in the press in July 2000 and made by the Hon. Phillip Ruddock, Minister for Immigration and Aboriginal Affairs, while overseas, in which he inferred the failure of Aboriginal people to invent the wheel. Hookey's "Ruddock's Wheel" is uncompromisingly fierce yet full of colour, wit, crudity, schoolyard humour, contestation and a profoundly humane vision.

Exhibition continues until Thursday 14 August. Gallery Hours: Tues - Sun 1- 6pm.

For further information or images please contact Jan Duffy on 03 9209 6794 or email info@lindenarts.org

This exhibition is supported by the City of Port Phillip as a NAIDOC week celebration and has been assisted by the Myer Foundation and the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

Gallery hours are Tuesday - Sunday 1.00pm - 6.00pm.