Idealism Aground

(I am posting here an article I wrote for Nation Review in June 1978. At that time there were 13 million refugees worldwide. The figure today is 22.5 million, although 65.6 million are officially "displaced")

   How much idealism can you stand in one week? The story surrounding Austcare’s “boat people” mural outside Sydney’s T&G building is saturated by idealism, personified in the three people most closely associated with it.

   Austcare’s original press release in April said it was looking for an artist to paint a mural which would draw attention to the plight of the world’s 13 million refugees – and Austcare’s 28 May doorknock appeal.

   It also said “Austcare is happy to do anything it can to popularise in Sydney the big public mural – a la Mexico city – and in this way bring art to the people and the people to art”.

   Very strange. An additional two pages proclaimed: “Austcare seeks brilliant muralist”. This quest was “inspired by Diego de Rivera, Orozco and the other famous socially committed muralists of Mexico city”. The artist would be free to choose his own subject within the given theme, but the final painting could be “one of terror, outrage or despair…an explosion of hopeful joy or as blissfully tranquil and irrelevantly relevant as a Miro…on the other hand something with the gut response of Picasso’s Guernica will also be welcome”.

   Not your average advance PR for a doorknock appeal.

   The man behind the rhetoric was Leo Kelly. I caught him on his way to batik class which he attends every Tuesday evening. Kelly writes poetry, is modest about it but amused and pleased that “hippy friends” of his in Melbourne have recently published some of his poems.

   It was his idea to use a mural as a publicity event (this is the second he has organised for Austcare) because he does believe in bringing art to the people and the people to art. And he is inspired by de Rivera and the socially committed muralists of Mexico city. Any suggestion that the boatloads of refugees coming to our shores may be carrying bourgeois capitalist exploiters on the run saddens him. He believes simply that most refugees are desperate and deserving and that our policy must cater for them regardless of a few possible undesirables.

   Enter the sought-for “brilliant muralist” – Gary Shead, chosen by Kelly from among two dozen interested artists.

   Shead’s dealer, Clive Evatt, describes him as the last of the bohemians, which is a bit exaggerated.

   Shead, who doesn’t really need to make a living from his painting, has risked his popularity several times in his career by changing styles. He began with dark toned surrealism (he still believes that Dali is the greatest artist and “the only man who can lead us out of the mess that Picasso got us into”). His style now is realistic and romantic. He is one of a group known as the New Romantics, reactionaries against all that is sterile, nihilistic and impersonal in modern art.

   “Are you interested in the artistic process?” he asked, talking of the mural. “I thought of ships because they are a traditional image of freedom. Then I linked that with the boat people.”

   Eureka! As an idealist Shead is perhaps more quirky than most, but he still qualifies. He painted the mural for very little money. He makes no secret of loving publicity, but the 1220cmx366cm (40ftx12ft) mural will become his property when it is removed from its present site and if he can sell it he will give part of the money to Austcare.

   Enter the dancer.

   Last week, before the official 26 May unveiling of the mural, a dancer named Richard Boulez arrived in Sydney from Melbourne. He immediately began making telephone calls around town to tell people that he had read about the mural, felt that he had to dance in front of it and “hopped on the first plane”.

   Another alert self advertiser on the hustle? No.

   Boulez is a qualified teacher and social worker. He studied hard for these degrees (“I put up with five years of nonsense”) so that people would take him seriously. His real interests were mime and dance, and for the past two years he has been using these as methods of therapy in teaching deaf and psychotic children.

   His spontaneous attraction to the mural was emotional, but he soon had rationalisations ready when asked to give a talk and a performance for art students at Alexander Mackie college.

   “Men and women will always cross the ocean in search of a better life,” he said. “Look at the population of Australia.”

   Gary Shead welcomed Boulez to share his windy footpath.

   When Leo Kelly heard about this he rushed down to see the performance and decided that Boulez was just what he needed to liven up the official ceremony. “I have to think of these things, to give the TV crews something to shoot,” said Kelly, with some regret for the practical necessity involved but mostly with obvious pleasure at having Boulez join in on the event.

   So the thin, whitefaced dancer danced the anguish of refugees everywhere in front of Shead’s mural, a water level view of ships approaching shore preceded by gulls and splashes of foam, while Leo Kelly bantered tolerantly with two drunks in the crowd.

   Kelly will certainly organise another mural for humanity next year.

   Shead will go back to being a New Romantic in rebellion against the sterile and nihilistic.

   Boulez is already in the Northern Territory teaching deaf black children.

   As I said in the beginning – how much idealism can you stand in one week?