The work of Naarm-raised Kamilaroi artist Reko Rennie can be regularly spotted across art galleries and festivals. Known for vibrant paintings and symbols influenced by his early affiliation with street art, Rennie’s work seeks to upturn stereotypes around First Nations identity and find empowerment in rebellion. The artist often refers to the spray can as his ‘message stick’.
REKOSPECTIVE is a comprehensive survey of the artist’s work, bringing together paintings, neon, installations and Rennie’s venture into film. Some of the earliest career-defining pieces include Camo self portrait (2007), which is the first in his practice with the camouflage pattern that later become a hallmark, and Big Red (c. 2008), a taller-than-life roo that symbolises power and knocked out several awards alongside picking up a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts.
Rennie’s signature tags, including the reappropriation of ‘OG (Original Gangster)’ with ‘OA (Original Aboriginal)’, the crown, the Aboriginal flag and the diamond highlighting his connection to the Kamilaroi people, pop up like visual cues of affirmation throughout REKOSPECTIVE.
The exhibition is not chronological, but captures significant moments that impacted the lives of First Nations people in this country. YES untitled (pink) and Yes untitled (yellow/pink), both from 2017, and YESMOTHERFUCKERSYES (red, blue, black) (2023) are witnesses of the failure of this country to make space for First Peoples’ self-determination, time and again. The font comes from the 1967 referendum’s ‘Yes’ campaign, which was backed by 90.77% of votes. In last year’s Voice Referendum, ‘Yes’ votes barely reached 40%.
Cars, motorbikes, gangs and leather jackets also feature in REKOSPECTIVE, but there’s more to it than boyhood obsessions. For Rennie, driving a Rolls-Royce is an act of reclamation – inserting himself into a domain that was previously a status symbol for colonisers. Three major video works involving the cars, made between 2016 and 2021, are on display and they hit the mark both in terms of cinematic quality and sending a strong message.
In Initiation OA_PR (2021), Rennie drives a Rolls-Royce customised with his bold camouflage design on Kamilaroi Country, making marks into the land. Another was previously shown at RISING festival, and features the artist in a florescent pink Holden Monaro cruising Melbourne’s western suburbs where he grew up, accompanied by a sublime score from Yorta Yorta composer, Deborah Cheetham AO.
The final gallery, which houses the 15-metre wide neon REMEMBER ME (2020) and works from the Warriors Come Out to Play series, plunges viewers into a space that resembles a club lounge. And yet, the hyper-masculine atmosphere is balanced out by works that seek to underscore and bring to light violence and brutality. A more recent work, Remember Us (2023) is a marble memorial, etched with text that references the 551 Aboriginal lives lost in custody between 1991 and 2023, after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (1987-1991).
Three Little Pigs (2024) is the newest work in the exhibition, and one of the most explicitly political. It’s a figurative painting of three policemen pinning down a body, whose face is covered by Rennie’s Kamilaroi diamond motif. The anonymity of the figure goes to highlight the police brutality faced by many marginalised groups, as well as imbue the figure with pride and strength.
Read: Exhibition review: 2024 Melbourne Sculpture Biennale, Villa Alba Museum
For this reviewer, “remember me” comes off less with a sense of heated anger than as a soft chant, designed to settle at the back of one’s mind as a constant thread of reminder – “Remember me”, “I was always here”… “Yes, Yes, Yes”.
REKOSPECTIVE: The Art of Reko Rennie is on view at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia until 27 January 2025. Free.
Check out a video of Reko Rennie at the preview of his exhibition:
