Aleks Danko is no wilting flower. He’s forthcoming with his opinions, his likes, his dislikes, and what role art should play in all of this. And his latest exhibition, at the MCA, ‘MY FELLOW AUS-TRA-ALIENS’, bundles it all up into one space. Curated by Glenn Barkley and Lesley Harding, the exhibition showcases artworks spanning Aleks Danko’s four-decade-long career – from his early exhibitions in the late 1960s in Adelaide to his recent large-scale installations.
Danko works across a range of disciplines but whatever the medium, he often finds himself returning to certain themes. Politics, anxiety, humour and an interest in language punctuate his pieces. Example A: the exhibition’s title plays on a phrase from Howard-era politics that still resonates today. “It grew out of the Howard years, under John Howard’s leadership of Australia, during 2007, he used to say, “My fellow Australians” and I think a comedian might have twisted that into “My fellow Aus-tra-aliens” so it was a very convenient way of critiquing the xenophobic ideology that was starting to emerge post Hanson-ism.” Something that Australia is still struggling with. “Ah well nothing goes away”, says Danko. “If anything it’s just been further cranked up by the current leadership and ideology, it’s actually become even more extreme.”
The child of Ukrainian immigrants, growing up in two worlds and speaking two languages has affected his work. “There’s no question about it, it’s something that has become much clearer as time has gone on and it clarified things about the use of language and the power of language. It’s also the use of humour as a way of dealing with aspects of racist behaviour or aggressive behaviour, you can diffuse it by using humour as a kind of strategy by which to disarm the protagonist.”
His love of humour was fostered by an early diet of British comedy. His preference? The dry stuff with a twist of the absurd for good measure. ‘Hancock’s Half Hour’, ‘At Last the 1948 Show’, Monty Python, The Liverpool Poets and Frank Zappa’s The Mothers of Invention sit alongside his admiration for the Dada poets, Alfred Jarry and Marcel Duchamp.
This extensive exhibition, with over 130 pieces in it, includes works that walk the line of humour and commentary. By shifting known items and ideas, they make the viewer interact and question, “What’s going on here?” Like his piece Log dog, from 1970, a tree trunk with wheel legs, a metal collar and leash attached to the wall. Or IT’S SUCH A THIN LINE BETWEEN CLEVER AND STUPID, from 2008-09, an etched mirror that places the viewer in the work – when they stand at the right spot, a thin etched line separates their head from their body.
Danko hopes the works speak for themselves and viewers have their own conversation with his art. “The work has to stand up for itself and in the show I’ve indicated that I’m not overly interested in too many didactic texts or even too many labels close to the work, the labels I want on room sheets or on floor plans, so that people engage with the work first and if they want to know more about it, then they have to consult a room sheet. So it means the work has form – that primary relationship first, rather than people going to label. These days one can get overly obsessed about the education part of galleries; I think the engagement of the work to the viewer should be a primary experience. That you’re in a sense in that space between the artist and the object.”
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA)
Until 18 October, 2015
Sydney
Log dog, 1970
Courtesy the artist and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
MY FELLOW AUS-TRA-ALIENS, 2003–15
Courtesy the artist and Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney
