Creative Frictions in the Neoliberal University: Courting Blakness at The University of Queensland

Abstract

In 2014 Fiona Foley, one of Australia’s most influential contemporary artists, curated a public art installation with eight of her contemporaries in an iconic heritage site: The Great Court at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. While there is a long tradition of Indigenous artists speaking to power in public places and Foley is one of its most incisive practitioners, Courting Blakness was unique. This temporary exhibition spoke directly to the Great Court’s commissioned public art though it was not, itself, commissioned by the University. Instead, for the weeks it was on site, the selected artworks both complemented and contested official representations of the university, the state of Queensland and Indigenous people within the broader story of the nation carved into the university’s stone buildings.