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Liberty
is a flash animation combining text, graphics and photographs. As the title suggests, it is a meditation on the nature of liberty in relation to the individual and the state.
It is the first of the artist's works explicitly addressing the subject of social justice and consequently has a bearing on the large number of billboards on the same subject that will follow.
Liberty
opens with two outrages:
In 1943 the French government in occupied France was still fulfilling its obligations to supply a quota of jews for the death camps.
And:
As late as the 1970s, the Australian government was still forcibly removing children of mixed race from their homes and training them to enter domestic service.
Visual elements refer to empire, privilege and power - the Victoria Monument at Buckingham Palace, for example, as well as brightly coloured animated chevrons suggestive of the forward motion of the progressive project.
Liberty
was created for the world-famous Soho Patisserie, Maison Bertaux, and part of the work refers to the Bastille Day
tableau vivant
mounted by the cafe and its staff on 14 July when the spirit moves them.
The completed work was displayed at Maison Bertaux on an early iMac screen downstairs and as a digital projection in the upstairs salon.
