Brothers Moving Targets By Tony Albert

Tony Albert’s “Brothers” engages with issues of race, police violence, discrimination and identity. This single installation features twenty-six portraits of young Aboriginal men with targets painted onto their chests, as well as designs and symbols that Albert associates with strength and resistance. Albert was inspired by events that took place in Sydney in 2012, when two teenage Aboriginal joyriders were shot and injured at the hands of police. Following this, a protest was held at Sydney’s Town Hall, and friends of the victims appeared with targets drawn on their chests. For Albert, the target symbolizes the daily experiences of being racially targeted. It also refers to the stereotypes applied to Aboriginal people as a result of government policies, such as the Northern Territory Intervention. Tony Albert is a Girramay artist. His work is held in numerous public and private collections internationally. In 2014 he won both the $100,000 Basil Sellers Art Prize and the prestigious $50,000 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. He is known internationally and recently unveiled a major commission in Sydney’s Hyde Park, a monument dedicated to Australia’s Indigenous military service men and women. Brothers (Moving Targets) 2015 41 3/8 x 28 1/4 in. (105.09 x 71.76 cm) Tony Albert, Indigenous Australian, b. 1981  Scarred pigment print on paper Gift of the Artist, 2016