Neon Parc is thrilled to announce ‘Blak Flags’, a new exhibition by Kait James, with the official opening on Friday 29 November 6-8pm in Brunswick. Kait James is a proud Wadawurrung artist whose work boldly challenges stereotypical representations of Indigenous culture, drawing from both her Indigenous and Anglo heritage. Through her art, she critiques and subverts the often narrow and homogenised depictions of Aboriginal identity in Australia, offering a deeper, more nuanced exploration of history, culture, and self-determination.
For Kait’s second major project with Neon Parc, the artist has made a series of nostalgic triangular flags based on flag pennants of the 1960’s and 1970’s. As an extension of her well-known works which utilise found Australiana or ‘Aboriginalia’ tea towels, the pennant flags reference souvenir commodities which could be found in tourist gift shops, surf clubs or community centres. Bought or given as a memento of a time or place, or collected on a trip around Australia, pennant flags would often use the name of a place or town but would never acknowledge the complex history of the land and its traditional owners. By recontextualising these kitsch souvenirs—that historically diminish and stereotype Aboriginal identity—James transforms them into powerful statements laden with pop-cultural and political references.