THE WRITING ON THE WALL
Scott Marsh is an artist who speaks truth to power through his murals. Now, he’s using his platform to amplify Indigenous stories
Scott Marsh was watching television in June last year when a burning New York Police car with “George” painted on the side blazed across his screen. Marsh understood the image to be representative of not just a single murder, but also of systemic racism.
“It was such a powerful image.
And it summed up the whole situation in the States,” he tells marie claire.
“I wanted to contextualise it for Australia.” His subsequent mural depicted a Redfern Police car spraypainted with the name TJ Hickey, an ode to the 17-year-old Indigenous boy who allegedly died as a result of a police pursuit in 2004.
“I reached out to his mother and spoke to her before I did it and we raised the money for her,” Marsh says. “After investigating [Indigenous] deaths in custody, I was inspired to get bigger with that same symbol.”
Marsh has become one of Australia’s most prominent political artists, renowned for murals that tap into sociopolitical issues. In 2017, as same-sex marriage was being debated, his work Tony loves Tony #voteyes satirised the former prime minister’s anti-gay marriage stance. In 2019, he painted Scott Morrison in a Hawaiian shirt after the Prime Minister faced censure for holidaying while the country faced catastrophic bushfires.
Now, the Sydney-based artist is turning his platform into a mouthpiece for Indigenous stories with his touring exhibition, A Symbol of Pain & Frustration, which tells the story of Indigenous Australians who have died in police custody.
Comprising 10 paintings by Marsh, the exhibition will also feature a short film by Luke Currie-Richardson, and more Indigenous artists will paint the floor at each stop along the tour.
The exhibition is an attempt to keep the spotlight on systemic racism, over-policing and the deaths in custody of First Nations people.
Marsh is determined to do his part to help ensure the stories that deserve our attention get it.
“I’m not Indigenous, so this isn’t my space,” he says. “It’s about being very collaborative and letting other people tell their stories; giving them the opportunity to speak and use my platform to further their message.”
A Symbol of Pain & Frustration will start touring later this year.
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