Brook Andrew: Jumping Castle War Memorial
Jumping Castle War Memorial 2010
PVC vinyl
Courtesy of the artist, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne, DETACHED, Hobart and UQ Art Museum, Brisbane
18 September – 17 October 2010
Brook Andrew’s Jumping Castle War Memorial presents a puzzle: as a full-size inflatable ‘bouncy’ castle it offers fun and laughs and an immersive experience, but as a self-titled war memorial it suggests solemnity and reflection.
A monumental black figure stands proud atop the Wiradjuri patterns, while skulls dangle like Halloween toys within the plastic ‘windows’ of the castle turrets. The dizzying ‘mix of pop and Wiradjuri-op’, as Anthony Gardner describes Andrew’s patterns, stamps its identity on this fairground symbol of European wealth and power. Andrew offers a contemporary war memorial for the Indigenous people who died after European settlement. His work may also suggest the ‘bounce’ of debate and the verbal jousting of the ‘history wars’. Questions are posed to the viewer – what would it mean to jump on this heritage, this site of commemoration?*
Jumping Castle War Memorial was commissioned by DETACHED, Hobart and UQ Art Museum, in association with Urban Art Projects, and featured in the 17th Biennale of Sydney.