One Love

One Love

Peter Robinson

The grunty hoardings that comprise Peter Robinson's confrontational installation One Love betray a variety of contradictory racist sentiments and cultural paranoias.

On a backdrop, Australia is cast as Big Brother emblazoned with a swastika, while freestanding panels instruct "DIE AUSTRALIEN", "DIE ABORIGINE", "DIE MAORI", "DIE PAKEHA", "FISH + CHIPS", "WHITES HAVE RIGHTS TOO"... There are sculptures of an ill-conceived Maori spiral, a swastika, a dollar sign, an exclamation mark, a fist, a hand tattooed with the word love rudely extending one finger... Riddled with bogan imperatives, One Love sits awkwardly in gallery spaces which normally foster cultural sensitivity and high-minded discourse.

One Love was tailor-made for the multi-cultural Australian audience, being created as Robinson's contribution to the first Seppelt Art Award exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, late last year. Robinson was one of five artists selected for this premier Australasian art award.

Intriguingly, at this moment, when the new Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa, offers a sanitised, feel-good view of our place "for all New Zealanders", the abrasive Peter Robinson has become the New Zealand artist most requested internationally, with recent outings in Frankfurt, Aachen, Graz, Sao Paulo and Johannesburg. Artspace is proud to present the work of this cultural ambassador, on its return home.

One Love is presented courtesy of Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington, and with thanks to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.