Opening of the Brain Injury exhibition at the Manning Regional Art Gallery
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CreativityTranscript
00:00 came to us through Cynthia Burke, the curator of the show.
00:03 Cynthia has a big passion for this,
00:07 and this is a conversation that she wants us all to have.
00:10 It's something that, it's an exhibition that explores
00:15 how the artists see the world after brain injury.
00:19 The featured artists are Cynthia Burke,
00:21 Jen Burns, Jamie Dadot, Peter Davidson,
00:27 Gillian Oliver, Scott Pollock, and Mark Whale.
00:31 It is so fantastic to meet them all.
00:35 I was privileged to meet most of the artists yesterday,
00:38 and to hear their stories and to hear their journey.
00:41 They're all very different journeys,
00:43 and that's what I think is actually
00:45 one of the real successes of it,
00:47 is that there are so many different people
00:49 affected by brain injury.
00:51 And it's a silent, it's almost a silent disease,
00:56 a brain disease injury where you don't know
01:01 that somebody has it until you have that conversation
01:05 with them or know their past or know their history.
01:07 We're very privileged to have Peter Rutherford
01:12 officially open the exhibition,
01:14 so I'd like Peter to come forward and say a few words.
01:19 Where, where, Peter's right, cool.
01:21 So come and say a few words, please.
01:25 (papers rustling)
01:28 - Hi, ladies and gentlemen.
01:31 I suppose to put it in perspective to where I fit in.
01:36 So I was in the Defense Force for nearly 30 years,
01:39 and on my last tour of Afghanistan,
01:41 I was in a helicopter crash on the 21st of June, 2010.
01:45 Out of that crash, I broke most of the major bones
01:48 in my body, had significant damage to my organs as well,
01:53 but I was left with a frontal lobe bleed.
01:55 So whilst I was trying to recover from the injury,
01:58 I was trying to understand it.
01:59 For a long time, I actually thought I was dead
02:02 and I was in hell.
02:03 So I couldn't, you know,
02:04 the injuries were part of being in hell.
02:06 So it was an interesting evolution
02:08 with learning about myself
02:10 and where I fit into the world.
02:12 So it was really quite an honor to be asked
02:14 to be involved in this today,
02:16 and I'll explain a few things as I go along a bit later.
02:19 There'll only be a couple of minutes.
02:21 But first, like all things,
02:23 I've got a bit of a story to tell.
02:25 So after I got wounded,
02:26 there was a lot of media interest
02:28 in my particular injury and my rehabilitation
02:32 because of the amount of injuries I had
02:34 and with the brain injury.
02:36 And I was starting to sort of make a bit of a name
02:39 for myself in the adaptive sport environment
02:41 and competing overseas.
02:43 And I was reached out to by Ben Quilley.
02:46 So Ben Quilley had wanted to paint me
02:50 and had asked the Australian Defence Force
02:51 if I would be a part of this exhibition.
02:54 So they flew me over.
02:55 I was living in WA.
02:57 I flew over to Sydney.
02:59 They picked me up and took me to Robinson.
03:01 I went up to Robinson and I spent some time with Ben
03:04 and it was creepy as hell.
03:05 (audience laughing)
03:06 So if you've ever been to Ben's gallery up there,
03:11 we walk in, Ben's a fantastic guy.
03:13 And he says to me, "Okay, Pete, you know,
03:15 "like this is the gallery,
03:16 "you know, this is where I do my painting,
03:17 "this is where these are,
03:18 "these are my scrappy vehicles and all this sort of stuff."
03:20 And he goes, "Okay, buddy, what I want you to do
03:22 "is I want you to look up at the top there,
03:23 "you know, just look there, take all your clothes off,
03:27 "just hold your stick and look over there for me."
03:30 And I have this look and I'm like, "What?"
03:32 (audience laughing)
03:33 "You want me to tackle out?"
03:34 And he's like, "Yeah."
03:34 (audience laughing)
03:36 And then there's all these other pictures.
03:38 There was six other people that painted.
03:41 One of the ladies, she had her brace out
03:42 and all that sort of stuff.
03:43 And I knew her and I'm like, "That's different."
03:45 (audience laughing)
03:46 And then one of the guys who was there
03:48 was actually one of the soldiers I served in Afghanistan.
03:50 A really good friend of mine.
03:51 And he's on his back and he tackles out as well.
03:54 (audience laughing)
03:55 And 'cause I'm like, "Oh, this is getting a bit weird now."
03:58 So I've done it on the phone with my mate
03:59 and I said, "What's the crack?"
04:00 You know, like you tackle out in the picture.
04:02 You know, like, "Did you lay there for hours
04:04 "while Ben looked at your doodle?"
04:05 (audience laughing)
04:06 You know, and he's going, "Oh man, do you remember
04:07 "when we were in Afghanistan and, you know,
04:09 "we had the Taliban up firing and we were behind
04:11 "this big log and everybody's shooting over the top of us?"
04:14 And I'm like, "Yeah, but I'm sure you were dressed, eh?"
04:16 (audience laughing)
04:19 So I said to Ben, you know, "Last time I thought,
04:20 "you know, all the protagonists in war wore clothes.
04:22 "I thought I was going to wear all this army stuff
04:24 "and, you know, do this really cool Afghan stuff.
04:26 "I didn't realise it was tackled out."
04:28 So what I did, I compromised, I wore shorts.
04:31 'Cause Ben wanted to show the scars across my body.
04:34 Unfortunately, or fortunately, my body is littered
04:36 with scars across my back and my legs
04:38 and everything like that.
04:40 And I have a significant hole in my leg
04:41 from my rifle on impact, so I had to cut through my leg
04:45 and put a hole through my leg.
04:46 It's a cool scar, it looks like sharks, doesn't it?
04:48 So we don't attack all of them.
04:49 My kids love to stick their finger in the hole.
04:51 (audience laughing)
04:53 So that was my introduction to art.
04:55 So Ben painted me and I got to go all around Australia.
04:58 We look at something, we take so much pleasure
04:59 in looking at a painting, looking at water,
05:02 looking at anything.
05:03 You know, there's so much pleasure.
05:04 When you have a brain injury,
05:06 you see the world very, very differently.
05:08 You know, you hate more, you love more, you taste more,
05:11 everything you do is more,
05:12 and you're trying to co-locate those feelings
05:14 into trying to explain it to someone.
05:18 It's weird, and art gives an opportunity
05:21 for you to really bring out what is inside your headspace.
05:24 You know, in all those crazy directions I've went.
05:26 And without me going too long,
05:28 so when I was in a hospital bed, I was in Westmead,
05:31 I went from Germany in a hospital,
05:33 then I went to Westmead, then I went to a military hospital,
05:35 then I went to another hospital in WA
05:37 over a period of time.
05:38 The one constant in my life was to wake up
05:40 and look at a wall, a white wall, up all the time.
05:44 And that's all I ever did.
05:45 There was nothing else in there.
05:47 And it's funny how you can look,
05:50 when you have a brain injury,
05:51 you can look at an object and see something different in it
05:54 every time you see it.
05:55 You know, those dots, they would align
05:57 to make them look like clouds,
05:58 or look like a kangaroo, or look like something.
06:00 And it was amazing, and in the end,
06:02 I actually started to appreciate
06:04 how my mind was so different,
06:06 and how I was seeing the world around me
06:08 when I was really looking at nothing.
06:10 So I suppose what I really want to bring to it,
06:12 when you have an artist who has a brain injury
06:15 and creates something so beautiful,
06:17 if, so I wrote this down before,
06:19 and this, I wish it was mine, but it wasn't.
06:22 You know, somebody sent this back to me in time,
06:24 and it really resonated with me,
06:26 that I see art as a coalition of feelings and emotions
06:30 to produce an effect.
06:32 So when I sat down and I really thought about that,
06:35 what does art bring to me?
06:36 I am not an artist.
06:37 I cannot paint, I cannot draw.
06:39 You know, I see things, I think, differently,
06:42 which I think is an art and a beauty in itself,
06:44 but I cannot create what you create,
06:47 but I can appreciate what you create,
06:49 and I can see the depth and the knowledge
06:51 and the passion, which brings me so much joy.
06:54 When I see it in the really strange shit
06:57 that happens inside my headspace,
07:00 I love it so much more, and I feel the passion in it.
07:02 So that's what makes art enduring and lovely and fantastic.
07:06 And I think that when you walk through in there,
07:09 you know, and you see those different expressions of art,
07:11 and the different injuries that accumulated
07:14 to what was put on the wall in there,
07:16 it makes it so beautiful.
07:18 So with that, I would really like to say a big thank you
07:23 to the gallery staff, particularly Rachel and Jane,
07:27 and all of the volunteers.
07:29 And the really big one is,
07:30 we always forget our volunteers these days.
07:32 Every time we try to do something.
07:34 So I'm an ambassador right across
07:35 different platforms in this country.
07:37 Now, there's so many different organisations,
07:40 you can never find a volunteer.
07:42 Right, they are becoming so hard
07:43 because time is the most precious thing we have.
07:45 So make sure that we recognise our volunteers.
07:48 Yeah, our volunteers.
07:50 Yes, very much so.
07:51 I was gonna clap, but I'm almost done.
07:52 (audience laughing)
07:54 But yeah, really appreciate those people,
07:57 and especially the volunteers.
07:58 We can never say enough about the people
08:00 who give their time up for others.
08:02 Also, the artists themselves,
08:05 for embracing the concept so well,
08:09 and the enthusiasm, and their willingness
08:11 to share personal stories.
08:13 When you have a brain injury,
08:14 it is received in so many different ways.
08:17 Some people are great, they're so accepting,
08:20 they're interested in the story,
08:21 and other people aren't these days.
08:23 All you gotta do is open your social media
08:25 and find the left and right of arc is so crazy.
08:28 So amazing thing for the people
08:30 to give up their stories, and the lovely stories,
08:32 and in some states, tragic stories around.
08:35 So Catherine, a huge well done for backing up
08:40 Cynthia's vision of the exhibition,
08:45 and making it happen, bringing it into reality.
08:48 Also, while I'm at it, there's a number of people
08:50 that need, or people and SLAM organisations.
08:52 What have we got?
08:57 We've got Barrier Signs, Daniel Roberts,
09:01 Friends of the Manning Art Gallery,
09:04 or Regional Art Gallery, the retreat I'm staying at,
09:07 by the way, if there's anybody there,
09:08 absolutely amazing, great.
09:11 Nanda, Nandu Bar, sorry.
09:14 - Nundu Bar.
09:14 - Nundu Bar.
09:15 (audience laughing)
09:16 I was having a pita moment, and I was really,
09:18 I didn't wanna get that one wrong.
09:19 We haven't stayed there, seriously,
09:21 we've stayed there, that was amazing.
09:23 The Tari Artist Inc., and also Helga Visser,
09:28 hope I got that right, darling, and Yvette Ugal.
09:33 Right, so there's just a big thank you for them,
09:35 and passing on all those thanks.
09:37 And I suppose lastly on that,
09:40 I hope everybody really enjoys the art as much as I have.
09:43 I hope that it continues on for the next two months,
09:46 you know, hundreds of people coming through
09:48 to really appreciate what's done here,
09:50 and an amazing thing to Tari, who I have,
09:53 my kids were both christened here,
09:54 my family, my wife's family come from here,
09:57 so it's a beautiful place, and I'm really appreciative
10:00 that you guys have had me,
10:01 and asked me to come here for that.
10:02 Thank you.
10:03 (coughing)
10:06 (laughing)
10:08 [BLANK_AUDIO]