Sedition Exhibition Review

I attended the Sedition: The Art of Agitation exhibition at the NSW State Library, wondering if I’d seen any of the posters exhibited at the time they were actually plastered on the walls of Sydney’s inner city. The posters were created by Sydney’s underground artists and activists during the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

The Rich Who Run Australia c1973 – The International Socialists of Australia, Sydney

This is the poster greeting library attendees and staff on the stairs of the Library’s Macquarie Street building foyer on the way up to the exhibition galleries.

The Sedition exhibition was on display in the Amaze Gallery, a dark space with sparse downlighting, perhaps to protect the exhibits from deterioration. Conclaves of library employees strode through the black oblong space as if on important business, while suited security guards walked their beats, as if trying to keep their minds occupied and alert to detect the first signs of trouble. I suspected they’d grown immune to the seditious posters on display. Two young men examined a couple of posters, but they left just as I arrived. I wondered if they were in search of inspiration for their own political posters.

Mitchell Library Reading Room, NSW State Library

Whenever I come to the Amaze Gallery, I’m amazed by this framed view of the Mitchell Library Reading Room. It’s like a portal into the past. When I first went to the Reading Room in the 1980s, members of the public were allowed to freely roam the different levels of shelving and discover interesting books at random. Now you have to request all books you want to peruse from library staff.

Do You Get Hassled Because You’re Different, 1983 – Leanne Clerke with Ali Halil, Garage Graphix Community Arts Group

Some of the names in this poster are different now, but unfortunately, the sentiment is still the same.

20th Century Child Abuse, 1986 – artist unknown, Garage Graphix Community Arts Group

I’m not sure how far in the future this is set, but unfortunately child abuse isn’t ancient history yet, although we may end up living in the stars if the planet is destroyed due to climate change.

When travelling on trains and arriving at stations closer to the city, I always enjoyed looking out for advertising billboards that had been BUGA-UPed.

I remember hoardings around construction sites printed with the slogan Bill Posters Will Be Prosecuted. Underneath would be graffitied the words If You Can Catch him. Apparently he never was.

The black walls of the Amaze Gallery and the fluoro posters reminded me of the interiors of 1980s pubs where underground bands would play, except that the posters adorning the pub walls advertised the bands, not potentially seditious ideas.

During the 1980s, I had a couple of dreams where I hit the streets of Sydney’s inner suburb of Chippendale at night with friends and we sticky-taped posters up on telegraph poles, an activity I never performed in real life. I no longer remember what the dream posters were for. It’s possible there was no subject to remember.

The State Library intends to collect modern political posters. These are a couple I’ve seen in the Sydney suburb of Canterbury. I wonder if the Library already has them in their collection.

Out of all the posters on display in the Sedition exhibition, this is the only one I think I may have seen. Although I could be imagining it.

No Cuts In Education Health & Welfare, 1981 – artist unknown, Possum Poster Collective

Time passes, but some things remain the same.