Tony Schwensen [australia]
‘Legacy’ (Biscuits, Boats and Bayonets)
Sun. 7th Dec. 2008
duration performance 14.00 - 19.00 • closing action 18.00 - 19.00

It is said that the enduring legacy of British colonialism worldwide is snobbocracy, bureaucracy and racism. Nor is it difficult to discern evidence of this in any post British colonial situation. Australia certainly is redolent in all three unfortunate and unnecessary characteristics.
Schwensen’s performance/installation ‘Legacy (Biscuits, Boats and Bayonets)’ proposes to critically examine Australian soldiers’ involvement in instigating race rioting in Cardiff in 1919, by interrogating a place and context that itself is still impacted severely by post-colonial attitudes on multiple levels.
Objects and practices specific to Australia will be relocated, recontextualised performed and installed within the work.&n bsp; Moving between the renovated dockside of Cardiff Bay to Trace and back again, the performance will move through the affected spaces and communities, an abstract and abject apology to the descendents of the Cardiff migrant community will occur.
‘Legacy (Biscuits, Boats and Bayonets)’ is informed at least in part by one of the most significant moments in recent Australian history, with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivering an apology, albeit one long overdue, to the indigenous people of Australia.
In Rudd’s words, “It is time to recognise the injustices of the past. It is time to say sorry. It is time to move forward together.”

Born Sydney 1970, Tony Schwensen is one of Australia’s foremost interdisciplinary artist. Recent investigations have centered on performance and its mediation through technology including web casts and video. He has maintained an active participation in contemporary art practice since 1988, regularly exhibiting nationally and internationally, been directly involved with establishing and running artist run initiatives, hosting international artists, providing exhibition opportunities and maintaining archives of documentation.
He completed his PhD in Visual Arts at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, recently completed a residency in Paris at the Power Studio at the Cite International des Arts and has taken up a teaching position in Performance at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from January 2008.
Solo and group proj ects in 2008 include Raw Power Studio, Uplands Gallery Melbourne, Contaminate 3, Boston, USA, Revolutions: Forms that Turn, Biennale of Sydney , Asiatopia 10, Bangkok, Thailand
Tony Schwensen currently lives and works in Boston, USA and is represented by Uplands Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.

8th - 28th Dec. 2008
installation exhibition
[view by appointment]