This/That NAAG CANBERRA Pic B Atkins69
National Australian Appropriation Gallery
Portrait supplied by the Office of Curatorial Visibility. All jewellery consultant-approved.
A word from our esteemed Art Director
Chief Curator and Executive Director of Cultural Recontextualisation Pronouns: This/That
“Please refer to me as ‘This’ when I’m present and ‘That’ when I’m elsewhere.”
Welcome to the National Australian Appropriation Gallery, Canberra.
As the person responsible for both our artistic direction and the increasingly lengthy emails about it, I am
delighted to introduce The Official Wearable Exhibition Range.
My curatorial practice centres on challenging assumptions, unsettling conventions and positioning myself
beside important artworks whenever a photographer enters the building.
At NAAG, we believe art should provoke questions. Questions such as: Who approved this? Is that Pauline?
And can they actually put that on a T-shirt?
These are complex matters. We have appointed a committee.
In the meantime, I invite you to explore our collection with an open mind, a generous interpretation of artistic
merit and your preferred payment method.
NAAG CANBERRA | NATIONAL AUSTRALIAN APPROPRIATION GALLERY
NAAG CANBERRA • 2
NAAG CANBERRA
National Australian Appropriation Gallery
The Official Wearable Exhibition Range
CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE. CURATORIALLY UNACCOUNTABLE.
Welcome to NAAG, where Australia’s artistic heritage is respectfully reimagined until its original creators
would require counselling.
Our exhibition range interrogates the intersection of identity, belonging, institutional funding and whether
anyone on the acquisitions committee has actually looked at the pictures.
These are not merely T-shirts.
They are wearable sites of contested meaning, facilitating difficult conversations between the wearer, the
viewer and the manager who has just been asked to remove you from the café.
Appropriation is a process. Ours has sleeves.
Through an internationally unnecessary programme of visual interventions, NAAG brings familiar masterpieces
into dialogue with contemporary Australia.
Marilyn undergoes a culturally responsive wardrobe consultation. Ned Kelly participates in an expanded
community engagement framework. Pauline occupies multiple chromatic identities simultaneously, reducing
the administrative burden of exhibiting her separately.
Each work challenges the colonial assumption that an artist should have the final say in what their painting
looks like.
Our commitment to radical inclusion
NAAG recognises all perspectives, provided they have been submitted through the appropriate portal and do
not undermine the perspective we have already approved.
Our garments embrace diverse bodies through an intersectional sizing framework previously known as Small,
Medium, Large and Extra Large.
Every sleeve provides an equitable opportunity for an arm.
Every neckline invites the wearer to bring their whole self, subject to head circumference.
Our black T-shirts create a safe space for every colour. Except beige, which remains under ethical review.
NAAG CANBERRA | NATIONAL AUSTRALIAN APPROPRIATION GALLERY
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A responsible approach to offence
Some visitors may experience discomfort, confusion, involuntary laughter or an urgent desire to contact the
Minister.
These responses form an essential part of the work.
Please understand that being offended does not mean you have been excluded. It means you have successfully
entered the exhibition.
NAAG maintains a dedicated Listening Framework. This should not be confused with an intention to change
anything.
Take the exhibition home
By purchasing from the NAAG Canberra range, you become an active participant in the redistribution of
cultural authority from publicly funded institutions to a bloke wearing a shirt at Bunnings.
Wear it thoughtfully. Discuss it respectfully. Explain it at considerable length to someone who only asked
where you bought it.
NAAG CANBERRA
National Australian Appropriation Gallery
We acknowledge the original artists, whose permission would have complicated the curatorial process.
AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF ALMOST EVERYTHING
Oh, and before you leave, NAAG wishes to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we
print, the original custodians of the art we have appropriated, and the custodians of the printer, who would
appreciate us paying the invoice.
We extend this acknowledgement to First Nations peoples, shipwrecked Dutch and Portuguese sailors,
convicts, free settlers, British overlords, reluctant colonisers, enthusiastic republicans, assisted migrants,
unassisted migrants, and anyone whose ancestors arrived without completing the current paperwork.
We recognise elders past, present and emerging; artists living, deceased and presently consulting a solicitor;
and the unpaid intern who wrote this statement under considerable emotional supervision.
We further acknowledge the land beneath the gallery, the country beneath the cotton, the waters crossed by
the shipping container, and the complex lived experience of the bloke delivering the shirts.
Any person, people, empire, expedition or historically significant boat omitted from this acknowledgement
may apply for inclusion during the next consultation period.
Sovereignty was never ceded. Neither was the copyright, apparently.
This acknowledgement has been approved by the NAAG Committee for Acknowledging the Work of the
Acknowledgement Committee.
Thank you. You may now buy a T-shirt.
