[Edited 23 September 2023] I re-tagged this 2008 post and photograph under my 2023 AUKUS Chronicles because I can’t really add to it in terms of describing the stunning silencing and political acquiescence of Australians to the AUKUS agreement. Led like children, and in 2023 the Australian Defence Force (ADF) is literally trying to recruit children with nuclear submarine ‘school projects’ to acculturate them into a culture of war (and by default, to train them to distrust the Chinese from childhood).

Original Post:

The ‘silencing effect’ of laws that make being ‘un-Australian’ (or Un-American-Un-British) harder to measure, while increasing the power to detain us indefinitely without sufficient evidence of guilt, creates a real fear of self-expression. It dampens the creativity and honesty in our work. - Carl Gopalkrishnan, 2006 

My photo from the 'Suburban Dreamtime' series, which was part of my 2006 exhibition 'Sedition and Other Bedtime Stories' is featured on the cover of Vancouver arts magazine Front Magazine. Front is an arts organisation in Vancouver that supports experimental work, often challenging the mainstream, and enjoy exploring new ideas. Sold in Canada and the US, the magazine has a large subscriber base internationally.

Front magazine in Canada is featuring a photograph from my "suburban dreamtime" series which I used in my 2006 exhibition Sedition and Other Bedtime Stories at Kieth+Lottie Gallery, Northbridge in Western Australia. The issue's theme is "Envies", and it is one of many themes that runs through the series. Certainly policy-envy was one of them. The process itself began with investigations of Australia's Anti-Terrorism Act 2005, and how to explain this to children. A big thanks to Front curator/editor Andreas Kahre and everyone at Western Front for asking me to contribute to the May/June 2008 issue.