Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Fire power

Australia’s arts czar, Art Gallery of New South Wales director Edmund Capon, has come out in strong support of artist Adam Cullen. The artist is deep in it thanks to the Goulburn police arresting him with a car full of guns of varying caliber and loading abilities which will put him in court on firearm charges this week. He is quite reasonably “very, very scared” as a 14 year prison sentence may be waiting for him at the end of all this. 

Still you can’t say Capon held back. He described Cullen as “deeply thoughtful and committed“ and (maybe pushing it out a bit) “one of the “most acknowledged and recognized contemporary artists” in Australia. A while back Cullen exhibited in New Zealand most notably at Teststrip and Fiat Lux. 

It's probably not a huge help that Cullen counts Chopper Read as a good friend although to balance that off he does have work in Elton John’s collection. Cullen’s defense will be that he was using the guns to make art. We’ll let you know how that plays.
Image: drawing by Adam Cullen