Thank you all for coming to Merchants of War. Especially
thanks to the contributing artists and Damien Minton who has been pivotal to
this show.
The focus of the exhibition is on the international
corporations and middlemen – private and government, who foster and profit from
the international trade in arms – from light weapons such as the iconic AK47
through to the new wave of technology driven weapons epitomised by the Drone.
These men and women in grey suits with neat suburban lives
far removed from their victims are real perpetrators of war and the natural
opponents of negotiated settlement.
War is fuelled by global economic imperatives. Countries far
removed from the zone of conflict are profiting every minute of every day from
the arms trade. Their victims grow exponentially.
Their blood money powers the growth of first world companies
and economies.
This exhibition was borne from a commitment to community in
the widest sense and fuelled by the anger at the sheer wrongness of a world
where negotiated settlement is held to ransom by the merchants of war and
frustration at the duplicity and inertia of our political leaders to come to
the table on an Arms Trade Treaty.
Merchants of War is also about the more intimate community
we inhabit as friends and colleagues who have come together to both pay tribute
to Michael and his artistic and political legacy and in solidarity, to continue
the tradition of politicised art practise.
This was to be Michael’s last exhibition – he had a number
of works in progress. The night before he died, he said he didn’t know if he
had enough strength to get the work done. My reply was all we can do is try and
thanks to you all we have succeeded.
Michael’s practise was collective in nature.
The AK47 sculpture could not have been realised without:
Greg
McLachlan’s fine computer rendering in dissecting the connecting layers,
OR
Greg
Page’s considerable carpentry skills in assembling the gun.
As Greg McLachlan commented, Michael always surrounded
himself with artisans – the AK47 is as much a product of their skills as of
Michael’s vision.
This exhibition in its entirety is testament to the power of
collective practise.
On Michael’s behalf thank you and congratulations on a fine
body of work.
Michael’s website is to be relaunched with the poster
archive available for sale and viewing through the site. The profits from the
sale and from this exhibition received by the estate will be held in a trust in
Michael’s name and over time will hopefully, in a modest way, fund a travelling
art scholarship amongst other things.
