Celebrating creativity

Noted Australian artist and University alum Peter Drew, famed for his AUSSIE series of posters, shares his views on art as he creates a new poster for Lumen featuring one of our 19th century University pioneers.

I decided some time ago that I’d never design posters for anyone but myself. After the AUSSIE poster campaign in 2016 I was approached by several brands, but it never went far. Often, they were looking for a shallow derivative of my popular work and I wasn’t in a hurry to dilute the style I’d worked so hard to establish. So, when Lumen editor Mark Douglas got in touch with an idea for a poster, I was prepared to disappoint him. Then I saw the image of Edith Emily Dornwell from 1885 and immediately got excited. 

It helped that Edith was the University’s first female graduate and the first woman in Australia to graduate with a science degree, but mostly I was taken in by the image itself. I’ve been working with archival portraits for many years, long enough to realise that 90 per cent of my job as an artist is to simply amplify the power that is already present in the photograph. For most artists there’s a temptation to inject themselves into their work but my job is to stay out of the way. 

Archival photos are completely unlike today’s images. They convey a dignity and authority that’s very difficult to reproduce. Many contemporary photographers have tried but they rarely get it right. Even if they nail the formal qualities, which photography inherited from classical portraiture painting, they never quite capture the neutral gaze of the subject. 

Put a contemporary person in front of a camera and, on some level, they start to perform. As a result, they display a self-consciousness that’s absent in archival photos. Edith’s gaze is unburdened by a culture that demands she constantly boost her online identity. She’s never taken a selfie in her life. It’s as if she isn’t thinking about the photograph at all. She’s probably got better things to think about. Where we look hungry for attention, Edith is calm, dignified and powerful. 

Of course, the look in Edith’s eye is also a performance and there’s a trade-off to her display of formal dignity; her lack of individual expression. But, to my 21st century eyes, Edith’s made a good bargain. After all, isn’t it the point of higher education to improve upon our collective understanding of the world, regardless of self-expression? 

But today’s culture is addicted to self-expression. We live in its glut. All around us we see the ugly pollution of excessive self-expression. For contrast, look at Edith. Doesn’t she look impressive? Don’t you wish you could look half as serious a person as she does? Isn’t she a relief? 

Another temptation artists face is the urge to over explain their work. I’ve found the opposite approach is more powerful. The success of my posters is partly due to their unwillingness to explain themselves. In this way they are designed to irritate, by offering just enough information to leave a question in the mind of passersby. 

Occasionally I receive emails from well-meaning academics who suggest that I add a QR code to my posters so people can find out ‘all the facts’. It’s generally an older person who’s still labouring under the assumption that knowledge pivots around ‘access to information’. They’re not wrong. It’s just that they’re accustomed to the university environment where a captive audience of students are incentivised to pay attention. My posters are made for the street where you’re lucky to be noticed at all. 

Besides, art isn’t about getting ‘all the facts’. On the contrary, it’s about making space for our imagination to play, so we can identify with one another and form bonds of empathy. 

We don’t identify with Edith based on reason or facts. It’s not a choice but an aesthetic experience. We see her image and somewhere inside our imagination we say ‘that’s me, I’m her’ and, for a moment, the boundaries between us fall away. When art can do that, why degrade its purpose to the mere transmission of facts? 

Every day we’re sprayed with unwanted information posing as facts. It’s not just the quantity of information but the constant conflict of competing narratives. Against this onslaught of aggravated ‘facts’ we build walls to protect our sanity. But therein lies the danger because we also wall ourselves in, cutting off our avenue for empathy, and then we’re trapped. 

Which brings me to the greatest temptation artists face today: the temptation to take sides in the war of facts and reduce their art to a weapon. It’s tempting because ‘culture war’ is what so many people seem to want, and it’s become a cheap and easy way to get attention. Personally, I think the trick is to exploit that energy without being captured by the crushing dumbness of it all. Generally, it’s worth the risk because art can sometimes pull people out of that world, whereas argumentation only fuels the conflict. 

I should say a few final things about my posters: I print them by hand and stick them up myself. So, if you see one on the street you know that I put it there personally. I use black acrylic paint on brown Kraft paper and apply the colour with acrylic ink and a brush. 

There are certainly easier ways to produce posters, but I enjoy the hand-crafted quality of my process. It’s also simple enough that I can produce the quantities required for a national campaign. 

Most importantly, doing it all myself means I’m not answerable to anyone. The alternative of pleading, waiting and negotiating for an opportunity to exhibit my work would be difficult to bear. That’s why I rarely accept commissions. In this case the image was too good to pass up and I was also excited to revisit my personal connection to the University of Adelaide for the pivotal role it’s played in my life. 

Written by Peter Drew

Photography by Isaac Freeman, Photographic editor for Lumen

Peter Drew is an Australian artist and a graduate of the University of Adelaide (2007 BA Philosophy and Psychology, 2012 Grad Dip Art History) and the Glasgow School of Art. His work has been exhibited at major arts institutions around Australia and is featured in the University of Adelaide collection. 

His most prominent works are installed on city streets. He is best known for his AUSSIE poster series.

You can view Peter talking about his creative process as he works in his studio here.