Danie Mellor: Exotic Lies Sacred Ties – review

Culture Warriors 2008

Exotic Lies Sacred Ties, a 12-year survey of artist Danie Mellor’s practice at the University of Queensland Art Museum, deals with the ongoing legacies of colonialism. More charmer than pretender, Mellor’s art disarms the viewer with glamour and beauty while probing the flaws in our accepted view of history.

Mellor, a Queenslander by birth, has European and Aboriginal ancestry. The artist is descendant on his mother’s side from the Mamu, Ngagen and Jirrbal peoples of the Atherton Tablelands in far north Queensland. Andrew Bolt infamously debated Mellor’s (and others) Aboriginal “authenticity” five years ago – arguing that Mellor should not have won the 26th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award for his work as it demonstrated “no real Aboriginal techniques or traditions”.

Read the full article here: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jan/22/danie-mellor-exotic-lies-sacred-ties-review