The multicultural artist as citizen (original) (raw)

This chapter examines the provisional politics of the multicultural artist. It describes the governmental context in which 'multicultural art' has emerged in Australia, and analyses the experiences of a number of multicultural artists, highlighting the relationship of mutual dependence and affirmation they have with the organisation, Multicultural Arts Victoria. Critiques of the politics of multicultural display and consumption might regard this relationship a problematic one, but it is argued that multicultural artists are able to leverage this relationship in strategic ways, and accrue contingent forms of power. The artists negotiate relations of difference through personal projects of art-and self-making. These in turn highlight how the work of such arts organisations might reconfigure the boundaries between art worlds, and enable citizens to move between these.