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Rollergirl 2004

Artwork Rollergirl this artwork made of Single-channel SD video: 2:48 minutes, colour, sound, looped, created in 2004-01-01
Accession No.
2020.140
Date Created
2004
Gallery location
Not on public display
Department
Pacific Art
Edition
ed. 1/6
Media Category
Electronic media
Secondary Media Category
SD video
Medium
Single-channel SD video: 2:48 minutes, colour, sound, looped
Place Created
Melbourne and Sydney, Australia; Yogyakarta, Indonesia Australia
Credit Line
Purchased 2020 with funds from the Bequest of Jennifer Taylor through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation

Rollergirl presents the artist fitted out in rollerskates and costume jewellery, with a teased afro, suggestively sucking on an ice lolly to 80s-style electronic disco music. Behind her, the green screen displays videos of phallic-shaped rockets launching and tanks approaching. One of the most overtly feminist and political of Tawale’s works, Rollergirl speaks to the construction of Pacific Islander women and islands as sites of colonial, militarised penetration. The final scenes — the artist slowing down and turning to watch the drama unfolding behind her — also hint at the complex situation diasporic Islanders inhabit, navigating their position as both witness to and subject of the violence being perpetrated.
 

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© Salote Tawale

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Stories featuring this object

A photograph of a person in a swimming pool, drinking from blue cans of Pocari Sweat

Salote Tawale: ‘sis’

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EXPANDED LABEL: 2020.140 TAWALE

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Exhibitions featuring this object

Rosanna Raymond performs within ’sis: Pacific Art 1980–2023’, pictured here with works by Jaki-ed weavers, GOMA, August 2023 / Collection: QAGOMA / © The artists / Photograph: C Callistemon, QAGOMA

‘sis: Pacific Art 1980–2023’

Aug 2023 - Sep 2024

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