All Mixed Up is a major solo exhibition featuring newly commissioned paintings, sculpture and installation from John Prince Siddon.
A Walmajarri man based in Fitzroy Crossing in the West Kimberley, Prince spent his early years working on cattle stations until losing a leg in a riding accident. His art combines diverse influences drawn from television, the traditional Kimberley craft of boab nut carving, desert iconography and the epic characters of the Narrangkarni (Dreamtime).
Surreal and kaleidoscopic at first glance, these works offer an incisive commentary on the political and social issues of today, and on Western Australia’s dark and mostly undocumented history.
All Mixed Up is curated by Emilia Galatis and presented in association with Perth Festival in collaboration with Mangkaja Arts.
“The Festival’s stand-out exhibition is by an indigenous artist but anyone who imagines Aboriginal painting as a matter of ochres, dots and symbols is going to be blown away by John Prince Siddon’s All Mixed Up at Fremantle Arts Centre. Siddon is a Walmajarri man who lives in the remote township of Fitzroy Crossing, but his style of painting and sculpture is eclectic, gothic, psychedelic.
I’m regularly surprised by new developments in indigenous art, but in this instance I was staggered.” – John McDonald, Sydney Morning Herald