The large-scale installation Blind Ned was first seen as part of Perspecta 1999 and featured two stuffed kangaroos and a wall-scaled video projection that resembled old, scratchy film stock. The video presented a blind Ned Kelly character stumbling through the bush, a pathetic mythical figure estranged from his natural context with various national animal symbols of Australia scattered about, stuffed and motionless. This dysfunctional ensemble was viewed beyond a white picket fence, which demarcated a domestic, settled space, as if seen from one’s own front yard or looking into somebody else’s. Kreckler brough these celebrated motifs into intriguing, elliptical relation to reflect on the settlement of Australia, the cultural myths which attended settlement (bushrangers, aberrant fauna) and ultimately the environmental sustainability of introduced or colonial culture.
Publication
Blind Ned
