this is not a game

2016

Linocut on Monopoly money and book page from Victory over Blindness by A Pearson, (1920), collage ongame-board produced from original linocut on Timor Sea Oil and Gas Map-Department of Mines and Petroleum W.A. (2012).Monopoly game pieces, hand mirror, cardboard, silver Timorese coin holder and Timor-Leste coins, matchbox, cotton yarn

Storage box – linocut on paper, cardboard, vintage wooden box, split pins, foam core, handmade Timorese tais, fasteners

After my first visit to Timor-Leste in 2012, I returned to Australia with the unsettling fear that whilst oil and gas in the Timor Sea was the answer to Timor-Leste’s economic future, my country had control of the map. Since then, the political tug of war has escalated, with billions of dollars at stake. Australia has played every economic advantage. Betrayal, bullying and bad behavior have been our currency. Bankruptcy continues to be Timor-Leste’s pending reality.