Van Thanh Rudd

Van Thanh Rudd (born 1973)^[1] is an award winning and controversial Australian street artist, sculptor, children's book illustrator, former musician and unionist. ^[2] He has balanced his twenty year artistic career with labouring jobs in hospitality, warehousing and construction. His political views have drifted toward the revolutionary left since the early 2000s, away from the centrist Australian Labor Party, the party of choice for the Rudd side of the family. He knows very little about his mother's Vietnamese side of the family, most of whom still live in Vietnam. A member of Socialist Alternative^[3] and electoral party, the Victorian Socialists his artworks contain radical left-wing commentary and positions. He is also a member of construction and maritime union, the CFMMEU and the newly forming Workers Art Collective with visual artists Sam Wallman, Tia Kass, Niki Minus, Mary Leunig, Sam Davis, SlimOne, with more members to join in the near future. He often uses the name Van T Rudd or Van as a signature on his art as a visual mockery of the popular Vans clothing company. He is influenced by the theories of Karl Marx, and many other revolutionary activists and artists who have been struggling against the forces of capitalism.

Rudd has been producing art for over twenty years. He was a musician, mostly as a drummer, bass guitarist and keyboardist in bands Cheezlekane (1993 to 2002), Seconds (2001 to 2007) and Granma (2005 to 2006). One of the first protest marches he attended was for Melbourne's public transport workers in 1997 with his younger brother, Rad. Also with his younger brother, he attended the large S11 anti-capitalism protests in 2000 in Melbourne at Crown Casino. In early 2008, preceding the Global Financial Crisis, he joined the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP),^[4] which merged into Socialist Alternative in 2013, and contested the seat of Lalor in the 2010 federal election against Prime Minister Julia Gillard,^[5][6] generating 0.50% of the vote.^[7] Rudd began drawing cartoons at a young age and was largely self-taught. He nearly failed a humanities course in the early 1990s at Griffith University.^[8] After several art exhibitions and playing gigs in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, he eventually went on to study art at the RMIT University and Victorian College of the Arts, where he was elected student union representative with socialists Left Action. He was meant to complete a PhD in fine art at the Victorian College of the Arts but ran out of funding and also became fed up with the post-marxist saturation of theory and practise in art.

Personal life

Rudd was born in Nambour, Queensland,^[9] to Vietnam veteran Malcolm Rudd (the brother of Kevin Rudd) and Tuoi,^[6][10] and now resides in Footscray, Melbourne.^[11] He has an older brother Dat and younger brother Rad. For many of his younger years, he was involved in numerous creative projects with Rad including film making and acting. As a drummer, Rudd joined a Brisbane-based indie pop-rock band called Cheezlekane in the early 1990s with members Patrick Devery (lead vocals), Cameron Peterson (bass guitar) and Nick Stamford (guitar). They played many pub gigs in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne and gained interest from Geffen Records in 1998 due to their first 4-track produced album called Knee High Fidelity. With musician friends Iain Wilson, Ritchie Giliberto and Mark Buggy, Rudd formed the band Seconds with his brother Rad as lead singer. He also was a keyboardist in a band called Stalis Vetch with Rad. He has a partner and experienced youth worker of Chilean heritage, Tania; daughter, Loyola; and son, Manolo. Rudd says that his deeper, leftist political awakening came after meeting his partner, whose family fled Chile after General Augusto Pinochet deposed the elected socialist Salvador Allende and began violently targeting leftists.^[6][12]Tania was an active member of the radical left DSP and campaigned for refugee rights. They formed a band called Granma in 2005 with Tania on drums and her brothers Ricardo on keyboards, Nicolas on Vocals, Simon on guitar and Rudd on Bass and vocals. Rudd decided to leave music in 2007 to focus more upon his visual art.

Finalist in Metro Art Competition (2004)

In 2004 Rudd was selected as a finalist in the 2004 Metro Art Competition with a realist-style artwork depicting a combined version of paintings by Albert Tucker and Jeffery Smart .

The Carriers Project (2004 to 2007) and Controversy

In 2004, as Rudd's paintings became more politicized, he decided that exhibiting his large paintings inside galleries wasn't going to reach large audiences, so he began carrying them in public. He was to call this The Carriers Project. He entered the project in various festivals based in Melbourne including Fringe and later the Big West Festival, and it later culminated in a national tour of Australia through kultour. Some of his paintings depicting 'exploding terrorists' created unease with authorities in Brisbane and Perth. He claims he was adding valuable commentary about the anti-terror laws in Australia. It was a coincidence that, in 2007, while Rudd was in Perth completing his national tour, that his uncle Kevin Rudd was elected Prime Minister of Australia.

Pro-Palestinian Artwork Censored in Footscray (2006)

In 2006, Rudd created an artwork called 'Portrait of an Exploding Terrorist'. It was a combined painting and billboard piece in one. He carried the painting around the streets of Melbourne, while exhibiting a large piece on the public billboard at Trocadero Art Space, Footscray.It wasn't long before the local council demanded the billboard piece be removed, claiming it constituted litter. Gallery director Michael Brennan and Rudd were forced to remove the piece to avoid paying a large fine. The piece was critical of the State of Israel and argued that it inflicted terror upon the Palestinian people.

Hugo Chávez mural (2007)

In 2007 Rudd created an artwork depicting a large mural on a gallery wall at Trocadero Art Space in Footscray with signatories of Australians who supported a visit to the country by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. It was titled "Smells Like Sulphur: A Tribute to Venezuela and the Art of Telling Bush to Piss Off", referencing Chavez' UN General Assembly speech the previous year, when he called former US President George W. Bush "the devil".^[13]

Finalist in Sunshine Coast Art Prize (2007)

In 2007, Rudd submitted an oil painting titled '100 000 to 400 000' to the Sunshine Coast Art Prize. The painting was awarded a second prize and artist Tony Albert won the main prize. The local media tried to whip up controversy around Rudd's painting because it showed a U.S flag burning.

Banksy homage (2008)

In 2008 the City of Melbourne rejected a painting by Rudd depicting Ronald McDonald setting fire to Thích Quảng Đức with the Olympic torch. According to Rudd, the artwork was a homage to British street artist Banksy and a comment on human rights abuses in the run-up to the 2008 Olympic Games. Rudd accused the City of Melbourne of political censorship which they denied, claiming he was solely picked to feature in the Ho Chi Minh City exhibition for his Vietnamese heritage.^[2]

Connex controversy (2009)

In 2009 Rudd made an artwork critical of Connex's parent company Veolia Environnement's light rail contract which is to link Israeli settlements in the West Bank with Jerusalem. The artwork was displayed at Platform Artists Group's public gallery, adjacent to Flinders Street Station, a major train station in Melbourne.^[14] Connex threatened Rudd with legal action over his use of a similar font and colour-scheme to the company's logo and the Anti-Defamation League accused the gallery of racism.^[15] The Electronic Intifada claimed that Rudd's artwork was a boost to the campaign against Connex and Veolia^[16] – a part of the general Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel – whose contract to run Melbourne trains expired in November 2009.^[17]

Used car part from an Afghan civilian car (2009)

IN 2009 Rudd exhibited in Melbourne a used part from an Afghan civilian car, purportedly destroyed by an International Security Assistance Force missile in Southern Afghanistan. It accompanied a price tag of $1.2 billion. Rudd estimated the value based on what he believed was "the astronomical price paid by victims of war". He broke down the multi-trillion dollar US war budget for the Middle East since 2001 and included other variables such as the cost of wounded civilians and soldiers.^[18]

Finalist in Sunshine Coast Art Prize (2009)

In 2009, Rudd was again selected as a finalist in the Sunshine Coast Art Prize for the collage called 'Freedom Furniture' which was critical of the U.S.A's Operation Enduring Freedom by contrasting an image of a U.S marine placing a wounded child of Afghanistan into the sofa of a luxury home in a western lounge room setting from a home wares catalogue.

Anti-racism protest (2010)

On Australia Day 2010, Rudd and RSP member, Sam King, dressed in Ku Klux Klan outfits with the signs "Racism – Made in Australia" in front of the outfits, outside the Rod Laver Arena during the Australian Open to protest the refusal of the Victorian Government to treat the attacks on Indians in Victoria as racially motivated and also the federal government's policies towards asylum seekers.^[6][19] Rudd and King were arrested within 10 minutes and charged with inciting a riot.^[20] Rudd also told the Indian weekly newsmagazine Outlook that the "dominant culture in Australia is a racist culture."^[21][22]

Relationship with Kevin Rudd

In a 2010 interview on 3AW, Kevin Rudd expressed to Neil Mitchell that he was not a fan of his nephew's political views but supported the notion of free speech in Australia, adding, "[you] can choose your friends but...".^[6] According to a member of the RSP, the PM and his nephew are not in regular contact.^[20] In a later 2010 Fairfax radio interview, on the same subject Kevin Rudd stated: "Do I agree in any way with what he's done? No I don't, absolutely."^[6] Rudd was the subject of an episode of ABC program Australian Story, broadcast in August 2010, which reported his uncle had been invited to appear, but declined.^[6][23]

2010 federal election

Rudd contested the seat of Lalor for the House of Representatives in the 2010 federal election against Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard^[5] for the unregistered RSP.^[24] This signals the RSP's failure to generate the 500-member minimum required by the Victorian Electoral Commission to register as an official political party.^[25] He garnered a total of 516 votes, scoring 0.50% of the overall vote, with a +0.50% swing. This placed him as the second least preferred candidate, ahead of regional tourism developer, Marc Aussie-Stone, compared to Gillard as first preference, who garnered 66,060 votes, scoring 64.26% of the overall vote, with a +4.37% swing.^[7] The artist claimed on an ABC radio interview his reason for running in the election was that the appointment of Gillard as PM marked "a more conservative path for Labor" and that she was "influenced by the mining magnates... [and] the conservative unions".^[26]

Artwork Censored from Human Rights Arts Festival (2011)

In 2011, Rudd was asked to submit an artwork for an art exhibition as part of the 2011 Human Rights Arts and Film Festival. He submitted a large canvas that was a celebration of the Arab Spring (2011) on one side, and also a contribution to the BDS campaign on the other. The Arab Spring side showed a cartoon-like body exploding with the words 'I'm not a terrorist, I'm just exploding with joy', and the BDS side showed in cartoon style, pop icon Justine Bieber spray painting graffiti on Israel's separation wall. The graffiti depicted Max Brenner Chocolates as Bieber announced that he wished he didn't play in Israel because he would be complicit in Israel's occupation of Palestine. Max Brenner was targeted by BDS campaigners for its complicity in Israel's occupation of Palestine at around the same period of this art exhibition at No Vacancy Gallery, QV Shopping Centre, Melbourne. But Rudd's artwork was censored before it got installed in the gallery. Rudd claimed the gallery directors confronted him in the gallery saying the artwork was violent. Rudd also took part in the anti-Max Brenner protests in the QV building but avoided being arrested. Several other protesters were arrested but later freed from charges in a landmark victory.

The Rich Forks (1998 to 2018)

One of Rudd's more obscure, mysterious, yet incisive art projects is called the #RichForks. It made news at various outlets around the world. It began over fifteen years ago when Rudd began collecting luxury dinner forks that had just been used by the political and business elites of the world^[27]. As a waiter, he was able to get access to the soiled forks and is alleged to have made networks with other hospitality workers internationally in order to appropriate forks from some of the richest people on earth^{[28][29][30][31][32][33][34]}. Rudd claims the whole project is commentary on the massive class divide between struggling workers and wealthy capitalists. There has only been two exhibitions of the #RichForks - one in Footscray and one in Newcastle, Australia. It is not known whether Rudd will continue with this project into the near future.

Murals for Union Struggles

In 2016, fifty-five Carlton & United Breweries maintenance workers in Abbottsford, Victoria, were sacked then re-employed on individual contracts with an overall 65% wage cut^[35]. When one of the organisers from the Electrical Trades Union made a call-out on social media for a street artist to paint a mural on a shipping container. Rudd jumped at the chance and painted an iconic murals at the site of their nine month protest. One of the murals, painted on the side of a shipping container, shows a large unionist's arm pulling aside the shipping container wall revealing the CUB boss stealing bags of money^[36]. Another shipping container at the Abbottsford site depicted horses appropriated from the CUB logo, only this time they were dying of thirst in drought conditions (i.e. Carlton Drought).^[37]The protest and boycott by the unionists and workers eventually achieved an important victory^[38]. After the #CUB55 protests, the murals were transported to the CFMMEU training centre in Port Melbourne. It wasn't long before they were used again, and transported to the striking workers at the Longford Gas Plant, Gippsland. Similar to the CUB55, about 200 workers were threatened with the sack if they didn't sign up to a different contract on significantly lower wages and conditions^[39]. Rudd also created a new mural for the protest site which showed an Exxon boss atop a gas platform, sinking workers deeper into the water while smoking a cigar from the gas flare^[40]. Rudd has since created a series of murals for the car park of the Electrical Trades Union office in North Melbourne with fellow artist and radical left unionist Azlan McLennan. In 2017, he also created a large mural commemorating the CUB55 victory in the car park at Victorian Trades Hall^[41]. In early 2018, Rudd created a mural for the striking waterside workers at Cube^[42]

See also

• Victorian College of the Arts Alumni
• RMIT alumni
• Griffith University alumni

External links

• van-t-rudd.net

References