Brisbane & Canberra: Hope as Practice: Interview with Tony Albert

Renowned for his sharp wit and powerful use of found objects, text, and assemblage, Tony Albert addresses the legacies of racial and cultural misrepresentation in his multidisciplinary practice. The Girramay, Yidinji, and Kuku Yalanji artist is at the helm of the fifth National Indigenous Art Triennial, “After the Rain,” which recently opened at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, contemplating the quiet cycles of healing and regeneration. In this interview, Albert discusses reclaiming narratives around Aboriginal identity and visibility, and how optimism can serve as a tool for resistance in times of global calamity.

Throughout your career, you’ve critically engaged with the (in)visibility of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia, notably remarking, “Invisible is my favourite colour.” Could you elaborate on the sentiment behind this statement?

That phrase came from a place of frustration but also transformation. It acknowledges how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have historically been effaced in Australia’s cultural landscape, and also reclaims that invisibility as a kind of power. When something is unseen, it can’t be contained—it becomes everywhere and everything. “Invisible is my favourite colour” is about stepping into the light on our own terms, asserting presence in spaces that once erased us. It is both an act of visibility and defiance.