Brothers (The Prodigal Son)

“This work came out of a recent residency at Canberra Glassworks. On a site visit to the National Art School I was struck by the beautiful stained-glass window in the central building, showing the prodigal son. I wanted to recreate this image for the Biennale in leadlight. The Brothers images, from a previous series, allude to the holy trinity. Strong and powerful bathed in light, yet still innocent and vulnerable. I wanted to immortalize our people that are all too often written out of history."

This site-specific work by Tony Albert responds to a window in the nearby chapel building depicting the prodigal son. Albert has incorporated one of his own references to the holy trinity – drawn from his work Brothers a series of photographs of young Indigenous men who were staying at Kirinari Hostel. The images were inspired by an incident where Albert saw teenagers at a rally protesting an instance of police brutality in Kings Cross, Sydney. The demonstrators painted their chests with a red target as an act of protest. Placed outdoors, this window memorialises another story of heroic figures, enshrining a beautiful act of defiance, and imbedding a local Indigenous story at this site.