“In 1971, my parents fled the impending doom of Chile’s internationally backed dictatorship,” Cabello said. “This series of oil paintings is inspired by my family’s rich history, political passions and personal experience.”
The artist employs a pioneering art technique she calls Spectral Kinetic Realism, combining brush strokes inspired by the Dutch masters with saturated pop art colours to create a stained-glass effect. Graphic images depicting a city in curfew, soldiers in uniform and tanks of terror are set upon a grid of gestural white drips symbolising wire fences, incarceration and refugee camps.
The exhibition of seven major works debuted at the Seymour Centre Gallery in Chippendale. Stage one of the project, representing over 12 months of artistic research and production, allowed viewers to delve into the transformation of people when faced with conflict. Visitors to the exhibition were rewarded with an educational art experience.
The words of poet Pablo Neruda accompanied scenes of tanks moving towards La Moneda (the palace district) in Santiago, the artist’s mother and father painted from a photograph commemorating the graduation of recruits in her father’s infantry unit (pictured below).
The paintings evince meticulous research. Street signs, logos and colours (red for blood, for lucrative copper; blues for melancholy, for freedom) allude to corporate interests, media censorship, oppression and diaspora. Thousands of Chilean civilians were murdered, tens of thousands “disappeared”.
“The first September 11 is often overlooked,” Cabello said. “Many people don’t know much about it. The economist Milton Friedman acted as an advisor to Pinochet. It was the most extreme capitalist makeover ever attempted anywhere, and it became known as a ‘Chicago School’ revolution.”
“It was encouraging to hear that Bruce Springsteen recently paid tribute to Chilean singer-songwriter Victor Jara,” Cabello added.
On September 11 this year, during an encore to a show in Santiago, Springsteen addressed the crowd: “In 1988 we played for Amnesty International in Mendoza, Argentina, but Chile was in our hearts. We met many families of desaparecidos, with pictures of their loved ones. It was a moment that stays with me forever.” Jara was tortured and killed in the immediate aftermath of the coup in 1973. One of the last songs he wrote was called “Manifiesto”, which Springsteen covered in the original Spanish.
There’s much to reflect on, not least the coincidence of Cabello’s exhibition and a democratic federal election in Australia. More disturbing is a speech made on September 11 in the NSW parliament. As we go to print, Premier Barry O’Farrell has refused to take action against his Upper House Whip Peter Phelps for supporting the former Chilean dictator Pinochet and his use of terror against the civilian population.
Stage two of Cabello’s project will see additional works at the University of Sydney’s Verge Gallery in June 2014.
