Louise Hearman, Untitled #1365, 2012, AFL, football, painting, Collingwood, Melbourne
Summary
Louise Hearman’s ‘Untitled #1365’ shows Collingwood player Harry O’Brien about to kick the ball during an AFL match. Her focus on his near-balletic athleticism and pure physicality is underscored by his isolation on a field of rich green and his illumination by an unseen source of light. The pared-back palette and focus on a single player in a game characterised by players’ intense interaction not only highlights O’Brien’s consummate on-field skill but also heroises him. One arm held aloft, light pouring down from above, he appears almost god-like in a game often referred to as a ‘religion’ in its hometown, where it has a huge base of devotees.
The work is one of a suite that Hearman painted for the 2012 Basil Sellers Art Prize, an award that encourages engagement between contemporary art and sport. O’Brien was already a star player when this this work was painted, but the following year an unsavoury aspect of footy culture brought a different slant to his place in the media spotlight. Responding to racist taunts against Adam Goodes by a young Collingwood fan, O’Brien, who is of Brazilian–Congolese descent, called out the institutionalised racism in his club; he also reclaimed his birth name – Heritier Lumumba – which he had anglicised as a child in an attempt to fit into Australian society. In 2015, his club’s inability to address the deep biases in its culture led Lumumba to leave Collingwood to join the Melbourne Football Club.
