Michael Read
Barrackers combines sculptural and archival materials to investigate the relationship between Australian Rules footballs’ ruling body – the AFL (Australian Football League) – and its fans as the game becomes increasingly beholden to commercial interests.
In the work, concrete replicas of support columns from the Melbourne Cricket Ground are used to consider the stadium's relationship with both the corporate game and its fans. By combining these concrete objects with archival items relating to rituals of fandom, the work seeks to consider the role of fans in the corporatisation of the game. In doing this, it aims to not just identify the ways in which the game has been taken away from fans, but also to locate the weak spots through which control can be regained.
Monument to 1993 (Series), 2020
Photographs
