Vernon Ah Kee discusses Unwritten series

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In 'Unwritten I, II, III' 2007, Vernon Ah Kee composes faces where most recognisable features remain undisclosed, giving the subjects a disturbing alien-like quality. Like the semi-formed clones seen in popular films, these careful and elegant drawings are haunting in the way they resemble a human not yet properly formed. Each drawing shows the marks of human-ness — depressions at the eyes, a ridge at the nose. The mouth, however, is not seen, implying that the voice is not heard. • Although this series differs from Ah Kee’s other portrait works, they nonetheless follow a common theme. Drawing on ethnographic records for his inspiration, Ah Kee often draws his subjects — including members of his own family, both living and deceased — as historical documents themselves, removed from any humanising quality. • The 'Unwritten' series is distinguished by the faces having distinctly European characteristics, as opposed to the human-like figures in Ah Kee’s ‘non-people’ series, which were more Indigenous or ambiguous. This is an act of transferral, momentarily disempowering the dominant culture. We can picture ourselves as the disempowered figure within the portrait. • BLOG: https://blog.qagoma.qld.gov.au/catego...

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