It’s Timely Too

In 2014, Blacktown Arts Centre, in partnership with the Whitlam Institute, invited contemporary artists to examine the two iconic speeches Gough Whitlam delivered in Blacktown in 1972 and 1974, and to reflect on the ensuing cultural changes that completely transformed life in this country.

In 2016, during the 100th anniversary of Whitlam’s birth, the exhibition It’s Timely Too at The Lock-Up in Newcastle expands on the 2014 Blacktown exhibition, inviting local artists and one of the original Blacktown artists, to reflect on the influence of Whitlam’s policies on their own lives and on regional centres such as Newcastle.

Hunter-based artist Shan Turner-Carroll explores themes of the human condition, spirituality, contentment and the search for a true self in his work.

For It’s Timely Too, Shan has created self-portraits of a character who is veiled or hiding aspects of himself.

“The freedom that I have now to be who I am could have been a bit different without Whitlam’s influence,” Shan told curator Paul Howard in this video interview filmed in the cells at The Lock-Up.