Culture Jammers
Museum of Sydney
Sydney, Australia
February 11 – June 10, 2012
A subversive spotlight
by Karen Michelmore
abc.net.au
3 February, 2012
Sacred cows make the best hamburgers, says the activist who defaced an Australian icon.
It’s been eight years since David Burgess scaled up to the top of Sydney’s gleaming white Opera House and lashed it with bright red paint.
It took three coats before the act was complete. NO WAR screamed the sign.
The highly-visible protest against the looming Iraq war split the Australian community between those who were shocked at the wonton vandalism of the national icon, and those who applauded the message.
Ultimately, it landed Mr Burgess and his activist peer Will Saunders in jail for nine months’ weekend detention for malicious damage.
“I won’t say there were days I didn’t wake up feeling utterly miserable, but you couldn’t really regret what we’d done,” Burgess says. Continue reading “Museum of Sydney Spotlights Culture Jammers”