In conversation with Nelson Nghe, Drew Rooke and George Catsi
Date: Tuesday 23 April, 2024
Time: 4:30PM – 6:00PM AEST
Location: Building EA.G03, Parramatta South Campus, Western Sydney University
In the current exhibition Individual and Universal: The World We Share at the Institute for Australian and Chinese Arts and Culture (IAC), one of the three featured artists, Nelson Nghe, specially created a new work entitled “I Bet You”, an installation of a house covered in lottery tickets accompanied by flashing lights and a slideshow of photos showing poker machines being smashed in the 1930s. The work invites the viewer to contemplate the lived experience of gambling harm as a family member, whereby houses have been gambled away whilst most of us dream of owning a home as part of the “Australian dream”. The work has attracted a lot of attention and consistently pulled in viewers to the exhibition. Nelson has also created paintings with the title and on-the-painting text “Blow up the Pokies”, inspired by the title of the 1999 hit song by the well-known Australian band The Whitlams. Poker machines, or the pokies as they are called in Australia, nicknamed “one-arm bandits” in the 20th century, are called in Chinese “tiger machines” 老虎机, indicating your money and your life will be devoured by this relentless beast.
Paradoxically, artistic creativity and innovation of technology are very much at the core of the design of poker machines. Drew Rooke, journalist and author of One Last Spin – the power and peril of the pokies, has discovered that to achieve the alluring design objective to maximise the time on the device, “manufacturers of today’s poker machines employ vast creative teams composed of mathematicians, software engineers, sound engineers, musicians, artists, graphic designers, industrial designers, and animators”.
The gambling problem and problem gambling are as much a societal as a human issue and it needs a human and creative solution. Three Sides of the Coin Project based in Melbourne uses creative workshops where people can unpack their lived experiences and embody their stories through storytelling performance. The Project under the leadership of artistic director Catherine Simmonds also actively works in CALD communities using theatre which builds up human connection and enables stories and emotions to be told not just through words, but also conveyed through the non-verbal language of the body and images, to help people harmed by gambling to lighten the load from shame and stigma deeply associated with gambling. https://threesidesofthecoin.org.au/#
Dr George Catsi, senior lecturer at UTS, national Australian Writer’s Guild AWGIE award-winning performance writer plus performer and producer, is also Petersham Bowling Club President, who, on a community level, became involved in saving a failed club. He led a team that reimagined what a club could be by removing poker machines and creating a thriving arts, music, and community hub.
You are warmly invited to In Conversation: The Pokies / Tiger Machine, with Nelson Nghe, Drew Rooke and George Catsi with specially made video participation of Three Sides of the Coin Project and an opening message from Reverend Tim Costello.
There will also be a book signing at the end of the event with copies of One Last Spin available for purchase. The book can also be purchased here
