Art crimes: the 1E.001 archive
Charlie Donaldson
1 - 15 February 2020
This exhibition was part of AIRspace, offsite at Metro Arts, as part of their Metro Arts, with love festival to say goodbye to their iconic building on Edward St.
In late 2019, the Brisbane-based artist Charlie Donaldson unearthed a floor-plan of the Metro Arts building made prior to its sale to the Brisbane Community Arts organisation in the late-1970s. Noting a curious anomaly of a doorway where no door existed in the modern configuration of the building, Donaldson discovered a hidden room on the third floor. Initial archival research into its contents revealed the concealed space was used to spy on artists by agents of the notorious Special Branch of the Queensland Police throughout the 1980s. Presented here is a handful of the documents Donaldson has re-assembled thus far, uncovering deception and bizarre subterfuge committed by the QPS Special Branch and state government, who were convinced that Brisbane artists were plotting political crimes against the state. The 1E.001 archive provides insight into the heady days of political and social intrigue during the Bjelke-Petersen era of Brisbane through the lens of the Metro Arts building.
