Poster Boy: A Memoir of Art and Politics

Description

The heartfelt story of one man's desire to be a better citizen in a kinder Australia. 'When you're sneaking around the city at night you feel like a kid again. The seriousness of the world is unmasked as a series of facades, dead objects just waiting to be painted. I was immediately hooked. Out on the street I could say anything I wanted. So what did I want to say?' Peter Drew's posters are a familiar sight across Australia - his 'Real Australians Say Welcome' and 'Aussie' campaigns took on lives of their own, attaining cult status and starting conversations all over the country. But who made them, and why? In this irresistible and unexpected memoir, Peter Drew searches for the answers to these questions. He traces the links between his creative and personal lives, and discovers surprising parallels between Australia's dark, unacknowledged past and the unspoken conflict at the core of his own family. Packed full of Peter Drew's memorable images, Poster Boy is an intelligent, funny and brutally honest dive into the stew of individual, family and national identity. It's about politics and art, and why we need them both. And it's about making a mark.

Peter Drew was born in 1983 in Adelaide. He holds a master's degree from the Glasgow School of Art. His work has been exhibited at the Art Gallery of South Australia and the National Gallery of Australia, though his most prominent is installed on city streets.